The bodies of the 6 ukuleles, 3 concerts and 3 tenors are all closed up, meaning that the top and backs are all glued on and the edges trimmed. Now comes a lot of sanding.
I sand the sides with a block to make sure that things are nice and straight and flat (across the side) so that when the router runs around to cut the binding channels things start out nice and flush. I sand things to 150 grit and then put on a coat of sealer before I cut the binding channels. I use CA glue as a sealer/pore filler, and a coat of this really hardens the surface grain which prevents chip-out when routing the binding channel and prevents glue from gluing in the binding from soaking into the adjacent side, which makes clean-up much easier. A lot of sanding, but things could be worse than working outside in the Florida breeze, listening to the birds, watching the osprey fish in the pond while sanding.
