First build video

First build ready to go. Sorry I didn't know I had to change the setting. It should be public now. By the way thank to everyone a the forum for the help and advice. Now it time to start number two.

Is the privacy on the video set to "public"? I can't seem to see it.

Nice work. Looks and sounds great. Thanks for sharing.

Looks great, you must be happy with that.

It should be a little easier second time round and hopefully you'll make an instrument that will be even better than the first.

Looks and sounds great Michael.... What would you do/not do on the next build? I'm always interested in lessons learned so I don't have to learn them myself.

If i had to list the thing or things that gave me the most trouble it would have to be the bending of the sides. Before I start the next one I am going to spend some time rebuilding my bending form. My sides were pretty far from perpendicular and the overall shape wasn't very symmetrical . I didn't have any instructions other than You tube and some CAD drawing from Steve Mclean. Since I didn't have any experience so I tried to follow his method of building as close as I could. I choose the Spanish heal method for no other reason than I thought it looked " traditional" And I liked the thought of not using any hardware. When I went to join the sides to the neck I couldn't get the sides into the form, thats how out of shape things had gotten. Another thing I will do for the next on is build some patterns out of masonite for things like the headstock. Another part that didn't turn out symmetrical from side to side. I believe I will invest in some better tooling for the next one. Some better drill bits (brad point) Maybe a better fret saw. My binding jig on the router table worked pretty well. The only problem was the side not at 90 to top . The jig for cutting the frets out worked very well IMO. I purchased a pre slotted fret board and made a jig featured on Six Gun Guitars. It made a near perfect copy of the fret board i purchased from LMI . I suppose this only works if you don't mind making the same scale length over and over, But I do have 11 to build. I could just buy 2 or 3 different fret boards for patterns . I very much enjoyed the process. I could wait to get home at night to figure out the next step. Lots of running back in forth from the house to the shop. Thanks to all the builder here at UU You were a lot of help. Lots of help from older posts. As soon as my daughter inlaw records a song on it I will post it.

patterns out of masonite for things like the headstock. Another part that didn't turn out symmetrical from side to side.

Click to expand...

I also had that problem. Symmetry is a difficult to achieve and lack of symmetry is easy to spot. Solved it by building a half template from perspex with a clearly marked centre line. Marked out the shape and hole positions on the LHS, flipped it on the centre line and marked the RHS.
Miguel

While in Sioux falls this weekend I found a luthier in the area so I stopped by his shop. It was very interesting. I was able to try a custom built uke out. Wow it was amazing . It made my first try look like a bad kit gone wrong. He was gracious and offered some tips and showed us around. Back to the shop I have a list of the improvements for the next try.