Diary of a first build

Sayyadina

Sayyadina

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Hi everybody. After building from a cheap kit quite a while ago I got interested in building again. This time I wanted to do the real thing and build a tenor uke from scratch. I have no/minimal woodworking experience and no power tools available besides a Dremel tool.
I also live in a very small appartment, that is why I am building mostly on the balcony. As a reference for building I use the Hana Lima 1a book as well as "Ukulele Design & Construction" as well as the pics Mike Pereira sent me when he built a walnut/spruce tenor for me.
The tenor mold I am using was built by a carpenter, I couldn't have made it myself without power tools.

So let's get started:
The first pics show some of the wood I got from Brüko Ukulele. They already sanded the front, back and sides to 2mm thickness for me because I couldn't have done that without the proper tools. The uke will be mahogany sides and top with a rosewood fingerboard and bridge. I am not quite sure what kind of wood the neck is, looks like spruce :).

DSC00282.jpg

DSC00283.jpg
 
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Day 1

I forgot to mention another power tool: the heat gun! This is what I use for bending the sides with. Bending was a real bitch, it took me 4 tries and at least 4 hours to get those sides into the mold. After that I couldn't feel my arms and hands on the next day.

DSC00285.jpg


Messed up side:

DSC00284.jpg


Finally one I didn't mess up, in the mold. If you look closely you can see where I burned the wood, that iron sure was hot:

DSC00286.jpg


And this is what it looked like coming out of the mold. Gave me a nice, warm feeling inside:

DSC00287.jpg
 
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More progress

While the sides where in the mold to keep them in shape I started working on the front. After several tries on cheap wood with the Dremel circle cutter I felt confident to try cutting the sound hole. What came out was not a perfect circle but I guess it will have to do. Doesn't look too shabby. You also see the lines where I marked the position of the braces and the bridge patch.

DSC00288.jpg


And two more pics with the braces already glued on and somewhat shaped, this time on the back:

DSC00291.jpg

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More to come soon! Building is so much fun it's insane. Almost as nice as playing!
 
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So did you make the form with the dremel?
 
He says he had a carpenter build the mold because he didn't have the necessary tools.

Looks good so far. Keep us informed!
 
Even more progress

Here are some more pics. On the first you can see a dry fit of the sides together with the top before putting them in the mold for a long time. Cutting those very straight edges really isn't easy with the Dremel, hand saw works even worse for me. At that point I was praying that the sides would fit together properly.

DSC00289.jpg


What also took me quite some time was shaping the heel and tail blocks to make them slightly curved. Sanding, sanding and more sanding. Always testing the fit until it was finally acceptable. Here's the tail block before sanding with markings:

DSC00293.jpg


And a final picture for today. The sides glued together in the mold, with the heel and tail block in place. I didn't get that centerline perfectly right but I was still very happy with the result. A first major milestone! And so much more work to do!

DSC00294.jpg
 
Oops missed that in the first reading, I am impressed.
 
For getting the soundhole perfectly circular under limiting circumstances, try this:
http://argapa.blogspot.com/2009/05/making-soundhole.html

On the blog you should be able to see more no retreat no surrender DIY improvisation ;)

it looks good, your build! Making the blocks fit is a nasty job with no sander, and even then... My ukuleles have flat areas and square blocks, just to get past that.

Good luck / Sven
 
Sven said:
Making the blocks fit is a nasty job with no sander, and eit looks good, your build!ven then... My ukuleles have flat areas and square blocks, just to get past that.

Good luck / Sven
Click to expand...

You could get some 60 or 36 grit and spray contact adhesive to the back wait till its mostly dry and stick it to your work bench "you can than grind the piece to it" you have good control in shaping without a hand plane this way. Also it is good practice to work to your line and not take it away, this makes sure you always have a reference point.
 
Thank you for the replies so far. Let me show you some of the work I've done with the fretboard. For sawing the frets on the correct spots I used the plan from the Hana Lima book and glued it to the fretboard. That worked pretty well:

DSC00296.jpg


After sawing was completed:

DSC00297.jpg


With some fretwire inserted and position markers glues into place:

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I'd say the fretboard looks nice. This part was easier than expected.
 
I got a few more progress pics for you and then you have seen pretty much all I have done on the uke so far. I will also be on vacation for some time, so there will not be any progress in the near future.
On this pic you see the kerfed lining being glued into place with washing clams. Bending those into shape and fitting them took quite some time. What you also see are the bottles of beer I consumed during the process hehe.

DSC00306.jpg


This is the top with the bracings and bridge patch ( I used rosewood) almost finished. Some chisel work was still missing to make the top fit into the sides with the kerfing. Wasn't easy to make that fit. Everytime I thought I got it I discovered some flaws where the top and side didn't really fit. When I thought the dry fit was pretty good I applied glue and put on a bunch of heavy books for glueing.

DSC00308.jpg

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I hope the top will fit nicely but I do have some doubts. Somehow it didn't look as smooth as it did when I dryfitted. It all looks so easy when you see videos and pictures from experienced builders but it really isn't. :)
 
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I think you're doin' ok..A little bit less left on the fretwire end's next time tho' ;)that stuff costs money.
 
Hey guys, thanks for taking an interest in my built. I am back from vacation and ready to show you some more progress. During my last building session all the little mistakes I made so far and my lack of woodworking skills came down on me. As I had feared the top didn't match perfectly to the sides and wasn't glued properly in some areas. At first I didn't notice this. I noticed when I was routing the overhanging bits to the actual outline. When I did this two pieces of the top got ripped out along the grain. I managed to glue the bigger piece back in (first pic), for the smaller one I am still thinking on how to repair that (second pic). Originally I didn't want to dare and try to do a binding but I accidently routed a bit too much on in some areas and had to try routing a binding channel. This led to even more problems...
Here are the pictures:

DSC00312.jpg

DSC00313.jpg


And the last one with the binding already in place but before sanding it to match the sides and top. Here it still looks ok.
DSC00315.jpg


After sanding there were some clear differences in thickness in some areas, a result of the binding channel being not really even... I guess I messed that up pretty badly. I am thinking about redoing that to try to make it fit better because it looks bad like this. I will show you a picture of it later.
 
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