The 2012 Cairns Ukulele Building Course

[Allen]

Well, back from a couple of weeks of holidays, spent at Micheal Connor's prepping ukulele kits among other things for an upcoming class the week leading up to the Cairns Ukulele Festival.

This year it's being held from July 2-6. We shot lots of video and I've compiled it into a video to show some of what goes into getting all that wood ready to build an instrument in the limited time we have for the class. This years instrument is a concert scale pineapple of Brazilian Mahogany. Some very old wood that will make for some fantastic sounding instruments. Hard to get planks that size anymore.

Space is limited to 14 students. For bookings contact me through my website.

And a special thank you to Bosko and Honey for allowing me to use a couple of tracks for something much more interesting to listen to than the machinery.


youtu.be/

[J.F. Custom]

Wow

Impressive guys - congrats!

Going into mass production any time soon ??

Would like to make it up to the festival one year.

Good luck with the course.

Jeremy.

[kiwinoz62]

I want more ! ! !
It's great watching other talented crafts people at work.

Well done, all the best with the course.

[kiwigeo]

Nice clip Allen and I love the soundtrack.

[Nick]

All that for the cost of the woods only! Yourself & Micheal should take a very deep bow Allen, all I can say is your students are extremely fortunate to have such a talented & charitable guy teaching them.

[ozziebluesman]

I'm not seeing the link! Is there a latest software I may be missing?

Cheers

Alan

[Nick]

I should correct my earlier post, You get timber & your instruction all for the cost of what it would cost for one of your fine Ukes!

[H3ytm@n]

Great vid and audio!!

Looks like FUN.

[ozziebluesman]

I just downloaded the latest Flash Player and the video opens now.



Cheers

Alan

[H3ytm@n]

I'm curious Allen.
What blades do you or Micheal have on the tablesaw to cut the kerfing? Very nice job!!

[Allen]

Could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you Mike.

Well, ok, I'll let you in. They are slitting blades that are manufactured for the metal working industry. Typically they will be mounted on a mill.

You can buy them in just about any kerf width that you could imagine. In that kerf width they only come in a larger arbour size than is on either mine or Micheal's saw, so we had some bushes made and then various spacers, so we can have a kerf spacing of either 3mm, 4mm or 5mm. That is the 3mm spacing for ukuleles.

[H3ytm@n]

Thanks for that...
I'll make sure I check my letter box carefully in case there are any unexpected packages!!

[Allen]

The Ukulele course started Monday morning with an eager and happy bunch. One came from as far as New Zealand to be part of the experience, and I think to escape the cold didn't hurt either.

Tail Block is glued to sides first up.

Levelling it and inspecting

Pleased with the results

By the end of the first day we've got up to the back linings in, plus braces glued to the back.

We also give everyone in the class a chance to hand bend some wood. Easier than they thought it would be too.

[Allen]

Another great day with the class. The body is now closed up and yes, there was a little bit of air uke play going on this afternoon.

They must all be pretty keen, because even though the class was set to start at 9am, they were all eager to start with one even beating Micheal and I to the premises well before 8am.

Again, it's a pretty tight schedule we have to keep in order for joints to be glued up with enough time to set before we can take the clamps off and progress. So first up was to get the builders label on the back, level the linings and get that back glued on. We had a request from a couple of people for the addition of pickups to their instrument, so I gave them an option of either a MISI under saddle with on board preamp, or a K&K twin spot internal, as I have used both on several instruments and know that they work well in ukuleles.

We installed the K&K before the back was glued on, with all the jack holes drilled in the tail blocks for both the K&K and MISI. Makes life much easier this way.

Then there was the fret board which as many will know is a fair bit of work getting right. Especially when you have this many students whom have never done this type of work before.

By the end of the day the fret board was installed to the neck, as was the peg head overlay.

And let's not forget the most anticipated and talked about part of this ukulele building course. It's the food. The catering that the women of the Cairns Woodworkers Guild provide is simply amazing. Home cooked meals that will put the kilos on to the point of needing a new wardrobe by the end of the week. They are even sending the students off with takeaway containers of left overs for their evening tea.

[Allen]

Another big day in the workshop and we've got the bodies add done and in their lacquer. This is the first class that I've taught that everyone liked sanding and really hooked in and did a fantastic job of it.

