Finally finished the shelf for my ukes.

KohanMike

Los Angeles, Beverly Grove West
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After a few stumbles, I finally finished the shelf for my ukes. The doors are plastic and I used closed cell foam insulation tape around all the seems, including behind the piano hinges, that allowed me to adjust the gap between the doors, which is pretty much perfect (glad I measured well).

The magnetic latches hold the doors right up against the foam, and the door handles match the ones I have in the rest of the room. The only thing I'm second guessing is the chrome hinges, I might end up changing them to brass since there are other brass elements. I actually had to cut the 48" hinges down to 33" using my electric miter saw (the sparks were a flyin').

Otherwise it came out great, and now I'm not worried about my ukes cracking like the Lanikai monkey pod did a few weeks ago during the low humidity spell her in Los Angeles. With the water trays below the ukes, the hygrometer is reading a steady 52% (I'm getting another one to double check).

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Thanks Bruce. I used 1/4" from Lowes. The panel was large and they cut it to size. I had to be careful drilling through to avoid it cracking, started with a really small bit, then used a larger as I needed. Awaiting return of my 2 hole from the luthier, and delivery of the mandolele and our arch-top.
 
I don't know if I'd call it "air tight" my goal was to control the humidity better, but it's not like a humidor.
 
It looks to me like a form of torture for the ukuleles -- "Talk, or I'll drop you into the shark-infested waters!" :)

Seriously, though, it looks great and it looks like it was the product of lots of hard work.

Since you live in earthquake country, is there some mechanism that would prevent the ukes from banging into each other, banging into the walls of the cabinet, or falling into the water trays in the event of an earthquake?
 
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As someone who has, twice now, had to rush to put all his wall hanging ukes in cases with humidifiers this past winter, I like this setup. Do you keep a humidifier inside the case and monitor the humidity?
 
Homemade humidifier; two trays with water that sit below the ukes (hard to see in these photos) with a hygrometer on the panel behind them.
 
As someone who has, twice now, had to rush to put all his wall hanging ukes in cases with humidifiers this past winter, I like this setup. Do you keep a humidifier inside the case and monitor the humidity?

What happened?
 
Jenny, not sure your reference, what happened about what, my humidifying or Jon's?

WW, it was inspired by you and your cabinet you posted a few months ago.
 
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Since you live in earthquake country, is there some mechanism that would prevent the ukes from banging into each other, banging into the walls of the cabinet, or falling into the water trays in the event of an earthquake?

Good point, they do get some shakers there every now and then.
 
On the rare occasion of an earthquake, they'll just have to bang into each other a little. They're so close to each other and the side walls, I doubt if it would be any worse than when I bang one on something while I handle it. I used wire wound around the tuning shafts, they could not fall into the water.
 
After looking at the silver hinges for the last couple of days, I've decided to change them to brass, will match up better.
 
Dude. That's really nice. I would do the same thing, only I don't have a shelf to hang my ukes in.

WAIT!! That's two projects...
 
I'm glad you asked, I was going to post here myself about it. Within 30 seconds of the end of the quake I went out to the living room to look and the ukes were not even swinging.

Also, it's been really dry here, my external hygrometer on the bookshelf reads less than 20%, the internal in the uke shelf reads 56%, I'm soooo happy.
 
Nice job! Very inspiring.
 
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