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And by the way .... I bought a packet of decorating scrapers/spatulas in a local bargain shop, £1 for 4. They are thin spring steel, and I thought they might come in useful. The two thickest make excellent scrapers for fine work - no need to work on getting a nice square edge or burnishing and...

Headplate is shaped, and fret slots cut. This is how we're looking at the moment. I've also added markers at 5th, 7th and 10th frets. Rather than buying fiddly mother of pearl dots, which I don't much like the loo of anyway, my local charity shop has supplied me with a 4mm plastic knitting...

I've had my Pax saw for a month now. First impressions are that it's a genuine precision instrument. I feel like surgeon using it, rather than the hack sawyer I felt before. My one criticism is the handle, which feels square with rounded edges. At some point I'll rework it to fit my hand. But...

The clamping method didn't work, so I reverted to a tried and true favourite - PVC electrical tape which is stretchy and thus applies pressure at the edges. The patient undergoing treatment: And of course we need a headplate; this is primarily decorative, though it does strengthen the...

Ian's not tiny, but the uke is! From memory the scale length was around 175mm and the entire instrument is about 225mm long. It's half the size of a normal soprano uke, and the brief was that it still had to be properly playable. Though I don't think he's used the 15th fret, and maybe only bats...

Not a hijack by any means. Some serious uke skills here, and on one of my builds too: https://youtu.be/DrcfwwfD5eY

Glued the fingerboard on using hide glue. The problem with fingerboards is that they tend to curl up at the edges if you use water-based glues (this includes PVA and aliphatics like Titebond), so many builders use epoxy for this. But I was cunning - I wetted the upper surface as well as...

Dont forget the research and analysis element, which is what will get you a good mark! H&S has been suggested, and your path is design. So how about researching the design of machinery safety devices, focusing on scalability (industrial to hobby) and usability (to reduce risk that operators...

Now the binding is glued on it needs cleaning up. The best tool is definitely a cabinet scraper. On the top the binding is installed proud of the top (see at the tail, which is still to be scraped). So all I need to do is to scrape until the shellac is removed, and then I know the binding is...

Onward with the binding. I completed the binding channel and this time really worked on the three aspects which I get wrong. 1. Making the curves flow nicely when looked at from the top. Any angles really stand out, so I smoothed them out. At this stage I don't care too much if the channel is...

Once I've trimmed back the overhang of top and bottom I can check for any places where my glueing was less than perfect. There are no gaps (hurrah!) but a couple of places where the glue line is visible, which means the join wasn't clamped enough there. I can improve these by dribbling a little...

Two or three hours later the clamps can come off and I pare the overhang of top and bottom roughly back to the sides. Knife, chisel, small plane - whatever works for you. Beginners should note to remove wood "downhill' so they are not trying to cut into the grain - this means you trim towards...

And, having survived the heat in London on Tuesday, today the back goes on! (drum roll, maestro please) Humidity is down to around 50% in my workshop which is important. Once the back is on everything is locked in place, so if the wood shrinks something will give - usually the back or the top...

On Monday I completed the linings, including making pockets for the back brace to sit in. The linings are glued on a little proud of the sides and then taken down (initially with a plane, then by sanding) until they are EXACTLY the same height as the sides. How is "exactly" achieved? Simples...

Before the back goes on I need to shape the sides and glue in linings. I like an aggressive curve to the back of a soprano. It looks good, and I also think it improves the volume and produces a fuller tone. But whether this is true or not I have no idea, though note that Martin and the Hawaiian...

Here is the ABS in action.

A method I've used for lines, which is rather a bodge but works, is to use black ABS sheet. This is around 1mm thick for the standard A4 sheet. Grooves are made with the corner of a cabinet scraper, running it along a steel rule. Then I cut strips of ABS, remove any burr and thin a fraction...

Next I make sure the upper bout is in the right position - if you need to spread the sides, bamboo skewers pressing against bits of wine corks are very useful. Before glueing the upper bout to the top I need to fix the sides to the neck. This is the cunning part about Spanish Heel...

So over the weekend I began attaching the sides to the top. Because the top will be bound there is no particular need to glue the edge of the sides to the top, because that join will be cut away when I cut the binding channel. However, the tail block does need to be glued, so I start there...

Now, I could keep you all in suspense, as I had to do on the uke forum where I started this build description. The previous post was last Tuesday, and Wednesday to Friday I was away speaking at conferences. The malformed sides hung over all of us like the Sword of Damocles. But on Friday...