Author Archives: joel

Did some more work on the ukulele neck on Saturday. Got it shaped, and got the heel carved. It's starting to look a more like a neck, and a lot less like just a board.

Starting roughing out the neck today. It still needs tapering and shaping, and the headstock still needs to be cut to shape. But it's a start!

Tried out the new side bender last night. It did a pretty good job bending the sides for the new 'uke, and I didn't burn the house down - so overall I'd call it a win. I think next time I may leave the sides in the bender overnight, to try to reduce how much springback I get. I think I can manage with what I ended up with, though. Also got both the top and back plates thicknessed and braced yesterday. Looks like it's time to start working on the neck!

Since Carter and I have started noodling around on the ukuleles, I've been interested in building one again. This weekend I threw together a soprano-sized side bender. It was a lot easier to make than I expected. I made one side profile, then used a template-cutting router bit to make all the others exactly the same. It went together really quickly, in between steps on another furniture project. Haven't tried to bend any sides with it yet - that'll be next weekend.

I just completed a cherry side table to go with the Morris chair I built years ago in Texas. It's all solid quartersawn cherry, with tiles inset into the top. The cherry should darken over time - especially sitting right in the window where it is, where it'll be exposed to UV for hours a day.

Just finished a mirror I made to match the medicine cabinet I finished late last year. It's made of hickory, with mahogany accents - just like the medicine cabinet. The hickory I used for the body of the medicine cabinet was spalted, but I didn't have any more of it - the hickory I used for the mirror is 'normal' hickory.

Over the Christmas break I built this wooden hand plane. It's made from maple and cocobolo, with a boiled linseed oil finish. The blade still needs sharpening before I can try it out, but it sure looks good!

I made a whole bunch of these birdhouse ornaments on the lathe to give out as Christmas gifts. They are all unique - I didn't make any two the same. They're made from lots of different types of woods - butternut, maple, cherry, ash, hickory, bubinga, and African mahogany. I think I might try to make a tradition out of making a different kind of ornament every year.

I made a couple of end-grain cutting boards for Christmas - one for my Dad, and one for Lori. They are cherry, maple, and walnut.