Kasha bracing for uke - technique advice please

[Quinny]

Hi,

I am seeking advice on preparing the Kasha bracing for the soundboard for my tenor uke. In particular, any advice on tapering the braces along the length. I brought my plans from Georgia Luthier Supply, but hadn't had a close look at the bracing specs until ready to start the build. Now I realise most of the 26 braces taper along the length. For example, from 5.0 to 2.0mm, 3.1 to 1.8mm, 3.7 to 2.0mm. Just about every brace has a different taper. All are around 4.2 to 5.0mm high.

In the plans the taper is centred, so I want to avoid keeping one side square and taking all the taper off from one side only.

Any suggestions on technique on how to do the taper length-wise and tapering both sides equally??
Tools I could use include bandsaw, spindle sander, small benchtop belt sander, sanding board and the usual hand tools (but not a hand plane).

Thanks

Andrew

[kiwigeo]

Are you talking about something like this? If so....I'd do the brace carving post glue in using a chisel and sanding sticks. You could also look at rough shaping lengths of bracing stock on a router table with a 45deg bevel cutter and suitable jig and doing final shaping with chisel once bracing glued in. Another alternative.....plane up a flat piece of bracing stock with a sloping profile (along long axis) and then slice brace wide strips off same and glue those on and then finish shape with chisel.

kasha-tenor-ukulele-bracing.jpg (125.89 KiB) Viewed 5825 times

[Quinny]

Thanks Martin. I'll give that some thought and see how I go.