After a couple of torturous bending sessions to mold the side walls to the correct bent shapes, the outer walls are assembled. Due to the desperate nature of the bending, I made the walls with a bit of extra room in case I had to fudge things a bit, which, given the extreme bend below the neck, I needed every bit of. So the next step on this part will be to trim the sides down to the corner block heights before detaching the blocks from the mold. Then, after I have the back sorted out, the sides will get clamped to the mold again so I can glue the sides to the back.

Other upcoming work will be:

• the rosette for the sound hole,
• front and back bracing,
• the trimming of the corners to a somewhat less pointy state and finally
• the soundbox assembly and binding.

I’m currently looking at my options in the realm of a drum sander of some sort. No one I know has one, not sure I want to splurge on buying one, though It would come in handy, and while building one is an option, I have better things to do. I have seen a way to make semblance of one using a lathe, and before I do anything else I’m going to investigate that option. If worst comes to worst, the bench top model doesn’t take up too much space, the trick is finding the open ended type. If I’m lucky, someone over at Equinox has one I can use or rent for a bit.

Once the soundbox is sorted out, I’ll get back to the neck. I have that roughed out already, but I don’t want to construct the heel until I’m a lot more sure about where it needs to be placed. the headstock is already cut out and I have blank for the finger board. Even got a carbon fiber truss rod for the fun of it.

I do have to finish with a plug for the Grizzly tools patternmaker’s vise you see holding up the ukulele mold. It is held down to the workbench with a screw that happily fits a 3/4″ dog hole perfectly. Worth every penny, I recommend it unreservedly. And for what it’s worth that is unsolicited, I paid for it.