Before I took up the ukulele I had a long, failed love affair with the guitar. I tried to learn how to play for years, but as it turns out playing guitar actually takes talent... However, as part of that ill-fated adventure I built several homemade instruments. If you want to have a little fun, you should consider making cigar box ukuleles. Cigar box guitars became popular during the Depression, and they're still used a lot for folk music and blues. Some of the earliest instructions for making a cigar box ukulele were printed in
Popular Mechanics in 1917.
Cigar box guitar is a bit of a misnomer. They're actually built out of anything from cigar boxes to cookie tins. I've even seen pictures of one made out of a bedpan. They can be incredibly cheap to build, because virtually any part on a CBG can be made with found items. Someone with imagination can probably find all the parts to build one walking down the street in a commercial or industrial zone. There are some home made instruments out there that aren't much more than a stick and a length of wire. When you start getting into more evolved instruments it's amazing what some people come up with!
If you're considering a project with children, you can really unleash their creativity because they can make a nice sounding instrument out of anything they want to. Check out the photos at
Cigar Box Nation. There are over 5000 pages of pictures. They have a ukulele builders group there and a ukulele players group. If you have questions on how to build one, the forums are filled with very knowledgeable, experienced crafters that can answer just about all your questions and offer suggestions. You can also connect to companies like CB Gitty that provide parts, kits, and free instructions. For instance, if you want your home made ukulele to have more of a professional sound to it, you can just order the finger board and do the rest of the build yourself.