My Cairns Uke Festival Build

[Allen]

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"Originally Posted on:"Sun Mar 14, 2010 ""

Time I got my build underway, after getting my shed sorted out a little, and deciding on what I was going to do. So it's going to be a Concert size made from Indian Rosewood back and sides, with a Bear Claw Sitka top. New Guinea Rosewood neck, and haven't decided on the binding scheme.

First up was the top. I wanted to continue with exploring lattice bracing, and using the CF tow over and under some Paulownia. This top I took down to 1.0 mm in the lower bout all the way up to the waist. Did this in my drum sander, cranking up the drum as the top got to the waist. The upper bout is 2.5 mm.

I made a work board that has a dish shape carved out of the lower bout, to give it a dome. About 2 mm deep at the bridge. The rest of the top will be flat.

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Here you can see the spool of CF tow, and I've peeled off enough to lay a trip on top of each of the lattice members. I had already laid up the lattice with the CF on the bottom and glued to the top. The lattice was shaped to somewhat of a mountain shape. The area directly under the bridge is 5.2 mm tall, and falls away from there out to just a layer of CF at the perimeter.

It's difficult to get an idea of how much flex there is in the top, because without the CF on the top to stiffen it up, it's all a bit of a guess.

Anyway I wrap the CF around those screws on the bit of MDF and smear some epoxy over the strands. It wets out very easily, but it's a bit messy. Have to use gloves and unwrap a bit then cut to length. and very carefully lay it on top of a lattice member and smooth it out as best you can. Proceed until all the lattice has a layer. I also added the transverse brace at this time. Used epoxy as well as I had it on the go.

Then it's just a matter of putting a piece of cling film over the epoxy and applying vacuum.

One thing I've discovered is that a little epoxy goes a very long way under vacuum. There is just no way to do a clean up of squeeze out, so it's going to be a bit of a learning curve to use just enough, but not too much.

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Once dry it looks like this. You might have noticed that I've extended the soundboard area up higher than what you'd get with a standard soundhole in the centre. I'll be cutting sound holes latter in the corners of the upper bout.


With the top only 1 mm thick it's still very stiff in the lower bout. After it's cured for a few days, it has a nice ring to it.

Next is the neck. I make mine as 3 piece necks with a scarf joint. Heres how I go about it.

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First up I've dimensioned some stock that is 13 mm x 50 mm. I then set up my miter gauge at 15 degrees with an auxiliary fence to hold the stock square and stable. Adjust for the cut and then it's just a matter of running it past the blade.

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While I was doing machine set up I decided I might as well make 4.

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Scarf joints were glued up one day and Heel blocks were glued on the next. I was running out of clamps to do both steps on 4 necks.

While the necks were still just 50 mm wide I then cut the slots in the heel to accept the sides. I've got a small blade that cuts a 1.8 mm kerf. Just right for fairly stiff ukulele sides like I want.

I set the blade at 7 degrees and the depth that I want. The fence is used with a spacer block so there won't be any binding of the work piece and the blade when using the sliding table or a miter gauge against the fence. All kinds of bad things will happen should you attempt to do this without the spacer block.

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My sliding table accepts the miter gauge at either end, so once the first cut was made on all 4 necks, I transfered the miter gauge to the other end so that the flat, fret board side of the neck blank will sit against the miter gauge, and did the other 4 cuts.

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All done.

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On to glueing on the ears for the peg head.

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Once dry I thickness the peg head to 8 mm. This will allow me to add a back strap and peg head veneer and still keep the overall thickness at 12 mm or a bit less.

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I do this gradually by pushing it under the end of my belt sander with an adjustable tilt sled. Goes pretty quick with NGR though.

I shaped the heel at the Woodworkers guild, so don't have a picture of that.

As this is a Spanish Heel style of neck, I need to cut a ledge in what is the neck block so that the top will sit flush with the plane of the neck. I do this with may laminate trimmer.

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The heel must be shaped and sanded up smooth and a bit of the neck as well, as this is very difficult to do once the sides have been attached. More pictures of that to follow as I got a bit carried away with wanting to get things glued together today and forgot to take a picture.

The end block was something I always had done by hand previous to Jeff Highlands post in the Jigs section, and a tip from Dominic about using a Sine Table. So this morning I went about making my own. Don't have a clue if it's like anyone else's but it did the trick for me.

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I built a table that rides in the miter slot of my disk sander. Then fashioned another jig that rides on top of this table. The part that says Concert Uke is only screwed on, so it can be swapped out for another shape. The curved fence rides up against the guide rail on the Sine Table.

