Native Dancers

Sitka Alaska

Not A Happy Camper

Stop that crying or we are leaving the beach right now!

Three more of PalaPala

Chain Of Craters Road

I took a drive down Chain Of Craters Road with my 532/16 Super Ikonta. On the way back up I stopped and got this shot. This is Fuji Superia 100. I like it.

Barbara's new ukulele

Well we finally got Palapala finished. I gave it to her Christmas morning after having it for a couple of day and tuning it often to take the stretch out of the strings. Well, she was very pleased. It is very beautiful and because I have been around it so long I forget just what a impact the beauty of the instrument makes on you at first view. And it sounds wonderful. Pat has the action so close that Barbara can play it very easily. When you strum an open cord hard the instrument has a very noticeable reverberation. I think it is the spruce top that makes that beautiful effect happen. She has been playing it since she got it and she plays it very well. Pat and I are tickled. This picture of her was taken hours ago. Kate really helped me with it. Barbara hasn't seen it yet, I hope she likes it. It will be the final picture in the ibook that I am making on the building of Palapala.

Spiderman turns 4 years old

Adrian on his 4th birthday party

Ukulele Building, cont

It has been a few days now since I have posted the latest progress on building Palapala. Here we have glued the neck to the bodyNext we glue the bridge to the body using 3 clamps
We are now ready for final sanding and spraying on the finish
After the finish dries, it will be buffed to a high gloss. Then the tuners will be installed and strung. Ready for strumming. This will happen after I get back from the mainland Sat Dec 8

Ukulele Building, cont

The neck is attached to the body with a dowel. We will drill a hole in the body and then in the neck insert the dowel and glue the neck to the body.The position of the hole in the neck and body must be extremely precise. You can't see it in this picture but there is a small bubble level in the back top of the drill. This helps Pat align the drill so the hole will be straight.
Here he is drilling the body. See the piece of tape around the drill bit. That shows Pat how deep to drill. The top of the neck and the top of the body must be perfectly aligned when the neck is slid on to the dowel that will be inserted in the body. No ukulele work for a couple of days now. Darn.

Ukulele Building, cont

The body has been rough sanded. Is now ready for final sanding after the neck is attached.

Ukulele Building, cont

The ebony fretboard has been slotted. Now we will install the fret wire into the slots. Because the fretboard is tapered each fret wire is a different length. We measured and cut each wire. First each wire is pushed into the slot as Pat is doing hereThen, using a special vise grip and that fret hammer that you can see, the fret wire is forced into the slot. A drop of super glue on each side keeps the fret wire in the slot forever.

Ukulele Building, cont

Here is the neck after we drilled the eight holes for the tuners. Next we will install the fret wires onto the fret board. Tune in tomorrow to see what that looks like.

Green and Orange

Look what I found in our backyard.

Ukulele Building, cont

Continuing on with cutting the slots in the faceplate.

First thing we do is drill a hole in the spot where a slot will be cut so we can get the jig saw blade in. We drill a 3/8 inch hole on both sides.

Here Pat is cutting one of the slots.

Now you can see what I am talking about! The two slots will now be sanded and shaped and make ready for the tuners to be installed. No more ukulele work for a couple of days. Darn.

Ukulele Building, cont

We are going to work on the neck some more. This ukulele will have folk guitar style neck. It is a cleaner design for an 8 string instrument. The folk guitar style has two slots in the head so the turners can be mounted to the sides of the neck
We have glued the faceplate to the neck. The word "Palapala" was burned into the wood with a laser cutting device.
We have placed the neck into this marking jig. We can mark the position of the two slots using this jig. After we mark the position of the slots we will cut the slots using the drill press and a jig saw.

Ukulele Building, cont

We are now ready to apply the binding to the body. Binding goes around the edges of the top and bottom. It adds a decorative touch and protects the ukulele edge from damage.

