sequoia
Well-known member
I've built a bunch of ukuleles using a simple form to hold the sides to glue up the body, but I've always meant to make a proper mold. Below is my old work horse form:
I figured building a mold would be dead easy and take me an afternoon at the most. Ha! and double Ha ha! I mean how hard can it be? As usual, Murphy's Laws apply: Murphy's Law Number 13: Nothing is as easy as it at first seems.
I basically made it up as I went along. I lined up the plywood layers using dowels and cut each plate out using a band saw and then trimmed off the sides.
The real challenge here (which is absolutely critical I think) is getting the sides of the mold absolutely plumb and square to the deck. This is where the tricky part came in: To true up your cuts you risk changing the dimensions of the radiused curve you just cut. Using a spindle on my drill press was critical to truing up the sides of the mold. Truing up the spindle on the drill press of course is a huge time sink. Hours wasted finding absolute plumb.
Making the cauls is its own special time in time wasting limbo la la land. Not as easy as I thought. Below the finished mold with a set of bent sides getting ready to be cut in and lined up. I love it already and it was worth the time. I'm embarrassed to say how long it took me, but something approaching two days would be about right. Who would have thought? I mean how hard can it be? Harder than I thought.
I figured building a mold would be dead easy and take me an afternoon at the most. Ha! and double Ha ha! I mean how hard can it be? As usual, Murphy's Laws apply: Murphy's Law Number 13: Nothing is as easy as it at first seems.
I basically made it up as I went along. I lined up the plywood layers using dowels and cut each plate out using a band saw and then trimmed off the sides.
The real challenge here (which is absolutely critical I think) is getting the sides of the mold absolutely plumb and square to the deck. This is where the tricky part came in: To true up your cuts you risk changing the dimensions of the radiused curve you just cut. Using a spindle on my drill press was critical to truing up the sides of the mold. Truing up the spindle on the drill press of course is a huge time sink. Hours wasted finding absolute plumb.
Making the cauls is its own special time in time wasting limbo la la land. Not as easy as I thought. Below the finished mold with a set of bent sides getting ready to be cut in and lined up. I love it already and it was worth the time. I'm embarrassed to say how long it took me, but something approaching two days would be about right. Who would have thought? I mean how hard can it be? Harder than I thought.