Category Archives: Wood

We've done a little more work on Carter's desk. It's got a top now, and the desk is assembled. It still needs paint - hopefully that will happen this weekend. The wood stacked up on the tablesaw behind the desk is for the cubbies that will go on the desk - they're all cut and ready for assembly - they just need a bit of sanding first. Hopefully we'll get to that this weekend too.

Carter and I have started building a desk to go under her loft bed. This weekend we got the legs and apron built, and the glue is drying out in the garage as I type. Next up is the top, and once that is done we're going to build a cubby unit for storage of her scrapbooking and art supplies. It's built from construction grade lumber, just like her bed. We'll whitewash the base, but she wants to paint the inside of each cubby a different color. Should look cool when it's done! We'll try to post pics as the project progresses.

This was another travel ukulele I built recently. It sounds really good, but I've got mixed feelings about the lack of headstock and its replacement by the zither pins at the tail end. The zither pins are more of a pain to tune (although truthfully, not much) - but I think it's the lack of a headstock that I find the hardest to adjust to. I hadn't realized how much of my 'intuitive' sense of where I am on the fretboard (without looking, I mean) depends on the feel of the neck as it transitions from the end of the neck proper into the back of the headstock. With this travel uke my hand slides up the neck looking for this transition, and I just sort of almost slide right off the top end. Still, I prefer the look and sound of this one over the travel banjolele a couple of posts back.

Well, I tried the changes I talked about in the last post - plus a few others. I made a new nut and floating bridge to space the strings out a little further, lowered the action a bit, and crowned the bridge a lot more sharply. Those changes definitely made the difference! It sounds much better now. Surprisingly loud for such a small instrument, too. All the strings ring nice and clear now. I've got another 'travel size' ukulele coming together in the workshop as we speak - a wooden one this time. It remains to be seen which will be better suited to traveling with me. I may be taking a work-related trip in the near future, so I will bring one of them along with me as a test.

This project was an attempt to build a 'travel-sized' (soprano) banjolele that I could take with me when I go backpacking or when I travel for work. it takes the same aluminum cake pan approach as the larger banjolele I made last year, only this time I painted the pans black. The neck is made of walnut. On the back of the resonator I painted a sort of octopus/kraken thing - it's got ten legs, so if I call it an octopus someone is going to call me out on it (heh). It still needs a few tweaks - I'm getting a few buzzes on a couple of strings, and I think I need to crown my saddle a little more sharply to get the strings to ring clean. But with a few adjustments it should be good to go!

Carter asked me to help her work on her cigar box uke the past couple of weekends - she didn't want to wait for the boys. We actually finished hers up yesterday - it came out really good! She's very proud of it.

I made my own cigar box uke before the kids started theirs, to figure out how they would go together and which parts the kids could do themselves. I finished it a few weeks ago but forgot to post a picture of it - so here ya go! For fun I ended up mixing tuner sets and inlaying a few coins in the fingerboard. It actually sounds half decent, too!

I've been looking a longer-term project to build with the kids, as they've really taken an interest in joining me in the shop these last few months. Guitar box ukuleles seemed like a perfect fit - easy to build, and very forgiving of mistakes. My nephew Ryan showed an interest in joining us too. We got started last weekend - there is still a lot to do on them, but for a first session it went pretty well.

I finished the wiring and assembly of the electric ukulele over the weekend. The first time I tried it I heard nothing - which was a letdown. Turns out I had a few minor problems with the wiring, and they were easy to fix. It sounds great! I've still got some adjustments to make to the action and the intonation, but she is essentially done! Came out looking real nice, if I do say so myself!

I worked on the pickguard over the weekend. I decided to go with a Lexan pickguard, as the 'standard' pickguard material I had ordered was just too thin - mostly because I didn't really know what to order, and it's a small instrument - so I just went with the thinnest they had. But it turned out to be way too floppy. So I got some nice strong Lexan and cut it to shape. I was originally just going to back-paint it black and be done with it, but I got the idea to make a mask for it and give it a little more pizazz. I used a portion of the same pattern I put together for the relief-carved ukulele hanger (which I am still working on). I think it came out real nice, and should really hammer the point home that this thing is still a uke at heart - and not just a wannabe electric guitar.