The body has had the top and bottom trimmed. This shows the hand router that will cut the grove for the binding
Pat is using the router to cut the grove in the top edge. He will do the same on the bottom edge
The binding has been tacked and will be bent around the edge of the top
As he bends it, he applies glue and uses the tape strips to hold the binding to the grove while the glue dries. More tomorrow.

Ukulele Building, cont

Today we will put the Paua shell dots in the fretboard.


Pat drilled 5 holes in the fretboard. Each 5 mm in diameter. Then he took Paua shell disks and placed them in the holes and with a small dowel and a hammer he tapped the 5 mm disks into the holes.
Paua shell is a species of abalone. It comes from New Zealand and is very beautiful.

Ukulele Building, cont

This view shows the bottom bracing design.


We now have the top glued to the sides and the excess material trimmed flush with the sides using a router. Now we will glue the bottom to the sides.

The bottom of the ukulele is slightly curved so it cant be glued flat as we did with the top. Because it is curved, the bottom must be clamped by the edges. These funny looking clamps are what we will use to do that.
It will take about 20 of these clamps to go all the way around. Each clamp has two sandpaper discs that help keep the clamp from sliding off the sides. Each clamp has a number from 1 to 25. First we did a dry run clamping the bottom to the sides starting with clamp number 1 then 2 then 3 etc. Then the clamps are carefully removed and placed on the table in order. This step pre-sizes the clamps so that once the glue is applied the bottom can be glued and clamped quickly.
All done! We will set it aside and wait for it to dry. See you tomorrow.

Ukulele Building, cont

This next sequence shows how the top is glued to the sides.

The top is placed on this jig. You see a circle of wood in the sound hole. That aligns the top to the jig. There are six long screws with thumbscrews and wood blocks. Glue will be applied to the top and the sides will be placed on the top.

In this view the sides have been positioned on the top. See the black clamp holding the sides. That clamp is used to pull the sides in to align the sides with the pencil marks on the top. Three wood pieces have been placed on the long screws, small wood blocks placed on the long wood pieces and the thumbscrews tightened down to apply pressure and force the sides down against the top.
Here we have removed the black clamp. All we have to do now is wait for the glue to dry. Next we will glue the bottom to the sides. Tune in tomorrow to see how that is done.

Ukulele Building, cont

Here are two views of the top before being glued to the body. After it is glued to the body the excess will be trimmed away with a small router. This top view shows the rosette.


This is the underside of the top. You can see the bracing system. Note the saddle brace also called the bridge brace. That gives added support to the bridge.

Ukulele Building, cont

Now that we know the position of the fretboard on the neck we can rough trim the neck. Pat will do that on the bandsaw



You have to be very careful here. A false move and you will cut a finger and ruin the neck all in one operation.
Here is a side view of the rough cut neck. Next the neck will be shaped with sanders, rasps, knives and lots of sandpaper. Stay tuned.

Ukulele Building, cont

OK, lets get back to ukulele building. Today we will trim the fretboard to shape and mark its position on the rough neck piece

The Ebony wood fretboard has been rough trimmed. The fretboard edge must now be made perfectly straight. To do this pat clamps a metal straight edge right up the the rough edge of the fretboard. Click on these images to make them bigger.


The fretboard and metal straight edge is now placed on the belt sander and material is removed until the metal straight edge touches the sander belt



The trimmed fretboard is now clamped to the rough neck and the fretboard position is marked so that the rough neck can be rough trimmed and shaped.
More tomorrow, stay tuned

Sulfur Banks

This is looking across the crater from the opposite side from the observatory

Old Fissure

Twins

Anthuriums at the Mountain View Anthuriums farm

Watching The Cruise Ship

Taking a couple days break from ukulele building.

Sound hole on side?

Pat and I attended the Big Island Ukulele Guild meeting. BIUG is a group of instrument builders that get together to share ideas and show of their creations. I thought this one was interesting. The man in the dark green shirt on the right made it. The wood is a very rare Maple. As you can see the sound hole is on the side of the uke instead of on the front as usual. It sounded great too!