The final furlong's are always the worst. Not because they are any harder, but because so much work is already invested.

However, today was a fine day for ukulelenauts



One heel cap shaped and one to go. The clamping worked just fine, so no need to remove either of the heel caps. Just patiently trim them back with a sharp chisel and then fine tune with a sandpaper on a block.

But confession time... after finishing trimming both heel blocks I put both ukes side by side to take a nice pic. But I was distracted and started on the next job before taking a pic.

One part of the front binding of Ruth's uke needed attention. There was a small but visible gap between the front and the binding that needed attention. I could have relied on the finishing process to fill the gap, but it was a little too big for that. So I cleaned it out with a fresh scalpel blade, and I was glad that I did because a lot of dust had built up in the gap making it look better than it really was.

SO I went through the scraps bin and found an offcut from the front. Then using the scalpel I trimmed off a thin sliver. Literally following the grain lines to make the cut. A few minutes with sandpaper and the scalpel to trim to shape and size, and then I loaded the slot with glue and eased in the spruce filler.



Ignore the dark spots, they are just where I placed a wet finger while cleaning up. It will come out very clean.

Then I decided to make a start on the frets before finishing. Although the fret press puts the frets in very neatly, you still need to dress the tops flush, re-profile where required, and tidy up the fret ends. So it was out with the scalpel and masking tape. It takes a little while to mask the fretboard well, but masking tape is dirt cheap and the time it takes more than compensates for the time it would take to repair accidental damage to the fretboard.



I do have a suitable fretfile in my tool rolls at Mark's already, but I have another, better, fret file at home that is perfect for the job. So once I finish here I'll dig it out ready to use tomorrow. And I also need to grab my old triangular file with the corners ground off to tidy up the fret ends.

Should be enough time to finish the first neck frets, mask the second neck, and possibly finish working on the second neck frets tomorrow.

Then it really is boring sandpaper time.

Andy

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When the going gets weird, the Weird turn Pro.

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