Finishing the Rosette and Harpbox Peghead Veneer

Friday, June 15th, 2012:

Just a couple of photos today, even though I did quite a bit....The first thing I did this morning was to sand the top surface just enough to level down the rosettes. Next, I flipped the top over and thickness-sanded the top (on the bracing side) to its almost-final thickness, to about 2.3mm thick. (Later, after the final sanding, the top should end up around 2mm thick.) After I did that, I routed out the soundholes and retraced the top template shape onto the bracing side. I then used the washer & pencil method to mark for the cutting line around the edge, and then cut the top shape using my bandsaw. The final thing I did was to mark all the brace locations onto the top. That's it for today!

  

 

INDEX:

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  2. Working on the Top and Back
  3. Finishing the Rosette, Harpbox Peghead Veneer
  4. Bracing
  5. Carving the Braces
  6. Bending the Sides
  7. Neck and Tail Blocks
  8. Pegheads & Top Kerfing
  9. Profiling the Sides for the Back
  10. Soundport and Side Reinforcements
  11. Gluing on the Top
  12. Gluing on the Back
  13. Trimming Overhang & Harpbox Peghead
  14. Routing for Binding
  15. End Wedge & Binding
  16. Scraping the Binding, Binding the Harpbox Peghead
  17. The Box is Done --- On to the Neck!!!
  18. Working on the Neck & Fingerboard
  19. The Neck is Finished!!! Now to the Bridge!!!
  20. Peghead Inlay, Final Sanding & Pore-Filling
  21. Shellac Seal Coats and Finishing!!!
  22. Finishing the Finish!!!
  23. The Final Steps
  24. It is Finished!!!

 

 

Saturday, June 16, 2012:

Only two photos today, even though I did do quite a bit. Much of my time today was spent with pencil and paper, doing some redrawing and tracing and recalculating.

The first thing that I had to figure out was how to deal with the fact that the harpbox peghead veneer v-joint had to be moved further down than the plans stated. The plans had the spruce top stop at the far edge of the peghead block, which was about 1/2" or so short of the v-joint as drawn on the peghead veneer piece. If I had cut the peghead veneer as drawn on the plans, there would be no spruce there to meet it! Only after I had cut out the spruce top from my template, did I remember that I had had a problem in this area in my first harp ukulele build! (Typical.) Anyway . . . I spent much of the morning refiguring and redrawing how and where the peghead veneer should meet the top and exactly where to draw and cut the v-joint on both pieces. (If you want to see how it's different from the previous harp uke, click here.)

After all the figuring, I cut it out (just from the scraps from cutting out the back), cut the v-joint to match and butt up against each other, and glued it together.

Later on today, I spent time measuring and figuring out all the dimensions for the spruce braces I will need for this build. Tomorrow I'll probably do the cutting of all the braces. In the photo below, you can see the two spruce billets I will use to cut my braces from.