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I've accumulated a fair amount of scrap wood from my first few guitar builds and I've decided to build some ukulele's with all of it. I'm in the midst of building a baritone ukulele at the moment, and I used a couple of cracked mahogany sides on it. Don't worry, he cracks were not severe and I figured the crack on the upper bout on the upward facing side could be hidden by adding a side sound. I don't know if this is an acceptable addition to a ukulele, but I'm just doing this one for fun! Anyway, I decided to make an oval side sound port, but I'm having trouble achieving an acceptable result. I laid in a cross grain piece on the inside and I cut out the basic oval shape, but I'm having trouble getting it perfectly rounded and smooth looking. Any tips or tricks anyone has would be very helpful. Thanks folks.

Use the drawing function of the wordprocessing or presentation software if you have it to draw an oval shape sized to your liking. You'll then have a template to work from which you can tape to your instrument in your chosen location.

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Peter

Much like Peter said. I draw the shape on the computer then I glue it on the side where I want it with dilute fish glue. I route out inside close to the line then use 80 grit sticky-back sandpaper wrapped around suitably shaped sticks to sand to the line and get the shape right. Take your time and it should work out just fine. I've posted these before but maybe they'll help.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Ah, I think the sticks with sandpaper attached may be the solution for me. Filippo, it is the rounding of the shape that I'm having trouble with. I did in fact use a printed out shape and a router to get close to the final shape. I just didn't know if there was any special technique for rounding out the final shape. Thanks guys.

Good tips guys, thanks.