2x4 challenge

I disagree Bob... what inspired me was a YouTube video on this very theme. Of course, you must select the wood you are going to use. I suspect it is going to take me visits to several builders suppliers before I find the right piece. Please don't rain on our parade because you have had a bad experience. Like I say to my children, "You cannot cook a good meal with poor ingredients!" This is about starting from the right place by putting time in with wood selection. If you are going to try this, be sensible. Don't chose a knotty piece of firewood! Look at the end grain and sight down the length to check for wind(twist). Be positive. I am expecting to produce a great sounding uke, nothing less!
 
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Apologies, Pete, if you misunderstood my remarks. I support the idea of this challenge entirely, I was aiming my remarks at my experience with my latest little uke. You are right in that I didn't waste too much time in selecting my wood. Actually, our Home Depot has very little choice, most of the wood is poor. I'll be posting pics of my little travel uke soon.

Bob
 
in an 8 foot length of 2x4 I'm sure you can find a 15 inch section that is suitable for slicing and bookmatching .. Even with a few knots it will look ok. ..it don't have to be quarter sawn either to sound good, as I've already found out;)
 
Pah
you professionals have no hope. To really do a 2 by 4 challenge or palette challenge you have to spend years ignoring the masters, staying away from apprenticeships or anyone that even remotely knows about the history of how to make things. ;) You professionals will likely finish up making something beautiful,stylish and traditional sounding. I may, (this time) permit myself the use of more than a pocket knife. You will be using hide glue and french polish next!

Will the use of a heat shrunk pepsi bottle for the head of the banjo uke be acceptable?

Enjoy.
 
Titchtheclown said:
Pah
you professionals have no hope. To really do a 2 by 4 challenge or palette challenge you have to spend years ignoring the masters, staying away from apprenticeships or anyone that even remotely knows about the history of how to make things. ;) You professionals will likely finish up making something beautiful,stylish and traditional sounding. I may, (this time) permit myself the use of more than a pocket knife. You will be using hide glue and french polish next!

Will the use of a heat shrunk pepsi bottle for the head of the banjo uke be acceptable?

Enjoy.
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Well said Titch....and remember "Orville Wright" never had a pilots license..Never stopped him! or his brother "Wilbur" ;)
 
Vespa Bob said:
Actually, our Home Depot has very little choice, most of the wood is poor.
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It can't be worse than this :D
PICT0010-2.jpg
 
I'm with Titch on this one. Insisting on a perfect 2x4 halfway defeats the purpose of the challenge.

Don't know how it pertains, but here's a story. 20 years ago I made some soprano bodies, then decided I didn't want to build ukes after all. A coworker took a body for a friend of his, and together they made a neck and got it to play. The friend played Hawaiian occasions all over, made decent money, and still has the uke. It has the ugliest, most amateur finish on it you ever saw. I don't know how many people he told that it was one of my ukes, but that's how he describes it. Makes me cringe whenever I think about it. The friend is one of my coworkers now, and he's a really nice guy. I keep my mouth shut and try to see the humor in it. So if your 2x4 uke doesn't turn out lock it away safely so it can never bite you.
 
Pete Howlett said:
I think it's buy a piece of 2 x 4 from Home Depot or B&Q and see if you can make a half decent uke out of it. I think we can set a rule that the main body of the instrument and its constituent parts need to be made from this plank with the exception of the bridge, fingerboard, fretwire, nut and saddle material.
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i went through 2 warehouses of lumber at homedepo and found just 1 really nice 1/4 sawn tight grained redwood i could use. I cut it up and its really stiff so im half way there!-
 
jcalkin said:
I'm with Titch on this one. Insisting on a perfect 2x4 halfway defeats the purpose of the challenge.

Don't know how it pertains, but here's a story. 20 years ago I made some soprano bodies, then decided I didn't want to build ukes after all. A coworker took a body for a friend of his, and together they made a neck and got it to play. The friend played Hawaiian occasions all over, made decent money, and still has the uke. It has the ugliest, most amateur finish on it you ever saw. I don't know how many people he told that it was one of my ukes, but that's how he describes it. Makes me cringe whenever I think about it. The friend is one of my coworkers now, and he's a really nice guy. I keep my mouth shut and try to see the humor in it. So if your 2x4 uke doesn't turn out lock it away safely so it can never bite you.
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You agree with me!!!!???

You poor man. Didn't your mother ever tell you not to accept advice from clowns on the internet? Don't you realise that sometimes we are joking?

Build what you like from what you like. I am an eclectic builder. Most of the time when I build I hear the tune they play in my head. Most of the time, for me the tune is my niece when she was 7 playing her self composition "I hate my brother because he" s so mean". With a couple of my nicer tin Ukes it has been Mark Knopfler playing playing Romeo and Juliet. I just wish I had the talent for it to be Chuck Morgan from the Janet Seidel Trio playing his 1920s Martin.

On a completely different topic, I wonder how quickly a piece would start to spalt, or at least stain a little if I put it in the compost tumbler? I might have to find a bucket with rain water to soak it in first.
 
I'll throw my hat in. I've been super busy lately, and was a little on the fence, but found myself going through the studs at Home Depot yesterday so I guess I'm in:).

The studs I was looking at were pretty lousy, it might take a little while to find a decent piece, and I've hardly had the time I need in my shop lately with several projects in the works, but hopefully I'll pull something together in a reasonable amount of time.

I'm glad to see a challenge build on this forum, last year I participated in a local woods building challenge on OLF that I really enjoyed. Thanks Pete for getting this started.
 
jcalkin said:
It has the ugliest, most amateur finish on it you ever saw. I don't know how many people he told that it was one of my ukes, but that's how he describes it. Makes me cringe whenever I think about it.
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That's pretty funny. ;) Compared to your current output, I can well imagine the embarrassment. :p

I'm not a builder but I hope all yall go through with this. Maybe they can be released under a pseudonym if they are below your usual standards. :shaka:
 
I didn't see any good 2x4s, so I looked at the interior grade redwood 1x4s and found this one that I just couldn't pass up. Actual dimension is 5/8" x 3 3/8", and pretty close to perfectly quarter-sawn. I counted 185 grain lines across its width, although I may be off by a few, since some were hard to make out even with a magnifying glass.

end grain.jpg
plates.jpg
 
Have not built a uke yet and I really should not be building anything at the moment (reasons being withheld). But I just dropped in here today and this challenge is right up my ally. I have a perfect 2 x 4 but it is too good to use. Will have to go out shopping tomorrow.


Looked downstairs, found a four foot 2 x 4 that I used to make a T with to put up drywall (which I really should be doing instead) and a 4 foot pine 1 x 4. Not sure if you would allow the 1 x 4 (not sure if it is enough either, will have to do some calculatin'), if not the 2 x 4 will have to do. Don't know how up I am to looking for wood.

2%20x%204%20uke%2001_zpsfgggm6lq.jpg


Not really sure about the baked bridge though, I don't think the stuff is strong enough.
 
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It's a 2x4 challenge... I saw some excellent 4x4 today that I had to pass up. If you areg going to play the game, stick to the simple rules please :) Part of the fun is finding the wood and working within a generous set of constraints.
.
 
So are you saying my 1x4 is disqualified? It's okay if it is, but I think a 1x4 would be even more challenging than a 2x4. In any case, thanks for the idea, I'm really glad I found this piece, it wouldn't have happened without your inspiration.
 
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