12/17/2017

A fun weekend spent mostly at home. Yesterday I cooked up a batch of hamburger stroganoff with mushrooms and noodles, a few batches for lunches in the fridge. And some pork chops.

I finished stringing the T3 tenor ukulele, finally. It plays great in low G tuning, actually my best yet. The neck is straight, the ribs are glued solid, the roset is inlayed in mahogany, the maple fret board has ebony dots with mineral oil and the head is inlayed with my logo in mother of pearl.

The finish is fair with only a little flaw in the head lacquer not bad. I didn’t sand and polish the entire body as I should have as I would like to deliver it in time for Christmas. The soft padded case is here ready. Today I cut out and folded a white cardboard case for it to ship in. I fudged the top an inch small on one side but made up for it before securing it, no problem. I used bailing wire to make staples and taped it with white duct tape. It’s a good box to ship the ukulele in the padded case.

I want to bring it to work tomorrow to show off one last time before shipping it out.

Yesterday I had to hang out during the afternoon as the Honda people are under government orders to replace the airbags in Dad’s dead car.

I managed to get a few coats of shellac on the bass ukulele. I made an applicator using a piece of the muslin which we made cushion covers with cheesecloth stuffed inside. Extra denatured alcohol diluted the can of shellac I bought from Bosworth’s with my birthday certificate, cool. It’s coming along slowly in a French rub finish.

Joe showed up this afternoon, excellent. I was working on the box. Josie wants a ukulele, so I gave him the Amazon uke I bought cheap for that purpose, to promote young folks to play. I still have the Kamaka to use as a pattern for a perfect soprano. We made some fins for a candle spinner in veneer and dowels, with wheels from the inside cherry cutouts spun on the sander at an angle. Note the season requires Santa secrets to be held.

Good times, last minute getting ready for the season.

12/9/2017

 I like the new job. I’m working on rotary valves used for liquid chromatography, technical stuff I enjoy. I can do this.

I registered my newish Honda car, runs great, a new timing belt next week.

On the home front, I’m making Christmas gifts I can’t post as it would give away Santa’s secrets. This has taken up my time but they’re mostly done. The third tenor ukulele is nearly finished in lacquer while the bass ukulele is ready to begin finishing. I’m going to use shellac on this one, French polish, something new to me. I’ve taped the fret board and bridge ready to begin the process. A trip to Harry’s Bosworth Mercantile scored some cheese cloth lint free at half price closing sale I’ll use to apply the shellac. Not yet as the lemons don’t need shellac.

I chopped up three pounds of Trader Joe’s Meyer lemons to  make a batch of marmalade tomorrow. And a batch of chicken noodle soup done for lunches. Life is good.