Saturday 18 January 2014

Workshop stuff continued... (thickness sander adjustment)

A simple little mechanism for adjusting the height of the feed table thus determining the thickness of the timber being sanded.





The piece of timber shown is a strip of Edwardian mahogany which will be used as one of the side of my archetop ukulele project.

Coming soon!!

Archtop uke progress, 
gourd banjos and gourd ukulele builds, 
3 "modern" banjo builds (ie with truss rods and head tensioning), 
Banjo ukulele builds using reclaimed materials
1930s Parlour guitar restoration

Thursday 16 January 2014

workshop stuff

Getting ready for some new projects.

A thickness sander attachment for my lathe. Next is to make the feed platform adjustable.

This is the sanding drum in the rough. It still needs smoothing out then fitting with velcro.


I got a new chuck and bowl attachment so i can turn banjo rims. Here ive fitted some extensions i made so that i can turn up to 12" rims. Thats a 12" maple rim ready to go but i still need to fabricate an adjustable tool rest that works with the extended chuck.


Some highly detailed and accurate technical drawings from which i will be making my mods.


Believe it or not i tidied up the workshop about a week ago. Ive hardly been in it since then and yet...


Sunday 5 January 2014

Archtop Ukulele and other stuff

A new year a new project. This year i will be venturing into the mysterious arts of hollow bodied instruments and as usual i will be jumping in off the deep end by making an archtop ukulele... stay tuned folks

Here is my home made bending iron, body mould, and front, back and sides cut from an antique Edwardian mahogany wardrobe. The sides need to be planed to size and the front and back need to be carved to shape.
.... 

and other things ive been up to:

a couple of cigar box guitars with some fancy heel carvings and backstraps








and a couple of canjoleles - one tennor and one soprano