I want to make a case for this ukulele, but if I make
just sort of a tapered box, I end up with a big
corner on here and I don't really like that.
So I started with a thick piece of wood and I
re-sawed that so I have these corners
on both ends, like this.
And that way, I can put that here
and kind of cut a curved corner in there.
Well, I goofed a little bit. These side pieces are
a bit too short to span the length of the ukulele.
So I glued 2 pieces together here to make this part
arched a little bit. And I'm gonna also arch
this end and that'll give me enough room for the head here.
I need to cut a box joint in the end of the curved piece.
And that needs to be at a bit of an angle
So I stuck a piece of wood in here to get it at the
right angle.
With these end joints cut now, now I need to figure out
where to cut these ones and they need to come in
to about here.
As I did with the curved pieces, I'm mounting this in here
at an angle with a spacer here. So I get a matching
angle for the joint.
I've got all my angle box joints cut. So I'm now
able to start shaping this. So I need to
cut a curve out of here. I've made that curve a little
a bit more generous and I'm gonna use my re-saw fence
to make sure this piece stays vertical.
Time to glue this ukulele case together.
That was stupid. I meant to cut the lid off
but I put it on the wrong way. So now
this was gonna be the bottom. But that's now gonna be
the lid. Oh well.
I looked through my hardware drawer and I found
these hinges and I really like the black color on them.
But they're just too cheesy to use.
So I drilled 2 extra holes in them
so I could then cut the ends off of them and like this
I think they'll look quite nice on this ukulele case.
I had this neat idea for a push button latch.
So I made this hook out of coat hanger wire.
And there's a little button that pushes it back.
And that hooks into just a little notch on here.
So that when I slam this shut, the hook
catches the notch and it's closed. And to open it,
I just have to push that button and lift the lid
at the same time. The way I made this latch
is by bending a hook onto some coat hanger wire.
And it's got a little L shape on the end of it here.
And that fits into this block here.
And that little block screws against the side here.
And that little thing on the end causes the hook to always
snap shut. And to open it, there's a little piece of
dowel, like this. And that slides in here.
So it hooks between the 2 pieces of coat hanger wire.
And that keeps it captive so it doesn't fall out the outside.
And now I can just push that
and that opens up the hook.
I put extra felt padding in wherever the ukulele actually
touches the sides. And now on top of that, I'm gonna
put another sheet to cover everything up.
I'm just using a few dabs of hot glue here and there
to hold the felt in place.
Don't want to put too much in there because the hot
glue itself will cause bumps.
So now I need to put some padding on the topside here.
And this still fits, so the question is how much room
have I got. So if I put this on here,
I can still close it but I think it hits.
Yeah, it definitely hits.
So I know I've got about this much room.
And a little bit less minus the felt padding that I want to
put on the lid.
I added blocks of wood to hold the ukulele down here and here.
And nothing against the middle of the sound board
because that's where it's the most vulnerable.
So that should hold it down, nice and snug.
No rattles. So if I ever have to take this on
United Airlines, I'll be ready.