3D Printed Tenor Ukulele

 

    Hi there. My names Jarod. Hope you're doing well this fine day. 

    This is a CAD Model for a 3D printable Tenor Ukulele. I've designed this in Fusion 360. 

    I've been playing ukulele for about 8 years now, on and off. The first year I attended a summer camp, one of the counselors had a ukulele that he would pull out and play. I knew what I wanted for my birthday after that. So on my 15th birthday I got to pick out a ukulele. I play a Concert sized Luna ukulele that has served my well for many years. I still play it to this day. 

    My love for 3D Printing and 3D CAD Design started in high school when a friend of mine from church showed me a ring he had made on a 3D Printer that was at his school. I went home and was able to get a download of AutoDesk Inverter on a student account and designed a ring and asked if he could print it for me. I sent him the file and when i got the ring back it was small enough to just barely fit on a no. 2 pencil. I had exported the File wrong. After figuring out what I did wrong I sent him a new file and this time it printed perfectly. 

    After that, a teacher from another school asked if I wanted to take a printer home for the summer. And I said "Absolutely!". Many trinkets and knickknacks were found and printed that summer. Thingiverse was the site I frequented often.

    After that Summer my Dad bought a Print-R-Bot Simple Metal 3D Printer together we assembled it. That printer has served us well for the Hundreds of hours we've put on it. I still use it even to this day. 

    I have since bough a Ender 3 V.2 Pro and have been using it to print my prototype Ukulele. 

    I've wanted to 3D Print a Ukulele for a little over a year now. I found some plans on the internet for a Tenor Ukulele and referenced off of the plans for much of the design. Neck length, proportion sizing, bridge dimensions etc. Fret spacing was found using a calculator I found on the web here: https://www.stewmac.com/fret-calculator/ . And the body design was something I came up with. Sorta a Cigar Box style interment.

    The first prototype worked beautifully! It was able to hold string tension long enough to play a few chords, and it sounded great. Unfortunately the string tension was too great and the neck started warping and the bridge started to deform as well. A few Updates will have to be made before I print another on off. 

    The body is printed in 2 pieces and the neck is printed in 3. The fret board was printed in 2 pieces. Dove Joints were designed so that it could slot together and then superglue was used to keep everything solid. 

    I hope you guys enjoyed my brief history of my 3D Printing Journey. This is only just what I've been recently been working on. I have many other projects that have been successful and ones that have failed Epically! Hope you'll stick around and see what other crazy adventures we'll go on. Till Next time.