24/9/17
I have been very lucky to salvage a 100+ year old solid Mahogany bank counter, with the original solid wood drawers underneath. I even saved the wall of bullet
resistant glass fixed above it :)
As a thank you to the developers of the bank, I am making them a concert ukulele using this beautiful old Mahogany and, other woods salvaged.
The counter front panel and, some other large wall panels saved ,are too nice to be chopped up. So they are destined for a local brewery, and will become a new bar
area for them.
I have been very lucky to salvage a 100+ year old solid Mahogany bank counter, with the original solid wood drawers underneath. I even saved the wall of bullet
resistant glass fixed above it :)
As a thank you to the developers of the bank, I am making them a concert ukulele using this beautiful old Mahogany and, other woods salvaged.
The counter front panel and, some other large wall panels saved ,are too nice to be chopped up. So they are destined for a local brewery, and will become a new bar
area for them.
Today I took some of the counter top, sliced it into smaller boards ready for the uke top, back and sides...
Traditional method of gluing the joint. Place a stick under the centre join and screw down two blocks on the edges. Apply glue, remove the stick and push down flat.
Apply a heavy weight on the joint while it dries.
Once dry, the plates will be thinned down again to approx 2mm. The final thickness depends on many variables but, this will be described later on ...
Apply a heavy weight on the joint while it dries.
Once dry, the plates will be thinned down again to approx 2mm. The final thickness depends on many variables but, this will be described later on ...
1/10/17
Thicknessed the sides and bent them to shape on a heated bending iron. The wood is lightly sprayed with water (creating steam),and slowly coerced into shape by hand
I also inspected some of the other wood salvaged which appear to be a cedar type softwood, that I am making the linings from and, by pure chance, one chunk of timber, (that formed part of the bullet resistant glass framework) is rosewood. This will be used for the fingerboard and bridge.
Thicknessed the sides and bent them to shape on a heated bending iron. The wood is lightly sprayed with water (creating steam),and slowly coerced into shape by hand
I also inspected some of the other wood salvaged which appear to be a cedar type softwood, that I am making the linings from and, by pure chance, one chunk of timber, (that formed part of the bullet resistant glass framework) is rosewood. This will be used for the fingerboard and bridge.
Some species of Mahogany can be really difficult to machine and bend. This is beautiful stuff to work with and, bent easily thicknessed at approx 1.5mm
Some large sheets of MDF were also salvaged, perfect for a new building mould :)
Making up the linings. These need to be quite chunky, as I plan to add bindings and decorative purflings later on.