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The large fence is at 90 degrees, and I've marked off the centre so it's easy to place the block that I want to shape. The heel block is held in place with some double sided tape.

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And it works so bloody slick that I'm kicking myself that I didn't build one years ago. Made 4 end blocks in less than 2 minutes. Most of that time was spent with the double sided tape.

Lights fading and glue is drying, so more to follow as progress is made.

[liam_fnq]

top work allen, i suppose i'll have to get my arse into gear if i'm going to get one built for the festival.

Back to top

[ozziebluesman]

Allen, that Ukulele design is pretty innovative! I love the way you think up such great jigs to aide your building process. Look forward to watching this one grow.

Cheers

Alan

[jeffhigh]

Allen,
Does that jig accurately reproduce the Pattern?
It seems to me that it would increase the radius from the pattern by the distance of the fence from the disc face.
I have seen a design for this that just had a narrow fence right next to the disc face (formed by an aluminium angle)

[Allen]

I took the end block and held it in my body mould to check the fit. It's the same mould that I traced a line on the piece of plywood that I used on the bottom of the jig.

The end block fits perfectly.

I couldn't say one way or the other if it changes the size. Perhaps it does, but on such a small piece it makes no difference.

I think I understand what you are getting at. The guide rail might be better right up close to the disk, rather than back above the miter slot. Like I said. not ever having seen a sine table before or a demo of how one works this is what I came up with.

[jeffhigh]

Probably makes bugger all difference on the fairly flat centre section you are using.
On my current project, I have a 15" radius on the tailblock and I would be concened that the offset would end up giving me 18" or so.
Yeah a guide rail right up at the disk would be the way to go.
A great way to do it though

[Allen]

Got a bunch of assembly done in the last couple of days. It goes really quick once you have the components made.

The sides were thicknessed to 1.8 mm and are a tight slip fit into the slots cut into the neck. The hot hide glue helps lubricate them and once dry are rock solid.

I glue up the rims to the neck and heel block first, then set the top onto my work board that has a centre line, body outline and neck outline penciled on to keep everything aligned. I used my kerfed linings like tentalones, glueing them in to the top and sides one piece at a time, as the CF that runs under the rims has just enough hight to make putting in the linings in one piece and having a good glue joint not an option. With the hide glue it still goes very quick, and was actually really relaxing. Giving me lots of time to make sure everything was just as I wanted it.

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The linings for the back were done in small streches with hide glue as well, and after a nights drying I profiled the back in my 15' radius dish. The back plate has been glued up in that dish with Red Spruce braces.

The inside has bee sealed with a couple thin coats of shellac, label installed and top signed.

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And you can see that the lower bout is just oh so thin.

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And a few minutes later after the photos, the back is on and drying.



You might notice that I've got a shim under the neck at the nut end to give the neck a bit of a set in order to get the action that I want with the domed soundboard. Doing this flexes the sides just a tiny bit, but once the back is on it, everything is set.

[Allen]

The box is closed and I made up some Blackwood bindings from some packing material that came along with an order from Tim a while ago. That man does treat me well.

Glued on some BWB prufs to the bottom of the bindings with hide glue. Here's how I do it.

Granite slab as the base with another granite slab as a fence, with a piece of perspex to squeeze the pieces together. You don't have to clamp too hard. Just bring the pieces together firmly for about 10 minutes. Then set aside to dry overnight.

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I bend these dry with blanket and form.

End graft is inlaid first, then once dry it's levered and I cut the binding channels. I do an initial cut the depth of the binding less the purfling, then follow up with a cut the full depth of the binding plus purfling but stop just short of the end graft.

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Then I cut the mitres on the purflings with a very sharp chisel. Fit my bindings and glue everything together with more hide glue.

Bindings have been scraped and leveled, and heel cap is now installed.

[Allen]

The next thing to do is make some more of my head stock logo's, and while it's not a big deal, some might like to see the process.

I print out the pattern and cut with a scaple, and glue to my stock, then cut with a fret saw very carefully splitting the line as best I can.

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Same process for all 3 pieces. Then I sandwich black veneer between the pieces. Slathered with hot hide glue and clamped up good and tight.

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Have to let it dry over night. Then trim it up and slice off pieces. I can get 4 or 5 out of one tile usually.

And the instrument is ready for the inlay and then the pore filling.

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Should have the first coat of lacquer going on this coming weekend.

[Allen]

Well, life got in the way of best laid plans, and I just managed to get the first coat of lacquer on today, along with another uke.

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Here's some of the tiles that I managed to slice off that block.

