Some serious progress on the Travel Uke

In order to run the strings through the neck we need to drill some holes into the head stock end.

I'm using this tiny counter sink drill bit to drill through the top to make the holes and then from the back going deeper to engage the counter sink section to make the hole larger.

This way the string will have a knot tied into it at it's end so it gets trapped inside the hole.

Drilled in the front

From the back through to the countersink section of the drill bit.

I got a lot of tear out and in hindsight using another drill bit with more flutes may have prevented this. The timber is prone to this though so it may not have.

Cutting things to length. I have some issues with square and I'm not sure it's this cutting jig or my combination square.

I drilled the two holes with my 57mm Forstner bit. I drilled through until the tiny point poked out the other side then flipped the timber over and drilled in from that side. This reduced the chance of tear out. What a mess, it took longer to clean up than it did to drill the holes lol

The drill bit got a lot of residue on it that had to be cleaned off.

Here's the finished photo for today. So it's been layed out with pencil and rulers etc then cut to length then the holes were drilled into the head stock. Then the open section was started by cutting the two holes which will be joined up with a jig saw. I'll have to wait till next pay to get another jigsaw blade.

My dear mum came over earlier in the week and we had a meal at the football club next door (her shout) as she left she slipped my some cash to "Get some groceries" so I've ordered a cheap piezo pickup. I had to get this one so it would fit into the 19mm thickness of the timber I have. Time will tell if I've done the right thing and how I'll fix it, may come down to that universal fix it Silicone lol

The keen eyed of you will see I've got about 14 or 15 fret marks on the paper template This is something I'll adjust as I go and as the design dictates. The distance between the outside of each hole is 200mm