After lurking around here and seeing all these awesome build threads (Moore Bettah amazing work) I've decided to attempt my own ukulele build. I built an electric guitar last year but this is my first attempt at anything involving all the challenges that come with acoustics so we'll see how this goes..
I started out building a side bender powered by two 200W bulbs. Pretty standard I guess. Bending the sides was initially my biggest concern but I bent a couple sets without incident so I went ahead and did the set of wenge sides. These didn't bend quite as easily as the first couple woods I tried (walnut, monkeypod) but no real problems.
Side Bender
Inside the side bender
After the sides were bent I glued up the wenge back. I did a stripe of curly koa down the center with a fine bwb purfling bordering it.
Full shot
I made the mistake of getting mahogany tone bars and spruce kerfing. Hopefully it won't be a problem and will just look a bit different inside...guess it goes with the color scheme at least.
Gluing the back on the sides. Borrowed this idea from Pete Howlett's very informative Youtube videos.
Try to ignore all the junk on the back...I use carpet tape to fix the wood on the workbench when I thickness it with the router, normally works fine but I tried some different tape the other day that was an absolute mess...been a nightmare trying to get the residue off, hopefully nothing's ruined. If anyone has suggestions on thicknessing parts without a planer/thickness sander I'm all ears!
Anyway that's where I'm at for the moment. I've got a mahogany neck cut out, but still deciding on the top material. I think the contrast of spruce & wenge would look nice, but I also have a cool looking piece of monkeypod. Decisions decisions...open to any suggestions or feedback you guys might have, thanks for looking!
I started out building a side bender powered by two 200W bulbs. Pretty standard I guess. Bending the sides was initially my biggest concern but I bent a couple sets without incident so I went ahead and did the set of wenge sides. These didn't bend quite as easily as the first couple woods I tried (walnut, monkeypod) but no real problems.
Side Bender
Inside the side bender
After the sides were bent I glued up the wenge back. I did a stripe of curly koa down the center with a fine bwb purfling bordering it.
Full shot
I made the mistake of getting mahogany tone bars and spruce kerfing. Hopefully it won't be a problem and will just look a bit different inside...guess it goes with the color scheme at least.
Gluing the back on the sides. Borrowed this idea from Pete Howlett's very informative Youtube videos.
Try to ignore all the junk on the back...I use carpet tape to fix the wood on the workbench when I thickness it with the router, normally works fine but I tried some different tape the other day that was an absolute mess...been a nightmare trying to get the residue off, hopefully nothing's ruined. If anyone has suggestions on thicknessing parts without a planer/thickness sander I'm all ears!
Anyway that's where I'm at for the moment. I've got a mahogany neck cut out, but still deciding on the top material. I think the contrast of spruce & wenge would look nice, but I also have a cool looking piece of monkeypod. Decisions decisions...open to any suggestions or feedback you guys might have, thanks for looking!