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Inlaid with the bwb purfling and set with some epoxy. Scraped flat the next day.

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I didn't include this picture originally, but it's how I make my back strips. 45 degree saw kerf run through some mdf and then cut my back strip pieces to width. Then run through the drum sander to put the bevel on the edges. Simple as, and I use the bits of off cuts from the tops.

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Hanging in the breeze. The second uke is made from the same piece of Rosewood, along with another lattice braced spruce top. Cocobolo bindings on it.

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And this is the festival uke with it's first coats of lacquer.

[jb2060]

Hi Allen, That is a fantastic design. Watching your builds makes me want to build a Uke. Well done....Jason

[Allen]

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Well, this one is finally done and strung up. Been tweaking it for a couple of days and it's getting to where I want it. Will let it settle for a while and give it some playing in, but I don't think it's going to need much more.

Here's the pictures for those that are interested.

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[Luke]

Looks fantastic Allan as all your builds. How is the volume compared to your more trad type uke's?

[Allen]

Volume up close seems just a bit loader. My wife says that the projection seems more. The instrument has only had it's strings on full time for 2 days now, and it's still settling in. Tone is developing and improving daily. At the outset it was all a very "dirty" sound. Lots of stuff happening and no focus. That's really improved dramatically now, and I expect it to develop further.

At the end of the day, it's an awefull lot of extra work and only the market place will decide if it was time well spent in some respects. Though the learning curve on something like this where the monetary outlay isn't all that great is invaluable.

The soundboards seem to hold a nice even shape even though they are very thin, whereas on other ukes that I've built and others I've seen you notice brace mapping showing on the top.

I've got 3 more that have been tweaked just a little bit from this one in the pipe line. Should have strings on all of them within 2 weeks, so I'll see if there is any improvement with the small changes I was making to the height of the bracing.

One is a tenor, and I didn't change the height of the bracing compared to the concert size, thinking that the larger lower bout would need a little more. It does tap nicely so we'll see.

[DarwinStrings]

Nice to see the experiments going well Allen, nice looking end result too.

Jim

[Allen]

I had to make this one extra shinny, since it's going to be scrutinised pretty intently by a bunch of pissed luthiers. Makes taking pictures very difficult though.

[Kim]

Allen wrote:

I had to make this one extra shinny, since it's going to be scrutinised pretty intently by a bunch of pissed luthiers. Makes taking pictures very difficult though.

Very nice work as always Al.

Does your comment mean that I should expect my plane ticket in the mail??

Cheers

Kim

[Lillian]

She's a beaut, that's for sure. Any chance of getting a sound bit once its all settled in?

[Allen]

I don't have any recording equipment other than the mic in my laptop Lillian. Have tried using it before but it's really crap. I hope to rectify that soon. I might be able to get something when the festival is on.

[Lillian]

Allen wrote:

I don't have any recording equipment other than the mic in my laptop Lillian. Have tried using it before but it's really crap. I hope to rectify that soon. I might be able to get something when the festival is on.

Cool. I look forward to it.

[Allen]

I've finally got all the instruments that I had planned for the Cairns Uke Festival strung up now. Been a tremendous amount of work and a great learning curve.

I won't bother with showing you all of the details of the others, but each has been modified in only the bracing of the lattice in the lower bout. I've taken each subsuqueant instrument just a bit less in height of the lattice at it's peak just underneath the bridge.

It's hard to say if there is much difference in volume or tone in them, other than the Tenor is really my favourite. The concerts are all loud and even that can be played with a delicate touch or driven hard. And is what I was hoping for, but it may be that they are still over braced a bit, and haven't got to that "sweet spot". Whereas the Tenor being a larger instrument with the same height of lattice as the lightest built concert instrument really shines.

I posted the Tenor over in the Gallery.

Anyway, this is what I've been up to amongst heaps of other things these last few months.

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[Nick]

You've out done yourself mate! They are absolutely gorgeous Allen.
A full 5 Borats sir.

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v

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[Allen]

You crack me up Nick. Thanks for the 10 thumbs up.

[Lillian]

Though I'm not a fan of Borat, I have to agree with Nick on this one. You have out done yourself. Now I really want to hear them.

Those are going to be a great inspiration for your class.

Nice tat too.

[moorebettahukes]

Very impressive Allen. I've always been tempted to try a lattice top.
Your finishes also seem to be exquisite. Can I ask you what you are shooting? I've used up the last of my McFadden nitro and have been trying to find a lacquer that is as nice to use. So far Mohawk seems to be working OK.
Very nice work! Aloha, Chuck