Tinkerer's Thoughts

My wife is back to attempting to complete the Insanity Workout to get back into shape after giving birth. I'll occasionally join her if I haven't already exercised during my lunch break. Her friend mentioned that there is also an Insanity Asylum workout . I looked that up and saw that an agility ladder is used. I occasionally play ultimate frisbee, but I suck. I'm not fast and need to work on speed. The agility ladder would be a great help to increase speed. I like to make things and need to sprint faster so a DIY agility ladder just makes sense. Cost wise, I think its cheaper to make one depending on the materials you use. There are many tutorials out there that use a variety of materials ( duct tape , pvc pipes , and rope just to name a few). Here is my take on a DIY agility ladder. Table of Contents Summary Getting Ready Materials Tools Lattice Cutting Hole Drilling Assembly Extra Summary Project: Agility Ladders (His & Hers) Project ...

I finally finished up gluing the soundboard to the sides. I took so long mainly due to lack of equipment and supplies. My chisels were a bit dull and needed sharpening. I like to use the The D&S Scary Sharp(TM) System of sharpening but this time I was out of sandpaper. Took awhile before I found time to get the sandpaper I needed. After sharpening my chisel super sharp, shaping the braces were a breeze. The chisel cut through the braces like butter. I did not cut the braces to length at this time. Following the directions, I used a turnbuckle to clamp the side to the jig. I found that the back portion of the side did not sit flush to the jig. The cause was that the dowels holding in the waist line were not perfectly perpendicular to the jig base. I thought I could remedy this by wedging in card stock so that the ukulele side would sit perpendicular to the base. This turned out to be a problem later on (but could have been avoided). To sand the top flat, I used a sheet o...

Yay, I finally got around to writing up this post. I could have done the following while waiting for the glue to dry or waiting for the new side to come in. But, like I said, this is my first build so I'll just stick to the order given in the instruction manual. Here I transfered the lines from the template to the ukulele top. I wasn't paying attention and drew the lines for the lower back brace. Adding the sound hole purfling was pretty easy. The strips fit nice and snug in the channel. I used a bit of tape to hold it down while I cut each plastic strip to size. I cut each strip individually on a piece of thin card board to protect the sound board. My messy CA job. I just used "The Original Super Glue", well that is what it said on the little yellow tube. The back braces were easy, just clamp and glue. I used spring clamps as shown in the instruction manual. However, the clamps on each end of the brace didn't seem to be enough as the center of t...

I relieve mommy of baby doodie, I mean duty, when I come home from work so I haven't had much time to fit and glue the back linings. I have my baby on my lap on a Boppy pillow as I work on the uke (I even have her on my lap right now as write this posts). Here's a picture of work stoppage to plug the crying baby, I mean pacify baby with binky, just as I was about to cut the lining to size. I had to stop after the cuts because baby wanted my 100% attention. On the following night I was able to sand the edges of the lining to better fit the uke. Dry fitting went well till baby got fussy again. Luckily for me tonight, Mommy took the kids out. This gave me time to glue in the lining. I really should have done this outside but I had everything at my desk and was not sure how long Mommy would be out. Gluing was a tad bit messy. You try to be neat, but you still drip here and there. I did several dry runs, marked the linings left/right but I still managed to make a huge...

Before gluing the neck block, the instructions say to make a clamping caul for the neck block. The neck block has a little radius on it, I think its about 10". There are no instructions on how to make the clamping caul, but one can easily be made by using the neck block as a sanding block. I used 80-grit just to rough out the curve. I don't think the caul needs to be smooth, just curved enough to the shape of the neck block. Fitting the neck block proved to be a challenge even with a couple of dry run practices. The image in the instructions show just one clamp holding the neck block in place. I had a hard time trying to close the ends together and position the neck block. To help me I used another clamp to hold the sides in at the waist to bring the side ends together a bit. I also used a spare piece of wood between the clamp and the neck block to spread out the clamping pressure. After many practice runs, it was time for the glue up. The glue made the process almost a ...

My wife bought me a Tenor Ukulele Kit from Stewart Macdonald in February for my Christmas present (she gets my xmas presents late). She knows I like to tinker with guitars (I'm a luthier wannabe) and thought this would be a great gift. I received the kit in the mail sometime in March, I was excited at first to see the box waiting for me. Then upon inspection, the box looked a little beat up at the corners. I thought no biggie of it and eagerly opened the box. To my dismay, there was a big crack/split in the ukulele's side piece. Also, one of the 1/4" dowel pegs was missing. I'm guessing the dowel peg fell through a hole in the box. You can see that hole in the picture that has the cracked side piece. I contacted StewMac via email (with the above picture) that night about the damage from shipping. Customer service responded by the time I checked my email in the morning and said they would ship a replacement piece asap. I received the replacement within...

When my wife got her canoe, there were only a few instructions on the net for building stands. There were many pictures of PVC canoe stands but not much, if any, detailed instructions on making them. Here is my shot at a detailed tutorial (this was also on a site that is no more that I had awhile back). Table of Contents Summary Getting Ready Materials Tools Pipe Cutting Hole Drilling Assembly Finishing Touches Summary Project: Canoe stands x 2 Project Time: About 3 hours Material Cost: Around $45 Easy to make canoe stands made out of PVC pipes. These stands have rope padding in place of the standard foam padding I have seen. Personally, I think the rope looks better than foam. Disclaimer: I take no responsibility if your stand fails to do its job or if you get hurt making the stands. I am writing this because seems like every project has a disclaimer because someone somehow screws up. Getting Ready Materials The following items were purchased ...