Super quick uke build thread...

[muttley600]

You get the idea and so know glued in place.

 

[muttley600]

Should have mentioned I cut a dovetail in the neck block before that. Made up a simple jig as My normal setup wont do such a small body. You can just about make out the binding cut in the second picture.

 

[muttley600]

Time for a few pics of the neck. First roughing it out on the bandsaw and then clamping some wings to the headstock to give it some width. Mahogany came from and old window frame I found in a skip.

 

[muttley600]

Chucked 1.5mm veneer on the face and then cut the dovetail to fit the body cut and things are beginning to take shape.

 

[muttley600]

The neck needs to roughed to shape and then glued into the body.

 

[muttley600]

Needs fingerboard. An off cut of ebony that I can't get an archtop tailpiece from and is too short for a regular fingerboard is perfect. First rip it to thickness on the bandsaw and then cut to shape and as it is no longer square I slot it by hand on a home made mitre box as I can't use my table saw to slot a tapered board.

 

[muttley600]

Clamp that fingerboard on. Quick and easy with blind pins and no radius to the board.

 

[muttley600]

Dots would be nice, yes MOP dots. Marked up the position and drilled them on the pillar drill exactly to match the dots and wacked them in with some titebond. Chucked in some frets too and added some side dots.

 

[muttley600]

Had about 2 hour left at this stage so abandoned all hope and camera as the batteries died on me stuck on a bridge and drilled out for the tuners. and spent the last hour cleaning up and added a few coats of tru oil. Left it over night and strung her up the next morning. Sounded sweet and didn't collapse.

When time permits I shall strip her back and finish it properly.

 

[muttley600]

To finish, It was a lot of fun to do. A bit rushed but a nice functional instrument.

The only parts that weren't scavenged from the scrap bin or useless for anything else were the tuners strings and frets. Even the nut and saddle came from a rough bone I experimented with bleaching way back. The neck from and old window. The spruce for the linings and braces cane from an old Ikea sofa that fell apart on me. The only half cheats were the back and top which came from cleaning cuts on decent timber but that was deemed to be OK.

 

[Wish]

That was really interesting, Muttley. Thanks for taking the time to post all of those pictures and take us along on your uke making journey.

That's really amazing that you could do that in 2 days. Great job and congrats on your victory!

 

[suprstar]

That's awesome man! You know that'd prolly be easier if you had a couple more clamps

 

[muttley600]

That's awesome man! You know that'd prolly be easier if you had a couple more clamps

You can never, and I mean never, have enough clamps.

 

[Zaphod B]

I can't begin to tell you how impressed I am.

 

[Chili]

You can never, and I mean never, have enough clamps.

Funny, I say the same thing about napkins!!

For the headstock, when you glued the two outer pieces on, did you use any kind of pins or screws for strength?? Or is the glue strong enough to bear the pull of the strings on the tuners?


Thanks for sharing this with us!!!

 

[muttley600]

Funny, I say the same thing about napkins!!

For the headstock, when you glued the two outer pieces on, did you use any kind of pins or screws for strength?? Or is the glue strong enough to bear the pull of the strings on the tuners?


Thanks for sharing this with us!!!

Just a good butt joint and you should be fine. There isn't much stress on that part and the 1.5mm veneer helps add strength. It's a pretty common practice on archtops and in a normal practice I would veneer the back as well to balance the veneer and stop it from pulling or cupping. Not really a problem here as the timbers are fairly straight grain and on a small area.

 

[JCH]

Very Cool! Thanks for sharing the pictures, and description.

 

[guitar junkie]

So what kind of money are we talking for one of these bad boys?

 

[muttley600]

So what kind of money are we talking for one of these bad boys?

If I was building for a sale I'd do many things differently and wouldn't let an instrument like this one out on the open market. As I said it was a quick build for a fun build off and although it won't fall apart and will play well for many years. It is what it is. A fun little uke that was built quick and dirty.

If I was to build for sale I'd cost according to the spec or build a half dozen and sell them at as competitive a price as I could. Labour would be the biggy. I'd have to cost it out though and I've never attempted to use this place as a showroom so I'll hold back on a figure if that's OK.

 

[CMunch]

Congrats.

Nice work muttley.

Is that an ELU router you have there?

Wish I'd gotten mine repaired, replaced it with a Makita, total piece of junk.