The banjolele neck #1

Delayed first by bird table, and then by the flu (not bird flu), I wanted to get back to some building.

I took some measurements from one of my son's ukulele's and drew up some sketches for the banjolele in order to get the dimensions for the neck, and got to work on the build.

First off, I cut off and cleaned up a piece of mahogany that I had. It's probably not real mahogany, just something in the same family. The piece I cut off was about 19" x 2.5" x 1.5"

cleaned up neck blank

Next, I made a jig for the table saw that would allow me to cut a scarf joint at a 15 degree angle for the headstock. I wanted this cut to be clean, so I put a decent Freud blade in the table saw. It actually turned out pretty good.

15 degree scarf joint jig

Then it was time for the glue-up. This was a bit tricker than it looked, as it really wanted to move around when it was clamped, but I managed it in the end.

neck and head clamped together

Another 24 hours and I'll see how it's looking.

Part #2 is here

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