Fitting the neck.

So with the spare wood cut away from the neck, and the body now complete with linings (the thin strips of wood around the inside) and top and bottom blocks glued in place it's time to fit the neck, this time I've tried to eliminate any sanding of the neck joint by making the neck blank perfectly square, and making the body flat where the two meet.. This has gone better than I thought it would and it's left me with no sanding at all! Look at the second picture, for a first fitting of the neck, that's an awesome fit....

The rosewood gusset.

The following three pictures are the basic stages of installing a contrasting wood infill or 'gusset' ...

I've cleaned out the wood I need to lay the infill piece in place, I then cut and shape the corresponding infill piece, glue it in while it's still oversize, and simply sand back until it matches the profile of the ukulele.

My new toy.

This is my latest gizmo... My new pillar drill, or drill press as the yanks call it.. This is part of the reason I'm drilling the 24mm hole described in the previous post.

Cutting the spare wood away.

I tried a new technique this time, drilling a 24mm hole where the curve of the heel is situated, this should give me a precise and more importantly 'constant' element to my builds, something I'm looking to add to my building to take some (most) of the guess work out of it.. The 24mm hole also eliminates the tight and messy cut I would have to make on the bandsaw, this way I can just cut into each side of the hole.

Some shots of the neck blank.

This is the first build where I've used a precision cut neck blank, I normally just get carving and complete the process in a more 'organic' way, but this time I thought I'd cut myself a proper blank.

Here are a couple of photos for you of an upcoming soprano project.. Spaulted elm back, front and sides, with a yew neck.. Really looking forwards to building this ..