Moss Woodworks

Redwood and Black Walnut ukulele is officially finished. This has been quite a build. The first attempt at building a stringed instrument. A lot was learned and a passion for building more has been created.

Every so often stop by the cedar mill to rummage through their cvg western red cedar pile. Found a few nice 5ft long boards. After resawing and thicknesing I netted 24 book matched ukulele tops and plenty left over for linings.

Homemade bindings made from Mexican Royal Ebony and Hard Maple. Maple has been sanded down to a 1mm thickness, Ebony to 6mm. After adhering the maple to the ebony the board is resawn and then the binding strips are sanded down to a 2mm thickness.

Spalted figured maple dining table with figured maple hand-cut bowties. Black epoxy is used to fill cracks and voids. A lot of time and skills were invested in this build due to the difficulty of working with spalted woods. The final outcome is worth every hour spent on making this table perfect.

Spalted maple top is looking 🦄 majestical 💯

Taking on a side project. Spalted maple table. After sizing, cleaning, and flattening there is more cleaning out of the dirt and bark. A big part of making these tables is getting them to a point where epoxy can be poured.

An evening view through the sound port 💡🕳️👀

Each stage of this ukulele build has me stopping to build another jig. This jig and template is to assist in making the fretboard slots. For the ukulele to sound decent, these cuts are crucial.

Voicing complete

Ukulele redwood top with black locust burl rosette.

Look at these curves 🔥

This figured walnut will become the backside of the ukulele. Will look sexy with the figured redwood top.

These thin sheets of Black Locust burl are making me hungry. These sheets will eventually make up a ukulele rosette.

Yet another ukulele jig. I'll be going with what is called a slotted headstock design. 80% sold on this top of headstock curved feature. The logo will be inlayed utilizing the laser.

More jigs and templates for the ukulele build. With all the work these take, I think I'll be building more than one ukulele.

Next project is in the shop. Ukulele. Just finished making this jig which will help shape the sides of the ukulele. A few more jigs to go, then the fun begins with the making of the very first ukulele!

Kumiko entrance is looking sharp. We needed a place for the Jasmine and passion flowers to climb. What better excuse to create more giant Kimiko panels.

It's been a bit quiet over here lately. Lots of projects on the workbench. This sign is fresh out of the shop. Made for a friend who just upgraded his shop. To help put it to scale, the center circle is about the size of an average hand. Some thought went into the switch for the backlighting. The left side of the sign moves up and down which turns a switch on and off in the back. Hope you enjoy this one as it was a blast to build!

The Scarab Crokinole board is starting to come together. This is the first time using the laser for inlay. I would say it's been a success. Maple veneer, gold leaf, blue dye, and abalone shell.

Brought out the pretty wood for some shop-made veneer.

Kumiko tea cabinet. Build video coming out soon. White Oak and Redwood (with a variety of woods used in the kumiko). Lacquer finish on the Redwood and OSMO Polyx on the White Oak. All drawers are push to open and close. There's a neat feature where closing the main drawer all the way turns on the backlight for the kumiko. I didn't want to have a separate switch for the light, so this solution proved viable. In the video you will see how the cabinet started, as a twisted, cupped and dirty slab of White Oak. It was a ton of work to get it milled flat and resawn into sized boards. The turning of something so seemingly unusable into this is very rewarding.

Western red cedar hot tub is complete. 104 degree water on a 34 degree day feels good. Added this cedar slat top to the build, makes it really easy to open and close the tub. I'll be making steps and a half deck in the near future. Everyday is hot tub day!

Seats are installed. Almost time to fill this hot tub up!

Salvaging some scraps of this beautiful western red cedar to make seats. Four of these sections will wrap almost half way around the hot tub.

Filling the western red cedar hot tub takes time. Not because it's 600 gallons of water. The cedar needs time to swell. A few inches of water every couple of hours till the cedar swells enough to seal any leaks. All the boat building techniques should work their magic to give this hot tub a water tight seal.

Stainless steel hardware to keep the hot tub together. Epoxied white oak dowels with threaded rod, washers, coupler nuts and nylon locking nuts. All of this plus the metal bands should be plenty to hold in 2 1/2 tons of hot bubbly water.

One stave short. Time to make a trip to the lumber yard.

Violet is practicing her cannonball. 1/3 of the staves are up.