Welcome back to another entry on the Ukulele build. Last time, we took the first steps into the assembly process. Today, we are going to work on the sides and add part of the kerfing.
Let's get to it!
Sides
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We are finally at the step where the whole thing starts getting the shape it will have at the end of the project. Working the sides is one of the easiest parts of the build. To start, we just need to work on each face of the piece of wood. This is to remove any cut marks and burnt portions. This is easy to do with a smoothing plane and the card scrapper. This particular wood is aromatic. It leaves a pleasant smell in the work space. Of course, we are not trying to breathe in the saw dust. It is still quite dangerous for our lungs.
Once we have work on the thickness of the sides, we start to hydrate them. It is a step that has been taken many times. This process gives the fibers more flexibility. It also protects the surface of the wood from the heat of the bender. And the magic of bending wood is also a nice task to complete. We need to give the wood enough time to soak up and then start the process.
Bending
Of course, before doing anything, we check that the sides get into their slots without any kind of problem. When we do that, we start the whole process of bending. And once we are at it, we need to check every now and then that the curves fit the outline of the sound board. We might need to use water from time to time to reshape some portions.
When we are done, we need to let the wood rest by keeping its new shape. Then we can cut the excess of the endings of each side to make them meet at the end block. Once we are done with that, we can apply glue and let it do its work.
Kerfing
When the sides are glued to the sound board, we can place the first part of the kerfing. These pieces of wood are used to increase the are of contact between the sound board and sides. They are on this shape because it is the traditional Spanish style of construction. Some modern methods use kerfing in strips of wood with shallow cuts to make them bendable. We just need to apply a bit of glue to each kerf and place it against the side and press them.
We put as many as we like. It tends to depend on the category of the instrument. More refined instruments will have more kerfing.
The other side of the kerfing are the strips that go on the part of the sides that will be in contact with the back of the ukulele. In this case, we need to work of some strips of wood and them bend them to the shape of the sides to finally put them in place. They will require some cutting. However, in this case, we are also waiting for them to get dry so we can glue them. This step will be up to the next entry.
For now we take a break to appreciate the work we have done so far. Thanks a lot for reading! See you next time!
| Entry | Title |
|---|---|
| 1 | The Fist Ukuele |
| 2 | Structure |
| 3 | Heel and Bars |
| 4 | Head Stock and End Block |
Photos 📷: Redmi Note 13
Thumbnail 🖼️: Canva.
Editing 🎬:Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.
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