With the LMI Kit Wizard, we walk you through the selection ukilele so you can build the wood hole jig ukulele of your dreams. I used pine because I had some lying around. It could be done, though. Luthiers Mercantile offers the largest selection of tonewoods, innovative tools, and parts for the guitar builder. Then I printed out my photoshop plans and taped them onto the neck. Why Choose Luthiers Mercantile?

Attach the jig to the router with the machine screw so that it will still rotate easily around the Anchor Point. The router bit should be just below the under surface of the jig. Now rotate the jig back and forth on the router frame and mark the travel path of the router bit with a magic marker or Pentel pen. Observe how the distance of the router bit travel path varies from the Pivot Point. This is the crux of the working of the jig, because this varying distance can be translated into a varying cutting radius.

You must now decide where to drill the Soundhole and Trim Channel Point holes. The distance from the outer edge of the router bit to the center of the Pivot Point will be the radius of whatever soundhole we cut. Rotate the jig until that distance equals the radius of the soundhole for your instrument.

Mark where the router bit tip is on the travel path. Now also mark where the second machine screw hole in the router base frame is. This latter position will be the location of the Soundhole Point. Rotate the jig again, now searching for the radius of your trim channel. Keep in mind that you may use a different router bit for the trim channel than for cutting the soundhole and make your radius adjustments accordingly.

Again mark the place on the travel path where the router bit is and where the Trim Channel Point machine screw hole should be. As before for the Anchor Point, drill concentric holes for the machine screw that will fit into either the Soundhole or Trim Channel Points. Probably centering the bit on each of the two marked points followed by cleaning out the intervening area is a good approach. Operator view—waist level. The first photograph shows the jig alone resting on an instrument top with the rotation pin sticking up through the Pivot Point.

Actually, careful observation will show that the jig is upside down since the machine screw head pockets are on the upper surface; in actual practice this surface would be against the soundboard. The soundboard is resting on the base plate and is held in place by three clamps and until the soundhole has been cut out the rotation pin. The second photograph shows the router in place on the jig.

Note that the rotation pin is visible through the router frame and the router bit is at the top of the soundboard. Order of Operations for Cutting the Trim Channel:. The soundboard template is positioned over the correctly thicknessed soundboard and the center of the soundhole is marked at an appropriate place on the centerline seam. For softwoods, I recommend a lacquer wash coat before cutting the trim channel in order to reduce the possibility of tear out.

The soundboard is gently placed onto the rotation pin and backing plate, being careful to apply pressure at the top and bottom of the soundboard rather than the sides. Rotating the soundboard often helps in both the insertion and removal procedures. Pressure at the top and bottom of the soundboard will be less likely to open the center seam than pressure on the sides.

Clamp the top and bottom of the soundboard to the backing plate. At this point, the face of the jig which will be against the soundboard is checked for little toodies which may be stuck to it and could scar the surface of the soundboard. These may be removed by gently scraping the surface with a safety razor.

Check also to see that the two screws holding the jig to the router are not sticking up above the surface of the jig. For best results cutting the channel you should be using a left-hand spiral, down cutting router bit.

The reason for this is that if something goes wrong at this point, mistakes will be covered by the end of the fretboard. A degree cut is made and then another in the reverse direction. Your trim may only require one cut. Practice on scrap…. Order of Operations for Cutting the Soundhole:. I cut out the soundhole after the braces and soundhole backing plate are glued on but not shaped to final dimensions. This means that the top and bottom of the soundboard no longer have the backing plate immediately against the surface and that spacers are needed to bridge the gap, as shown in the third drawing.

These spacers are placed at the upper and lower edges of the top directly beneath the clamps and are shown in drawing number three. The top is again placed onto the rotation pin and clamped. Once the fret board piece was thin enough I measured out the fret positions and marked them on the board.

Because the fret positions are usually calculated in decimal, I used photoshop to make a template and copied it onto the board rather than measuring them out.

We once again used a table saw to cut the fret positions, lowering the blade until it just barely scored the wood where the fret would be. The best option I found was brass welding wire. The next step is to cut out the fret board shape. I used a band saw and a photoshop template see step 3. The fret board will fit snugly to your neck, but once it is attached to the body a variety of designs are possible.

Look online for ideas. If you are interested in using wire for your frets, check out Steve Miller's excellent instructions see intro. I chose to inlay turquoise, which helped take care of my fret width issue. For this step I mixed crushed turquoise and five minute epoxy, applied it into the groove a little higher than the fret board, and removed as much excess glue and turquoise as I could. For more detail about inlay techniques check out supersoftdrink's excellent instructable here.

