Ukulele Building, cont

Not only does Pat make the ukuleles from scratch he also makes all the required “jigs” and there are several used in the construction of the instrument. This is a close up of the press he built and uses to bend the sides of the instrument. First the 3 inch by 20 inch thin piece of Koa was soaked in water.Click on the image to see it bigger. See that wider red plastic looking thing. That is sort of an electric heating blanket. It is made of rubber and it gets very hot while the rollers are being screwed down to force the Koa wood around the curves. As those rollers are slowly screwed down the Koa wood must be sprayed with water so that it doesn’t dry out and crack. This is where the extra set of hands comes in handy. It doesn’t take long maybe 5 minutes, then the now curved wood side is put into another jig to hold the shape while it cools and dries. Pat quickly bends the other side and puts it in the other jig. I will show you this next time. Stay tuned