First Build

Hi, I am starting a build thread here as I am embarking on my first ever instrument build and I am going to rely heavily on this forum for your expertise and guidance. I have some woodworking ability and have built a few wooden ship models so I have a fairly good supply of hardwoods and a few nice wood working tools although they are small and suited for model shipbuilding. I also have a friend that owns a cabinet shop and is gracious to let me use his extensive line of tooling. I thought about acquiring a book or two but I also am a member of a model ship building forum and there is more information and willing people to help throughout a model build and I am confident that UU is the same way... so I am hoping my thread will be a venue for instruction.......
I really wanted to build a guitar but thought a uke might be a bit easier and my wood supply is more suited to a uke build and I feel that most of the processes will transfer over well.
I am going to build a tenor ukulele using the plans set from UltimateGuitar.com but with a few deviations where my research so far has led me. One example is the plans show a radius on the neck block to match the body outline but I am planning on squaring the neck area off (like the Mya Moe videos) so that the neck joint,neck block and neck areas are all square.
I will be using makore for the back and sides and anigre for the top and neck, haven't decided on the fretboard and bridge wood yet.... I re sawed the back and sides and top wood and thicknessed them to .100 + or - .005, I am taking them to my friends shop to use the jointer and will then glue them up, install a rossette and return to use his digital thickness sander to bring the top to .080 and the back and sides to .090 please advise if I am in error so far and feel free throughout the build to set me straight or provide a better technique or improve any process. I look forward to a great relationship with you guys and this forum.... Pics to follow.....

Lou

So here are some pics as promised, the first is a shot of my back, sides and top wood, next are some close ups of the top and back - the top color is more tan/creamy than the pic, the color balance is off but I wanted to show some of the grain and figuring of the wood. The last shot is a piece of 5/8" baltic birch my friend gave me to make the mold with after he ran the uke wood through the jointer. I need some advise on the best way to glue the book matched pieces up - I was thinking using some triangle shims to wedge the sides tight against a straight edge and weight the joint with some steel.....? Also a good way to cut the relief for the rosette without using expensive tooling? Any help greatly appreciated View attachment 85544View attachment 85545View attachment 85546View attachment 85547

Looks good so far, Lou.
You might find a build tip or two that you can use on my uke construction tips page:
http://www.bluestemstrings.com/pageUke1.html

Rudy, I have been perusing your site and plan on using quite a few of your tips - Thanks for the many free drawings as well, especially the radius plans and the nut and bridge drawings !!

Lou

Sounds like you have done your homework and you will produce a fine ukulele Lou... Squaring off your neck block and neck connection rather than doing a radius is going to make your life a lot easier...Gluing up your back and top plates can be done very easily using the "tape method" and elaborate jointing apparatuses are unnecessary IMHO. There are a lot of different ways of doing things and expect to get a lot of conflicting advice. When in doubt stick with the KISS principle... As to putting in a rosette, I've always used elaborate circle cutting router type tools, but I'm told it can be done with a Popsicle stick and razor blade. Good luck with that. Consider doing your uke without a rosette. Very traditional and they can look great. Rosette not absolutely necessary.

Lou, I'm like you in attempting my first build(s) although most of my time so far has been spent building jigs, dishes etc. As for joining the top pieces, I used the method you describe with wedges but just lightly clamped a piece of mdf over the joint to prevent it rising. It worked very well indeed and is simple enough. Just remember to place waxed paper over the glued area to prevent the top sticking to the boards. Mike

Mya Moe has a video up of how they join tops, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCSjGLB8IOc&feature=youtu.be
h

Thanks for sharing that Hms, it is a clever and inexpensive method. I have generally used the stretched masking tape method in the past
Max

Here's how I did it. Two drill bits same diameter as (very thin) rosette. Grind one to a cutting edge, and one to a chisel wedge. I honed them on a diamond sharpening stone. Drilled a hole in a piece of scrap acrylic for the pivot point, and another at a distance from the first equal to the radius of the rosette. With the cutting bit oriented to the outside of the hole, score the outside. Turn the bit 180 and score the inside. Then use the chisel bit to excavate the channel. Go slowly, and it works great.

