Small Job on a Bass Ukulele Neck

[Andyjr1515]

Hi

 

Just a quick run through of a small job I've just finished for @3below - changing the binding and repositioning the side dots on his bass ukulele neck to give him on-the-fret-line dots rather than the existing 'fretted' positioning.

 

I don't have a photo of the removal, suffice to say that it was a straightforward 'warm it up and ease it off with a single-edged razor blade.

 

This was it with the binding removed.  The original dots were drilled and inserted through the binding into the neck wood and so are still visible:

 

A micrometer check all the way round flagged that the deepest point of the binding slot was 1.4mm deep so I opted for 1.5mm.  A check all around with a small length of offcut confirmed it:

 

Next task was to cut flush the old dots and clean up the channels all round - especially in the corners:

 

Next, with the neck fully masked up, it was the careful job of gluing the new binding .  I used medium-slow setting CA glue and did it a few inches at a time, holding the binding firmly against the two sides of the channel with a heavy-duty-glove'd hand until it was cured and then moved on to the next few inches:

 

 

For the two tight corners, I heated the binding (very carefully!) with a heatgun to get it round the corners without leaving a gap (too cool) or distorting (too hot).  Great relief!

 

And it was done.  Next job would be trimming the excess and shaping the binding into the neck.

 

 

 

So next was scraping the binding flush with the fretboard top and neck sides.  For this I used a cabinet card scraper, being very careful to scrape down to the masking tape but not deep enough to dig through the paper into the neck finish.  Off with the masking tape with fingers crossed that there wouldn't be any gaps! 

 

 

Big 'PHEW!'

@3below had asked for the new dots to be in Luminlay.  Happily, they have started shipping from Japan again after a few months of no shipments due to having to fly the other way round the world to avoid Ukraine/Russia.  The Luminlay method and equipment is simple, but essential is a good quality brad point drill...especially for the 2mm dots fitted to a narrow binding strip.  I use a sharp-pointed punch to mark the holes for the bradpoint to follow.  This shows those two and also the Luminlay stick being pushed into one of the two dots at the 12th.  After a trial fit, I pop a drop of CA on the end, push it in and then cut flush with a single-edged razor:

 

And after some final tidying up, here it is:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JGTay]

Nice and neat. Good job. 👍

[3below]

All parts now re-assembled into the form of a bass.  An excellent job by @Andyjr1515 with outstanding discussion of potential issues and options during the process.

[TheGreek]

On 12/11/2022 at 18:20, 3below said:

All parts now re-assembled into the form of a bass.  An excellent job by @Andyjr1515 with outstanding discussion of potential issues and options during the process.

 

I think that's been my experience with Andy too.