Things have progressed, and I am doing real ukulele work (along with building other jigs and fixtures). I really like having windows in the shop for natural light and a breeze. Bending sides for the next set.
The lutherie business uses a device called a “Go-bar deck” to glue things like braces in the middle of a top or back. It is basically top and bottom, with springy rods you bend which exert downward pressure on what you are gluing. Something like:
I do not have much shop space here, so using space for a go-bar deck was a little problematic. I remembered seeing on some some video some place (I do not remember where) a luthier who had made long spring-loaded rods that fit between his workbench and the ceiling, and this was his go-bar setup. Takes up no additional space, and the set of rods stacked neatly in a corner. So, that is what I did. Ordered a bunch of long compression springs that just fit inside 1/2″ CPVC pipe, got some 7/16″ dowels which also just slip fit inside the pipe, used a few cross-bolts to hold things in place, and made some tapered wooden tips, and there you go. They seem to work great, and the whole end of my workbench is now a go-bar deck.
