As I suggested yesterday, I began the rewarding process of applying finishing oil to the wood.  After the wood had been sanded several times, I applied the oil to a clean cloth, wiped it on and rubbed it in.  I then hung it inside a cardboard box outside in the warm weather for 3-4 hours, added another coat, rubbed the oil in with 1500 grit wetsanding sandpaper, let it dry, added a third coat with 1500 grit wetsanding sandpaper.

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While the coats were drying, I pulled out the 3D printed turn around which I had sanded smooth last weekend, popped it onto a plastic rod from an old balloon, and hit it with some 13 year old silver spray paint.  Here’s the collected progress photos on the turn around:

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Here’s the latest photo of everything very nearly fully assembled:

Nearly fully assembled! I just need something to hold the bridge in place, the hex nuts for the tuners, and strings

What’s next?

1. Deciding whether I’m going to add a fourth coat of finishing oil or give it a final buff with the paper shopping bag and move on to waxing.  Setting aside the lighting differences in the above photos, I didn’t see a big difference between finishing coat 2 and 3, so coat 4 might just be diminishing returns and a way to plancrastinate finishing the project.
2. Designing a small plastic bracket for the bridge.  Deciding whether I want to keep it raw 3D printed PLA, paint it black, or paint it silver.
3. String it up!
   1. If all goes well, I’d definitely spring for the GraphTech tuners to give the ukulele a lower profile.
   2. If it doesn’t go well… I suppose it’s back to the drawing board…

Lastly, a shout out to my new friend Tim who messaged me about a copy of my template.  Soprano-travel-ukulele-template_013_v2.pdf (5114 downloads ) and 3D design files for the turn around here.