The Five Things I Reach for the Most when I Build an Ukulele

I was thinking of the five most used things/tools I reach for when I build an ukulele. Below are my five candidates:

First a cheap pencil. Very important. I buy my cheap plastic pencils by the dozen.



Second, the checp 6 inch steel ruler. Even though I'm Imperial, I use millimeters most. Half a millimeter? Good to go. Also my go-to glue squeeze out scraper. Also works as a coffee stirrer in a scrape.



Glue. I don't need much of this stuff, but I use it a lot.



Masking tape. Clamping and masking. Other than shellac, tape is my best friend.



Digital calipers. Must have. I use inches and not metric or fractions. When you gotta get it right...

I think I would include an engineers square and call it a top six.

Hmmm... In no particular order, mechanical pencil (let's me get in tight to the ruler), various rulers (two, really, a long straight edge, and one of those short ones with the sliding adjustable square edge--is that an engineer's square?), various forms and jigs, sandpaper, band saw, and glue (and clamps, lots of clamps!). Yeah, I cheated a little.

Coffee!!!!

Titchtheclown said:

Coffee!!!!

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What about that Kiwi veggie peeler?

Replace the cheap pencil with a mechanical pencil with 0.5mm diameter lead. It doesn't dull and makes a thinner line. Replace the cheap 6" ruler with a 12" Incra ruler. Much more precise.

A Luthier...........

mzuch said:

Replace the cheap 6" ruler with a 12" Incra ruler. Much more precise.

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Ooooh, I didn't know about this Incra ruler thing. Very nice indeed! Order placed!

I didn't know about it either, just ordered with one click! The mechanical pencil is also a good idea. Sharpening pencils can get old, even with an electric sharpener.
Now, back to the thread title. I seem to be the first to mention an OptiVisor, it's the first thing I reach for when I enter my shop and wear it almost all the time. Perhaps I'm a lot older than you guys! My wetvac is used a lot in keeping my bench and floor reasonably dust free. Utility knives and their blades are scattered around my bench along with pencils, so that there is always one within reach, at least that's the theory of it, most of the time they all gravitate to the furthest corner from where I'm sitting! One more item I seem to use frequently is an Emory board. I prefer the Etre brand, which I buy in packs of 100. These are also scattered in easy reach, along with the aforementioned items.

Bob

Had a decent drafting thin lead pencil until it broke. Lovely thing.

Indra protractor is also nice, but not most used. A centering rule is a most used tool for me, good six inch rule to the left or right, zero in the middle.

"Incra" should have been.