Raven came up today, it’s been a long time since she moved to Santa Cruz, 3 months so I took the day off. I went shopping in the morning for coffee and things. Back home I got to working on the bass guitar after cleaning up around and the bench. I filled a plastic bag with some green sand (one part clay, six parts river sand) I use for casting bronze though I haven’t done that in years. The sand was in clumps, hit with a mallet to break it down and fit it into the seventh day leather pouch I got at Sally’s. This works great to back the neck as I hammer the frets into place.
I clamped the aluminum fret stake I made into the big bench vise. This is a good tool for correcting the bend in the frets, though arbitrary not a perfect ten inch arc. Insert a fret to the neck far edge, mark with triangle file near edge. Remove the ‘T’ tang with the file back an 1/8 to the mark flush beneath, file the mark off and lightly round the corners with file and 400 grit. Tap it in the stake to curve it to better fit, a little more on the ends. I fitted three to make it 12, halfway there.
As I was building a wedge tool for the ukulele Raven showed up. So good to see her again. I showed her the new stuff, we got to work, she painting the vardo in black after a washing.
I spray painted the rattan table black, it looks good.
Earlier I found the Plasticine oil clay and fitted the grey water tanks with plugs in preparation for internal epoxy. I mixed a batch adding acetone to the resin before the hardener to reduce the viscosity and fill the gaps. It will take longer to cure as the acetone evaporates. Save the cup as a reference.
While I was North last week I sawed and carved the ribs for my next ukulele, my first build, a tenor.
One of the ribs is upside down in the picture. I still need to add backing around the sound hole and bridge areas before I glue things down.
I made us a dinner of lamb chops, steamed green beans (some from the garden), fresh tomato basil, and rice. We enjoyed it in the back yard room with a view.
I fiddled with the uke clamp after dinner as Raven painted the black up high, took pictures and wrote this. A fine day.
8shotoflove8 