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Aloha!

I just got back from a productive trip to the islands. It was great and I got to see many handmade Ukes of great quality. So I (like so many) now have been bitten by the Uke bug. I want to build a few ukes.

It appears some builders make the sides out of one continuious piece of wood and others our of two pieces. Does anyone have a picture of there bending jigs for ukes? I use a fox bender for my archtops, but obviously its way to big for a uke. So I will probably need to build a smaller jig of some sort.

Anyone?

Thanks,

Joe D

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Joe

Hi Joe,

I, too, recently returned from a trip to Hawaii, and was bitten by the Ukulele bug. However, being a guitar-building newbie, and not wanting to tool up at this point, I ordered a tenor kit from Tim at Australian Tonewoods (as well as a mold).

Sorry I didn't have a response, but I do look forward to any

Glenn

Joe,
I've built a few of them. I basically built it just like a guitar. The first one was a concert uke, and I used a butt joint with one bolt. The second is a soprano uke, and just a mortise and tenon glued. My mold is actually the side bender. when you cut the mold out, just do it very carefully , and use the inside cut out of the mold as the press to bend the sides. I just soaked the sides for 20 min, then made a sandwich of metal slat/blanket/side/metal and had wrapped the sides in brown craft paper, then let them heat until it started to steam. I then just pushed the inside mold piece against the outside mold piece and used a few quick grips to hold it tight. Unplugged the blanket and let it cool. No spring back at all. Below is a pic of the outside mold. Here I just trim what it sticking out on my bandsaw, then glue in the blocks. I don't have pics of the bend process with me, but can post some later. Forgot to mention that I offer Radius Dishes for Ukulele backs here:
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com/products/p4.html

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Tracy
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com

This is how David Hurd did it:

http://www.ukuleles.com/BuildingHowTo/sidebend.html

I completed 4 tenors last year...martin plans, Hanalima for tuners, strings, misc.

side bending?-I used my standard guitar homemade 'fox bender' but needed to cut a few corners off to accomodate the smalller plan of the uku....
bracing?-modified....
neck?- butt joint w/dowel
woods- one piece front and back (makes the centerline a bit more of a challenge..there is no reference line), 2 piece sides.

Very similar to steel string guitar construction and methods for me...binding, rosette, purfling, end graft, etc.etc.

Ricardo may have some tips....

Hi fellas. I browse here a bit, but don't say a lot.

This was my first uke bending jig. I don't like the shape anymore, so I won't use it again. I'll let the spiders have it now.



I've made 2 others similar that don't have all the dowels and filler in them. I can smell that epoxy putty from just thinking about it.

I reckon I spent an hour digging out each of those triangular holes with a 3/4" chisel. Now I use a spade bit drill and make a round hole, and my latest jigs have just one caul on the lower bout, two on the upper and two at the waist.

Cheers Hip.

Here's a pic of a bender roughly patterned after the Hanalima one. You can get a plan for it from hamalima.

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A higher purpose for wood.
Rich Smith
Issaquah, WA