StewMac ukulele kit build

beerbelly

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I ordered a StewMac tenor ukulele kit in mahogany at my friend's request, as a gift for his daughter. It arrived today, double boxed & well packed, with a comprehensive instruction manual.

They recommended purchasing 4 of their small cam clamps ($20 each), but I decided to see if there were any DIY options online (many), so I built 4 of my own. Here are photos of the kit and the clamps, and I'll update this thread as I go.
 

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This should be a ton of fun! I have one almost finished (weather willing I’ll be done this weekend. I’ve said that a few times before though)

Based on your SG build you shouldn’t have any trouble with this one. Are you planning to make it yourself or with your friend and his daughter? At you going do it straight or to make some modifications?

--Rob
 
Arcy, let us know how it turns out and if you have any advice you learned after the build. My friend wants me to build this as a surprise for his daughter, and he may want to personalize it with some small graphics, but no major mods.

After reading the instructions twice, I got started today. Kind of eased into it, gluing in the rosette purfling and the back bracing. My clamps work great.
 

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My build thread is over here: https://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?141244-StewMac-Tenor-Kit-Build

Most of the problems were of my own making - I have a second, solid-wood kit waiting and deliberately pushed myself to learn / test / experiment on this one. Not worrying about perfection and just going for it's been good for me, even if there've been a few high frustration moments (mostly just that it's taking me way longer than I'd hoped). I expect the second one to go much better so long as I don't forget everything I learned on this one before I can get back to it!
 
So I wasn't really happy with the kit's giant green rubber band solution for clamping the top, back & sides together. I thought spool clamps would be a better idea, but I can't afford StewMacs prices. So I went online & found some DIY ideas and made my own.

I realized I had some of the parts needed- a 1x6 pine board, a 1-1/2" hole saw with a 1/4" pilot bit, some sheet cork used for making gaskets for my old car, and a small drill press. Using the hole saw, I drilled out (40) pine plugs (which also had a perfectly centered 1/4" hole), and 40 cork plugs. I went to the local ACE hardware & bought (20) 1/4" x 5" carriage bolts, (20) washers and (20) wing nuts. Carriage bolts have a square nut cast under the head to prevent turning once they're pounded into wood, so I took half the wood plugs & pounded the bolts into them. Then I stacked wood plug/cork/wood plug/cork etc. & chucked them in my drill press. I used a sanding board to smooth them into (40) matching clamp pieces, and then disassembled the stacks into individual clamps & glued the cork to the wood.

All the ACE parts totaled $17.60. If you don't have one, a 1-1/2" hole saw & 1/4" pilot bit is around $20, and a drill clamped in a vise could be used instead of a drill press.

Here's a few photos of the process:
 

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...also got all the internal bracing glued up today:
 

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Nice work. It's always fun to see someone getting into building and enjoying it!
 
Heck of a job on the cam and spool clamps. Enjoy the build; my first uke was an SM tenor kit.
 
I made the body jig yesterday; easy. But the sides of the ukulele wouldn't fit by a long shot; way oversize. So, I read the directions again, and find that often you'll need to trim some excess off of the 4 ends to allow them to fit in the jig. That's today's project.
 

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"You'll need to trim some excess off of the 4 ends to allow them to fit in the jig"

I've built seven ukes from Stew Mac kits and that's exactly right. Concentrate on getting the joint perfect at the lower end of the body, where it will be exposed. The neck end of the body will have the seam covered by the neck joint, of course, so that is not critical.

John Colter.
 
Good to know I didn't get a wacky kit John, and I plan on doing just as you suggest.
 
Well, I'm not a big fan of the body jig as it turns out.

It worked good to determine how much to trim off the ends of the sides, but as a gluing jig, not so much. My issue was that the tail and neck blocks have a slight radius, which I assume the sides should follow when being glued. My problem was that when I tightened my clamps on the jig, there were gaps on either side of the block centers- the clamp 'wanted' the surfaces to glue flat, not curved. It could be that I needed even more clamps, although the instructions & photos don't mention that. I ended up gluing the blocks & sides together without the jig, using every clamp and all the patience & verbal restraint I could muster. But the seams look really good so far; I'll know more tomorrow when I remove the clamps.
 

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I think the seams turned out pretty good considering not using the body jig:
 

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Glueing the linings, a real clamp-o-rama. My cam clamps are really coming in handy.
 

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Linings installed; starting to take shape.
 

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No bindings for this one; it's just a basic first-time build per the instructions.
 
Edges of body sanded flat & parallel, and front & back bracing shaped to nice peaks today:
 

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