Note: if you use wire for your frets, the way you sand and finish your fret board may also differ from these instructions. After the glue was dry I sanded the fret board until the excess glue was gone. If you are working with oak, you may notice that grooves appear in the oak as you sand. This is something inherent in the wood and not anything you can really do about. It's time to measure out once again where the bridge and sound hole will be. It is a good idea to double check, as the length of your neck may have changed when it was attached to the body.

See step 3 for measurements. Mark the center of the box lengthwise and where the center of the sound hole will be. Where you put it is up to you - there are even designs where several small sound holes are cut instead of one large one.

Cut with a drill press or a drill if you are an intrepid soul. The inside of the lid must also be braced, as it will endure a lot of pressure from the vibrating strings. A light but strong wood is good for this, as it will allow the lid to vibrate but will prevent any damage. I used pine because I had some lying around. I followed Steve Miller's X-brace design, cutting out two thin lengths of pine and fitting them to the box in an X, narrowing them at the center so they overlapped.

A bridge support can also be applied beneath where the bridge will be. This is optional, but it seemed like a good idea. I ended up gluing the bridge to the box, but it is possible to screw it in, in which case a good bridge support is crucial. I cut the bridge support so it fit snugly inside the X brace. Glue the supports. You may need to make some adjustments to your box supports to fit the lid. I had to cut down the height of my tenon because of the way my lid fit to the box.

I also chose to sign the inside of the box, beneath the sound hole, before gluing down the lid. Glue down the lid, let dry, and glue down the fret board. Your ukulele now looks like a ukulele. A quick review for the music illiterate like myself: The nut is the piece that will guide the strings from the neck to the head. It is usually made of plastic or ebony and consists of a strip of plastic with slits for the strings. The bridge is placed on the box and holds saddle and strings.

The saddle is a piece of plastic that fits into the saddle and guides the strings over the bridge. I thought about making a mold and melting plastic from plastic bags for the saddle and nut, but chose instead to destroy a few dominoes. Warning: cutting and sanding the dominoes will dull whatever you use to cut and sand them with. There is also a nasty burning plastic smell. Wear protection and work in a well ventilated area.

I used a combination of a band saw, dremel, and power sander to shape my nut and saddle. Pull out a guitar or look around at ukulele's to get an idea of what you need. An important idea here is action - that is, the height of the strings above the frets. It is hard to get a good idea of the action while everything is still loose and not put together, so leave cutting the grooves till later.

The bridge is a piece of wood approximately 2. A groove in the bridge holds the saddle, so the saddle sits partly in the bridge and partly above it. To make the bridge cut a block of wood to the desired dimensions.

The strings will be housed in the bottom of the bridge in 'half holes. It is a good idea to test fit this idea with some ukulele strings.

The holes must be large enough to fit the string but small enough to prevent it from coming loose. When I actually put the strings on at the very end, I found it easiest just to tie a knot and string it through the bridge, so you can see the knotted ends of the strings when you look at the ukulele.

You may want to modify this design if that is not what you want. A variety of bridge designs are possible, so look around if you are interested. I want to emphasize that for this part it is really very helpful to have a model to work from.

Any acoustic guitar or stringed instrument will give you a general idea. You can also choose to buy these parts if you are interested. Your ukulele body and neck can now be shaped in any way you want. I rounded out the base of my neck so it would fit comfortably in my hand.

I took a lot of time with the overall shaping and found this to be one of the most enjoyable parts of building the uke. If you are interested, I used a power sander with for the initial and grit for the final shaping. My box did not have a paper covering, and I planned to apply a finish to the entire instrument. So I very carefully sanded off the original finish, trying to keep the lettering intact.

If you look at a guitar or ukulele you will see pearl dots in the frets at certain points. In ukulele's these markers are usually at the 5th, 7th, and 10th frets. Really you can put them anywhere you want. I also chose to mark them on the side, because I thought it would look cool and I enjoyed this process. First choose a marker. I chose a wooden dowel for availability, and because the inlaid turquoise was flashy enough by itself.

Very, very, very carefully I marked and measured exactly where the markers would be and drilled holes with a drill press. I strongly recommend a drill press for this step, as a lot of work has already gone into the instrument and a drill press minimizes the possibility of catastrophic failure. I drilled the holes only about a quarter to a half inch deep. Once the holes were drilled I cut the wooden dowel down to size for each hole, so there was enough poking out that I Woodworking Pocket Hole Jig Industries could pull it out with my fingers.

