Shop made uke sized vacuum bridge clamp

[Chris_H]

Made this today.. this is the first run. It seems to work very well.

It is made from richlite, which is a phenolic bonded compressed paper material that machines like very, very hard wood, more like metal or plastic, and a piece of vacuum membrane as sold by LMI. This took about 1.5 hours to make. The brass fitting that fits into the vacuum bag sitting under the towel, (the little round fitting at the corner of the jig) happened to fit one of my drill bits exactly, with the little bit of rubber membrane between the layers, acting as a gasket on the fitting. I use a Vacupress pump, it is set to pull between 25 and 23 in/hg, I believe. The brass fitting is standard with their vacuum system. The joining side of the jig wqas sanded on a radiused block to match the radius of the uke top. I will have to make a smaller version when I start making sopranos. The uke in the pic is a concert.

Vacuum pressing is handy..


This is my first complete uke nearly finished. Waiting on strings now..

A small router bit was used to cut away the lacquer, very easy and fast. HHG was used to fix the bridge. Time to go back downstairs and check for squeezeout. Cheers!

 

[Chris_H]

I pulled the clamp at about 30 minutes, cleaned up a few tiny little bits of squeezeout, clamp back on. Nice! probably could have pulled the clamp at 20 minutes for slightly easier cleanup. There was very little cleanup, this was a breeze.

 

[Chih-Wei Liu]

Much nicer than mine! Which was made of titebond-filled plywood.

 

[Heidi Litke]

Very nice, would you be interested in making one for me to purchase? A second one always comes out even better as I know you would be modifying it. It would be great to have one that will do all sizes of uke's. If you would be interested, let me know. Cheers! Heidi

 

[Liam Ryan]

What kind of router bit to you use to remove the lacquer?

 

[Chris_H]

Heidi, contact me through my website www.woodsongaudio.com email is the most efficient way to communicate for me. I cannot make this for a while, if you want one, as I am really busy right now, but, if you can wait, I can do it. It is not difficult to make.

I use a 0.125" spiral downcut bit, I think it came from Stew Mac. It is in a Dotco pencil grinder in a base I built from 2 pieces of 1/2" thick acrylic, a couple of 1/4-20 screws, some knurled knobs, and a set screw to secure the grinder. This tool also cuts for inlay, mates with the Stew Mac rosette cutter, notches the linings for braces, etc. It spins at 60,000 rpm, so tearout is not an issue at all. It is super smooth to operate. I think it was Chuck that suggested trimming the lacquer with a router in a postsomewhere in another thread, and I guess that many others use it also. The technique works really well, and fast.