Inspired by Circuits and Strings travel ukulele builds on Youtube and my chronic itch to play a musical instrument while at work during “not so busy” days
Because I cant bring my guitars to work with me and I want to play something with minimal volume and I love DIY stuff especially wood work related, I share with you my first handmade travel uke
I couldnt find a place that retails hardwood here in UAE so it was quite frustrating at first until I saw this chapati/roti maker (Indian bread) at a local supermarket. I’m not sure what wood it is but it is hard
The chapati maker was a little over 12” in diameter so I had to take the middle part of it to make the neck
I printed a template of a soprano neck from the net
Squared all the sides after cutting the neck blank and a sharp bench plane iron is key to success. I spent more time sharpening my irons and chisels on this build than actually carving and shaping the whole uke
I didnt have a razor saw or an actual fret saw so very carefully, I cut the fret slots with my cheapo coping saw
Hammered the frets into the slots with a mallet from Daiso and cut to length using an old clipper. Since the cut is not flush to the edge of the neck using the clipper I used my needle file to file the frets flush to the edge
I dont have a lot of proper tools for this build so I made use of what I have... needle files and chisel and a lot of time to shape the neck
Filed the frets ends crowned the frets
Cut the sides from the remaining pieces of the chapati maker
I glued the sides to the neck and used dowels for extra strength. Also glued a 1/8” piece of pine as the back of the uke
Cut a piece from the chapati maker left over to serve as a bridge
Carefully filed the saddle slot. I ended up planing the bridge after it was glued to the body since the action was too high
Carving the slots for the bridge
Glued the bridge on the body and you can see the string guide at the butt of the uke. I salvaged a baby’s crib from the trash last week and the string guide is from the wooden rails of the crib, not sure what wood it is but it is hard too. I drilled a hole at the center of thw cylindrycal string guide and attached a bolt with a nut to it. i inserted the bolt with the nut part into my cordless drill’s chuck and it became my poorman’s lathe so I can make the grooves as uniform as possible
After a lot of sanding,I installed the bone nut and saddle and Grover friction tuners
And here she is, strung with Aquila Nylgut strings
I didnt put any finish on it yet since Im still researching that part. Maybe you guys can give me an advice. I played it for a bit and it sounded okay
loud enough for my taste
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