As my daddy always said, there's more than one way to skin a cat! Although I use Stewmac's circle cutter, it always makes me nervous. Your way seems more controllable.

Bob

Great ideas guys thanks! Mike - I am still deciding on whether to make or buy a dish, leaning towards making one (or two) using the thin MDF and shimming it with lots of screws and spacers (I saw a drawing on here but need to find it again) but yes, I will be making lots of jigs and fixtures as I progress. I really like that glue up station that Hms pointed to on the video but I think I may keep it simple for this first build. I also really like Yank's acrylic rosette tool I think doing it by hand allows much more control and being able to see how it is cutting is a big plus.... plus it looks pretty easy to make, also a big plus. I may try to adapt it to a gramil blade maybe? Anyway speaking of jigs and fixtures I'm going to make my body template today and get started on my mold.

Lou, I made this jig from ideas and templates taken from Rudy's site. The dish is centered in the jig and revolves so multiple passes and much dust later results in a 15' dish. The other side is flat, so both sides can be used.

The details of the spacer/wedges radius dish construction are found at http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=48252&d=1359550555 I think.

Ah yes, that's the one. If you for any reason can't save or open just shoot me an email and I will send it directly to you.

Man you guys are great! I knew this forum would be a great resource but I am so encouraged by the willingness to share and help others to succeed (well, proclaiming success may be a bit premature, but the heart is there). I have a question on the mold - does the amount of the overhanging material add to stability of the mold? I can save a lot of the baltic birch ply I was given if I orient the mold on the short side of the wood but there will only be about 3/8" of material "overhanging" in the neck and heel area of the mold - would that be OK considering there are 3 layers and then I will cap the neck and heel areas with more BB to form the release/connection area of the mold? Thanks!!

Lou

OK - well I decided not to skimp on the mold and just use what I felt was needed, but before that I printed out a couple of the body plans and cut out a few paper templates so I could make the half body shape for fitting the mold. I transferred the half shape to some 1/4" MDF and cut it out on the scroll saw, cleaned it up on my belt/spindle sander and hand sanded it to get it as good as I could.

I then used the half template to create a mold cutting template for the multiple pieces that need to be cut from the baltic birch. Used the band saw and spindle sander again to clean up the cutting template, hand sanded it to fit and it fits great!

Then I started laying out my final mold pieces and instead of drawing them all by hand I just made another template from 1/4" MDF and traced the outline on to my 5/8" baltic birch. Doesn't look like much when you put it all together but it was a good days work for me.... Tomorrow I will cut out the mold pieces and trim with the router, hopefully get some gluing done....

Lou

Well, I haven't been able to work on the uke today - music practice for my worship band went long today and I had a few Honey Do's in between running to Lowes for some router bits and hardware to mount my router to a MDF top. I wanted to ask you guys if three layers of 5/8" Baltic Birch will be thick enough for my mold? The plans show a 2 17/32" side thickness at the heel and 2 15/16" at the neck - so will 1 7/8" total thickness of the mold be OK? The sides need to be proud on the back side for sanding on the radius dish right? Thanks, Lou

Hey, ASAT, I'm doing my first build as well. Maybe we can share experiences and there may be others who are laying in the wings, looking to learn from my rookie mistakes, lol. I am blessed to have a seasoned luthier who has offered to help me learn

Today was Day 2 of my baritone build. I messed up with the first back, so had to get two more resawed pieces from the walnut board and glue them up with a curly maple center piece, per photo. I also added the curly maple binding on the fret board and did some work on the bracing. I'm 16 hours into the build, and a whole lot smarter than I was 2 days ago; but I still messed up my first pass on the bridge bracing. Each day that goes by now, I have greater respect for those masters who post in this arena with their terrific projects.