Once all the holes had matching dowels I applied epoxy to the dowels, inserted them into the holes, and wiped the extra glue away with a damp cloth. After the glue dried I sanded the dowels down very gently with a dremel as close to the surface of the fret and neck as I could. A final sanding will be applied later, so it does not have to be perfect yet. Before you finish the nut, bridge, and saddle and attach them to the instrument, sand the neck and body to your heart's content.

For the neck I used and grit sandpaper. How you do this will vary by preference, but I chose to apply , wipe the instrument with a damp cloth, when dry apply again, apply , wipe instrument with damp cloth, then let it dry and do a final touch with Wetting the instrument raises the grain, which allows for a smoother finish when you apply tung oil.

I really wanted to preserve the lettering on the box, so I limited the sanding to just enough to remove the finish. For this step I only used grit and did not wet the box. This is where the instrument really begins to become an instrument. Remember that the distance between the nut and bridge is measured between the inner edges of the nut and bridge. That will be the vibrating length of your string. The 12th fret should be exactly in the middle.

I finished shaping the nut, saddle, and bridge with a dremel and power sander. Then I glued the saddle into the bridge with epoxy. I cut the slits for the strings with the thin cutter of a dremel, although a thin file would probably have been better.

The action on my instrument is a little low - be careful when cutting the slits that the strings will not be so close to the frets that they buzz. I was afraid there was not enough support to physically clamp the bridge onto the body, so I used epoxy. Same with the nut. The uke is now nearly finished! Mixing them together in a mason jar, I applied it to the instrument, rubbing it in with my hands.

Then I wiped it off with a rag and waited for it to dry. After it was dry I rubbed the instrument with a piece of steel wool, just enough to roughen the surface. Then I wiped away the little woolly bits and repeated the process.

Tung oil, rag, dry, steel wool, tung oil, rag. I applied seven coats because the saint teaching me uses seven as a rule. Check to make sure that instrument is not becoming sticky as you apply tung oil. Plywood does not absorb the finish very well, and can become sticky if too many coats are applied.

I did not have a problem with this although the bottom of my box was made of plywood. That's right, this is the end. It is time to install the tuners and strings. Installing the tuners will vary for each instrument. I took the tuners from a thrift shop guitar, so I had to cut down the metal sheet that houses the tuning pegs with the metal cutter on a dremel.

If you follow this example be sure to wear protection and watch out for fire hazards, this throws a lot of sparks. For step by step instructions on how to restring your instrument, search online for tutorials.

Be aware that for a couple of days the strings will not stay in tune very well. An extra tip: If you buy D'Addario Pro Arte ukulele strings, you may find that the sleeves inside the package are labeled classical guitar strings. Every package at my music store was like this. They are the same strings, but you need to have them gaged to find the right notes for each string.

You are now short one cigar box and plus one ukulele. Go wow your friends with your shiny new instrument. Or, in my case, go learn how to play the ukulele! So I'm confused In step 3 you say you made a concert with a scale length of 15". I must be missing something. In the same step you say that the position of the bridge is set in stone also I assume that's because of the scale length from the nut.

What I'm unclear about is exactly where on the bridge you measure to. The saddle? That would seem to be the case since that point of Wood Kreg Pocket Hole Jig 2020 contact with the saddle is what determines the actual vibrating length of the string. Reply 10 years ago on Introduction. Reply 4 years ago. Reply 7 years ago on Introduction. I'd still recommend looking around though, the hunt is part of the fun. Reply 9 years ago on Introduction.

Smoke shops with humidors for cigars have them. Generally they sell them depending on the quality of the cigar and box demand. If your a youngster, and you explain the cause, you could get more than you than you can carry!

I do plumbing work for the owner of a local smoke shop. I mentioned my mother could use a couple for craft projects, and got around BUT, only 6 of witch were wood. Good question! I had no idea where to find a box, so I literally stopped at every smoke shop I saw until I found a box. It took a while. Some people find them at yard sales or ebay. Not all smoke Wood Pocket Hole Jig Harbor Freight Co Ltd shops carry cigars, and as you might imagine they don't run out of cigars very quickly, so the shop has to be a bit older.

Owners are very helpful and generally nice. As far as the rest - this was also my first ukulele, so I can't speak from very much experience.

The action and the location of the frets will have the biggest effect on your sound. Good luck! The tuning pegs would be a tough make. Especially because they need to be a tight fit in order to keep the strings tight and in tune. It could be done, though.

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