Big Island Ukulele Guild
Minutes from 3/14/2020
Aloha guild members. Our latest meeting was on March 14th at Gary Cassel’s shop in Waikoloa Village. Mahalo nui loa to Gary and Pat for hosting us!
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Carlos reported on our recent appearance at the 20th Annual Great Waikoloa ‘Ukulele Festival, including a $300 stipend to add to our coffers, which we might use to finance another radius dish workshop. Carlos also reminded us of our proposed cam clamp workshop and suggested we might recreate our popular belt sander/thickness sander jig project. We are working on locations and dates.
Speaking of locations, he spoke about our continuing search for meeting locations and has learned that Kamuela Hardwoods has a second floor space that we could use. Stay tuned for further developments.
Treasurer Tom Russell was unable to attend, but our finances continue to remain healthy – much better than the national economy!
During show and tell, Carlos mentioned 2” mini-clamps he bought for 19 cents a piece. Perfect for clamping binding. If you’re interested, check them out at this link: Go to AMAZON
Carlos’ clamps prompted a discussion on materials used to prevent clamping dents during lining glue-up. Rubber and pieces of previously bent sides were suggested. And Gary handed out pieces of plastic strips from his current window replacement project that would work.
Carlos also brought along his nice electric side bender, which also might generate a future workshop.
Dave Stokes showed an 8-string tenor Kamaka, circa 1974, that he plans to repair, including replacing the fretboard.
Gary Cassel showed off several ukes in progress, including one made of a spectacular bookmatched set of flame box elder wood he showed us in a previous meeting. It will make for a spectacular ukulele.
Alfonso Gutierrez put an avocado wood top on a 1950’s Kamaka soprano he bought at a garage sale.
Lisa Youngs brought her headstocks and fretboard samples, plus examples of the mica powder and epoxy she uses to create metallic and pearl-like effects.
And finally Barbara Bach presented her intricate ukulele. It may be the last we’ll see up close and personal because Barb is moving to Florida and will be greatly missed!
Following lunch, Dave Stokes demonstrated his new inexpensive compound slide table for drill press milling. After some set up and adjustments, Dave produced a very clean saddle slot in a bridge blank. Can’t wait to try mine!
And Carlos concluded the meeting with his presentation of ebonizing or darkening wood using two mixtures - one of Quebracho bark and the other of steel wool and vinegar. The neck of his newly finished ukulele bass is amazingly dark following using this treatment. Here’s a quick jump to the instructions on our website.
In luthier news, Roger Johnson and Woodley White previously talked about the Guild of American Luthiers convention/exhibition scheduled for July 22-26, 2020 at in Tacoma, Washinton. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the convention has been postponed for one or two years. For more information, check out https://luth.org/.
Our next meeting is June 20th in Tom Russell’s Kailua-Kona shop.
Chris Stewart, BIUG Secretary Stewart, BIUG secretary