Day #9

Aloha!

     Today, I worked  on the neck and the tools I used were a dremmel, sandpaper, table saw, and clamps. The first step that you need to do is measure from the top of the neck down 7/16". Do that again at the break angle. Then from the tail blocks, measure 1 inch towards the headstock. From there, measure down 5/8". Now draw a line to connect those dots for guidelines for the thickness of your neck. Don't cut it out yet. Make a line 3/16" from the break angle for the nut line. The heel slots will be 9 and 7/16" (14th fret location)  from the nut line and 8 and 1/2" (12th fret location) from the nut line. Draw lines parallel to the nut line from those marks.Cut the heel slots at a 3 degree angle for the curved sides. The cuts should be 7/8" deep and 1/8" wide.

     Next with your table saw, adjust the blade height to 5/8". Use a test block and make a cut that will go 1/8" before going through the fretboard face. Now, start at the heel slots and cut the heel area closest to you. Make a group of cuts approximately 2" in length towards the headstock. Turn over the neck and repeat what you just did. You will now have an area 3/4" wide at the bottom of the heel. The curve of the cut should end 1/8" from the fretboard face. Cut the height of the heel block to match the head end of the side pieces (2 and 3/4").

     Then, you will draw a center line down the fretboard. The neck width at the nut line will be 1 and 3/8".  The width at the 12th fret location will be 1 and 3/4". Draw the taper with those dimensions. Now, use a jigsaw to cut the thickness of the lines from step one. After that, use the jig saw to cut the taper. Cut just outside the line (1/16" to 2/8") for extra room.

     Draw a center line on the bottom side of your neck from heel to headstock. On the edge of the neck, draw a line 1/8" for the fretboard. Take a chisel and chisel the outside of your heel chiseling a facet toward the base of the heel. Use sandpaper to sand the heel further.

     Now you will attach the ears to the headstock. When you glue them, keep them slightly higher than the headstock and when their dry, you can sand them. Use clamps to hold in place.

(Word of day: Kakahiaka/Morning)

Mahalo!

Day #8

Aloha!

     The second day was great and I made good progress on my ukulele. I used Go-Bar Deck, Go-Bar, a drill, a laminate trimmer, 1/8" straight bit, lever clamps, a circle cutting jig, a scraper, and a circle cutting work board. The first thing I did was glue the braces to the backboard. Now I used weights and just put them on, but Go-Bars work great when you are gluing the braces on. Since you have already pre-cut the tone bars out, this process shouldn't take long accept for the drying of course. The next part is adding the 3 grafts which serve as reinforcement for the braces. They are about 3/8" by 4 or 5 inches long. Be careful with the grafts because they can break easily. Before gluing them on, take some sandpaper and bevel the sides of a all three grafts.

     The grafts go in between bars one and two and between two and three. The last graft will go between the third bar and about 3/4" from the bottom of your backboard to leave room for the tail block. The grafts go down the center line and if needed, try drawing a line down the center of the backboard to ensure you place them correctly. Next, we have to scallop the braces to reduce the mass a little more. Start by marking a distance of 1 and 1/2" from the outline of the ukulele towards the center of the bars. On the lower bout bar, it is 2". Then chisel down the ends of the braces but do not reduce the length. They are intentionally left long to help assemble the uke later. After that is done, you can add a label for your uke in between brace 1 and 2 on the center line. The sound hole lies right above it on the soundboard and you will be able to see the label once the uke is finished.

     Now taking the soundboard, you need to drill a hole at the center of where the sound hole will go. Make sure you do this correctly and use your blueprints to check. Place the soundboard on an index pin fixed to a work board. Cut a 3 inch diameter using a band saw. Start from the top of the channel and work clockwise. Then, clean up the rosette channel with sandpaper. Using a strip of about 10" long, carefully bend and install the strip into the channel. It's okay if the top portion has nothing because the fretboard will cover up about an inch of the top. Use a 4 x 4 piece of plywood and place it over the rosette design. Then, clamp it up until dry.

     Take your soundboard with the template side up. For this part, you'll need two upper bars and waist horizontal bars, your sound hole patch, and your bridge patch. Place the upper and waist bars on their proper locations according to the template. Now, take your sound hole patch and find its center line. The piece should be 4" x 2 and 3/4" inches. Draw a center line at the 2" mark and square it. The patch should go in between the upper and waist bars to use as a spacer. Glue all of the bars and put weights or use a Go-Bar until they dry. The sound hole patch isn't glued yet. Take the bridge patch (4" x 1") and draw a horizontal line 1/4" below the top edge and parallel. Align the path along the center line of the soundboard.

Next, make a gluing caul for the soundboard and bridge patch, just a little smaller than the actual pieces. Glue the patch in place and put on weights. After that has dried, take your three tone bars and notch them to fit accordingly with the patches. Then glue them down and put weights or use the Go-Bars. They should dry for about an hour. After that, you will need to scallop the tone bars just like before. They should be scalloped to about 1/16".

(Word of the day: Pali/Cliff or steep hill)

Mahalo!

Day #7

Aloha!

     So today was the first day of building the ukulele and it was exciting. For today, I used a drill, sandpaper, a sanding block, a metal ruler, some scissors, and some clamps. To start off with building your ukulele, it is a good idea to have some kind of blueprint of template for your ukulele. You need a template for the back outline ans the inside outline. Once you have had them printed out, cut out the outline of the template to be used throughout this project. The cut needs to be as accurate and as clean as possible in order for the a better quality ukulele.

