Hawaiian Style Smoked Pork. This was my first attempt at making smoked meat. Paige said that it tasted really good. If I must say so I was good....

Boy, setting the position markers to match the "Seven Sisters" pattern at the 5, 7 and 10 positions. I used Macasser Ebony with MOP dots in 3 different sizes.

Boxed up and ready to rout flush.

 After the routing ready to rout for the binding.

 Channel routed for the binding.

 Kreg Jig the neck for a screw attachment.

 Rough carved neck.

 Refining the neck shape

 Adding the binding

 Beginning of the hours of sanding.

 Soundboard view.

 Up close with the binding.

 Again the Kreg Jig Hole.

 Closing the small gaps.

 I put in the side port.

Checking the design.

Hokule'a Build Continues

 First stop yesterday morning was to our print shop to discuss the laser work that the ukulele will need. Jason Oshiro our graphic designer did a super job coming up with a design for a side port  ukulele. However while I was there another idea popped into my head.

 Got Guy Fo to convert a drawing of the plans for the Hokule'a into AutoCAD format so that we could manipulate the design.

 Sandy Sanpei our commercial art lead professor came and gave us her input to the design and she came up with some fantastic ideas.

 Mike Jennings our AEC and resident AutoCAD guru found the program we needed to convert the design to AutoCAD format. And after all this planning and collaboration between faculty members, the laser broke. Murphy's Law...

 Back to the building, I finished bending with no cracks or breaks.

Here we are in the mold

Laying out the head block and tail block

Laying out the bracing pattern

Bracing glued on and ready to carve.

Carving

Carving done

Test fit, cleaned up the bracing, finished the bracing for the back and boxed the ukulele up.

Ready for trimming. The journey continues tomorrow, routing, binding, sanding, neck, fingerboard is the goal for the day.

The making of the Hokule'a Ukulele

I may have bit off too much the other day and volunteered to make a ukulele for my boss who is retiring. Less than a week and a half to finish it. Get a gun and shoot me. But those of you who know me I'm always one for a challenge and this is exactly that. After some very brief discussion, we decided to incorporate wood from the voyaging canoe Hokule'a. Remembering that he was in a heated battle for a canoe paddle made from wood off the Hokule'a that he didn't get because someone out bid him. An ukulele with Hokule'a wood incorporated into it would have a lot of meaning to him. So Guy Fo and I took off to our Marine Education Center where the students work on and maintain the Hokule'a. Bob Perkins who runs the program there managed to find us a piece of spruce that was a brace that fit over the hull of the canoe. Guy and I were shocked to find out that there is very little Koa on the Hokule'a most of it is Cedar, Spruce, or Douglas Fir. So for our Hokule'a ukulele the Hokule'a will become a part of the sound board. 

I cut the brace on my bandsaw last night and sanded the pieces to thickness and glued up the sound board.












I also found a nice back and side set that I had bought previously for another project. Not a AAAA but a AAA / AA.

I also decided to do a Kasha brace pattern on this one with an off-set soundhole and a side port. The neck will be Sapele with macasser ebony finger board and bridge. Tomorrow I bend and do a bunch of inlay work. Also going to see the gang in the print shop to laser the inside label. Till tomorrow...

Splinter tip...

Just saw this on a website.
This is such a clever little tip for removing splinters.
Just pour a drop of Elmer’s Glue all over the splinter.
Let it dry, and then peel the dried glue off the skin.
The splinter sticks to the dried glue and comes out when the glue is peeled off.

Almost completed `ukulele for a good friend of mine.

Since I'm on vacation this week, I thought that I would finish some unfinished ukulele projects and make a couple of new ones. While I was getting ready to join the neck to the body I decided to try something new. Using the KREG pocket hole jig to screw the neck to the body.
I use a 3/4" thick head block and set the jig for 3/4" and drilled the neck. I then inserted the screw and got a tight snug fit. Check out the picture.