First up we flush trimmed the top and backs to the sides with a laminate trimmer. Didn't let students do that step as it's fraught with disaster if not done correctly. But then it was on to the sanding blocks etc. to get everything looking shmick. We then had to drill the peg head overlay for the tuner post, and then counter bore for the tuner bushing. All easy jobs with the right tools and a little guidance.

Then the big challenge for everyone is shaping the neck. We spent the most time with that, and it was interesting to see the varying shapes that came out of the class. Depending on their musical background seemed to determine the shape that they wanted for the neck profile. Everyone of them turned out great.

Finally I gave a bit of a lesson on spraying lacquer for anyone that was interested. 4 coats of satin lacquer with a light sand just before the last coat to give a really nice finish in a short amount of time.

[seeaxe]

"Eleven ukes a-uking....."

Well done Allen, must be quite a buzz to feel the collective excitement of the class as they see their instruments come to life in so short a time.

Cheers
Richard

[kiwigeo]

Youre letting kiwis on the course??? Its all down hill from here

[Allen]

We've hit Thursday running with just the set up left to do.

First up was levelling frets with a 6" diamond stone and then dressing frets.

Then their is making the nut and saddle. I purchased a little tool from a ukulele and tool maker in England for laying out the nut thinking it would be handy for students. Turns out it's really handy in the workshop for me as well.

Calculating the height that the saddle will need to be for correct action at the 12th. We use a 1/8" drill bit at the 14th fret and a straight edge resting on the first fret. It's a very quick and easy way to get that saddle very close. Only needing adjustment if you can't read a ruler very well.

With tuners and strings to install we went around the class demonstrating how to do setups including chasing down balance issues on a couple of the instruments that had installed the MISI pickups.

[Nick]

Lucky bloody students! To have that wealth of knowledge at their disposal for their first build worth twice the price of admission alone . Great little tool for setting the spacings Allen, are Uke strings set at an even spacing? I guess they would be as the gauges don't decrease as they would on a geetar.
I'm liking the headstock shape you sorted out for these guys, it's simple yet classy with the sides & top radiused.

[liam_fnq]

Even spacing Nick as it doesn't go from fat strings to skinny strings.

[Nick]

Even spacing Nick as it doesn't go from fat strings to skinny strings.

Thanks Liam, that's what I was thought the reason would be, once I'd started actually thinking about it .

[Allen]

The last day of the course we set aside for a Master Class in my workshop at home, where this year we made up a ukulele kit from a board of New Guinea Rosewood. We cut the scarf joint for a head stock and glued that up. As well as resawing a book matched top and back set. Shooting the edges and joining the top with hot hide glue. The class got to see that it doesn't take a lot of wood to actually get enough to make a ukulele, and how simple many of the steps are when you know how to go about them.

We also demonstrated cutting a rosette and inlaying it into some scrap timber, along with bending a set of sides with a silicon heat blanket.

Heaps of other stuff going on including bringing out some samples of wood from my stash, where they all got to tap and flex the wood.

Early afternoon and we all were getting a bit hungry, so the pizza oven was lit and while getting hot we had a short house concert by Renee Searles and her partner Markus.

Unfortunately Micheal had to run Renee and Markus into town and missed out on the class photo as some of the group had to leave.

[kiwigeo]

Nice one Allen.....ukelele school now.....ukelele university in the near future??

[lauburu]

Have just finished the course and am now the proud owner of a Brazillian mahogany pineapple uke. It's a really good instrument. An equivalent instrument in a shop with a recognised brand would sell for an amount far in excess of the cost of the course.
Allen and Micheal were brilliant instructors and extremely generous in sharing the secrets they've learned through the years. Once again, the value of the information the provided was worth far in excess of the cost of the course. The attendees were a great bunch and a real pleasure to work alongside. The catering ladies did a brilliant job and some of them brought in ukuleles they had made in previous courses. It was a great "family" experience with members popping in and out and everyone getting totally involved.
The finale was being invited to Allen's home to see his workshop (and pizza oven). A real privilege.
It's the best holiday I've had in a long, long, while. I cannot recommend the course highly enough.

[kiwigeo]

Instrument making courses really are the best.....apart from getting instruction from someone who knows what they're doing you also get to meet some really interesting people. Luthiery is an obsession that just seems to attract a wide variety of people from very different backgrounds.