     Next, find a nice piece of wood that is flat and cut the thickness in half to have to identical boards. Then, place them side by side so that the grains reflect each other, preferably with the stiffer close-grain lines on the inside where the most stress will be. To join the plates, take one side of your matched pair and sand the edge you will be putting glue on. Only sand forward three or four times and do the same with the other piece. There shouldn't be a gap when you press the boards together. After the glue has dried and the boards have been sanded, you can draw the outlines to your ukulele from your templates. When the boards are drying (for about an hour), put some kind of weight that if flat  and heavy onto the board to keep it from moving. Don't forget to put wax paper under your boards so they don't stick to you work bench or table.

     Carefully remove the weights after an hour and check out your boards. Now, you need to make sure that the joint sides are flat. Always sand from the high side to low side until you get an even surface (It doesn't need to be perfect right now, just flat). To check, run your fingernail down the center line for any problems. After you have the sand boards, you can draw your templates on them. After you trace the templates freehand and outline of about 1/4" from the actual outline on the outsides for both plates. After you have you outlines, you will need to mark up brace locations using either your template of the Internet if yours doesn't have any shown.

     Now, you will need to create eight tone bars in total, three for the back and five for the soundboard. Be sure to cut the brace bars half and inch too big in order to leave room for sanding down. It is best to try and sand down the bars into triangular shapes to keep the strength while reducing the weight of your ukulele. Use your template to see where the bars go and what lengths they need to be.

     Finally moving away from the boards, we will now start to work on the neck of the ukulele. To start building the neck, the scarf joint needs to be cut at 15 degrees. The neck is composed of wood lengths of approximately 3/4" x 2" x 17 to 18 inches for the neck. There are also two blocks that are 3/4" x 1/2" x 5" which will be for the ears. The last block is 2" x 3/4" x 2 3/4". We will cut about 5" from the front end to make the headstock angle. A neck scarf jig or a band saw are fine for making this cut. Now, the blocks come into to play. The first thing that you need to do is glue the first block to the second block (these are the two with the same measurements). Then, clamp them to a table to prevent them from moving. Lastly, clamp the third block to the other two. It helps if the first two are already dried and be sure to put wax paper under to catch any excess glue.

     Next, clamp a stop block or piece of scrap wood to the heel end of the neck to keep the two pieces from sliding. Another stop block should be put at the head end of the neck as well. Make sure you put a piece of newspaper under the joint before gluing. Glue both of the parts and put them back in their place. Before gluing on the heel blocks, makes sure that if the neck is put on its side, it is flat and doesn't rock. The same goes for the heel blocks (sand if needed). From where the neck break angle is, measure 3/16" toward the heel end. Then square a line which will be parallel with the neck break. In between the two is where the nut will go. From the line you just made, measure 9 and 7/16" down to the heel. Square that and draw a line across the neck and down the edges of the neck.

     Now from one end of your heel blocks, measure 1 and 1/4". Square this line around the entire block. The longer half of the block will go in the interior of the ukulele as support for the body. Once you have your heel blocks aligned with the 14th or 12th fret, glue both surfaces and attach the blocks to the neck. Don't forget wax paper and clamp them together.

I know that was a lot for one day, but that was the biggest part from the whole project so don't worry. I will keep you posted!

(Word of the day: Hoaloha/Friend)

Mahalo!

Day #6

Aloha!

     Hey everybody! I just wanted to let you know that the reason why I haven't posted a blog in a few days was because I have been setting up my garage to build my ukulele. I actually found out that I had some Cuban mahogany wood from when I used to live in Cuba so I am going to be using it for the project. My parents already have lots of tools and saws for me to use in the project but we probably still need more tools and you might too.

     So be aware that I'm finally starting! Each day that I do work, I will post a blog and put pictures on there so you can see what I did. I'm looking forward to starting it and I hope you are as well.

(Word of the day: Hale/House)

Mahalo!

Day #5

Aloha!

     Today I'm going to be talking a little more about the ukulele and the types of wood to use for building one.

     For starters, there is no best wood per se because each type makes a different sound. It really all depends on which sound you like best. Harder woods are better for ukes than soft wood that might break easily. Some of the more common types of wood use for ukes are: Mahogany, Koa, Cedar, Mango, Spruce, Maple, and some other less common woods.

     Mahogany has a good finish and nice grain while also bringing a balance of sound and bass to the uke. It also isn't too expensive and has a darker color. Koa is the Hawaiian wood that is used in outrigger canoes, weapons, bowls, etc. It is a very expensive wood only found in Hawaii with a very nice finish and an amazing sound. Cedar, found usually in acoustic guitars, has more of a plain finish and sounds okay. However, it is a lot cheaper than wood like koa and can be found anywhere. Mango wood has a nice bright orange color and is a very sustainable wood choice. Spruce can be found on many ukuleles, but usually only on the top with mahogany sides. It is a very hard wood with a pale-yellow finish used for many other instruments. It doesn't have as much bass as mahogany does though. And lastly, maple is a very hard wood that chosen for its appearance and resilience.

     No matter which wood you choose, they all make beautiful sounds. If you are unsure about which wood you want to use, try watching videos online of different woods or visit a music store that might sell ukes. I'm not sure which wood I'm going to use yet but, I'll let you know!

(Word of the day: Honu/Turtle)

Mahalo!