I’ve got the kerfed linings in.

The sides ring nicely when tapped 🙂
Continue readingI’ve got the kerfed linings in.
The sides ring nicely when tapped 🙂
Continue readingMore general prep on the sides. I’ve got the sides planed down to thr right height.
The neck and tail blocks were inset into the mold so I could glue the sides together around the mold. I held the blocks in place with dollups of hot-melt glue on the surface – hopefully this will come off ok. We’ll see.
Continue readingGot the neck block shaped today. This was interesting to make as it has different shapes at top and bottom – both need to meet the sides in a complex curve.
I marked out the shapes on top and bottom, then connected the ends of the lines.
I’ve made a mold for the body from scrap plywood. It is slightly more complex than usual because the body sides are twisted near the neck – the top and bottom are different shapes. Hopefully the sides will blend into the neck.
I’ve made another front or back – will decide where to use the panels later. This one is a bit thinner – about 2mm – so maybe it would be a good front with the thicker panel for the back where the instrument is damped by the player’s body.
Thanks to Khai Nguyen on YouTube for the suggestion of using hair curling tongs for bending the sides.
I cut two more strips on the bandsaw and thinned them down. They were slightly too narrow to use for the bottom of the uke so I used them for the sides. Thinning the sides takes a while but gets there in the end. I’m aiming for 2mm thick.
Continue readingOk – there are lots of things I’m supposed to be doing but here’s another project just for fun. I’ve long wanted a Sopranino Ukulele but I can’t really afford one, plus it would be fun to have a go at making one.
A Sopranino is smaller than a Soprano Ukulele – the Soprano has a scale length of around 13″/330mm and the Sopranino has a scale length of around 12″/305mm. One big advantage of this size is that I can resaw the timber on my mini-bandsaw which has a capacity of around 75mm.
This is the concept I came up with:
Well – if not finished at least it is working. I’ve got the sound post in (somewhat unconventional – see below) and strung it up and it sounds lovely!