I Built A Thing Today! (DIY Multi-Uke Stand)
That’s my mountain dulcimer taking up seat number 5… 🙂
I saw several DIY PVC guitar racks being talked about online, and the one thing I noticed, besides that they’re ugly, is they really minimize the space they take up. We have 5 ukes, and a banjolele, though one uke is of the flying V body style so it won’t work in this, and while I have nice, pretty wooden stands, they take up quite a bit of space. And today I really wanted to build something, so here’s what I did.
Approximate Finished Dimensions
18″ high x 28″ wide x 16.5″ deep
Purchase List
- 2 x 10′ 1/2″ PVC pipe ($4.16)
- 14 1/2″ PVC pipe T fittings ($4.76)
- 6 1/2″ PVC pipe caps ($1.38)
- 11 1/2″ PVC pipe 90° elbows ($4.40)
- pipe cutting tool ($7)
- glue (optional and I only used to to glue the main sections together in case I want to disassemble it in the futureand store it flat) ($6)
How to Prepare
You will need to do a lot of cutting. Here’s the breakdown of how many, how long. I only used 15′ of the pipe total.
- 5 x 1.75″
- 7 x 3″
- 10 x 4″
- 6 x 1″
- 2 x 11″
- 3 x 25.5″
How to Assemble
Top
- Make the top bar with the neck guides by connecting these pieces in the following order:
- Elbow + 1″ piece + T + 3″ piece + + T + 3″ piece + + T + 3″ piece + + T + 3″ piece + + T + 3″ piece + + T + 1″ piece + elbow.
- Connect one 4″ piece into the open end of the T’s across (6 times). Then connect an elbow, and a 1.75″ piece to the first 5 of them. Add the 6 caps to all of the open ends. This completes your top bar.
- On the downward facing open ends of the elbows, connect a 4″ piece of pipe. Attach a T to these so you can add the crossbar between them.
- Place a 25.5″ piece into the open ends of the T where they face each other.
- Connect a 11″ piece to the remaining open ends of the T’s, going downward. These will connect into the base.
Bottom
- Create a rectangle, using 4 T’s, 2 4″ pieces, and the two remaining 25.5″ pieces. This will form the part of the base that the ukes will rest on.
- Choose a side to be the back of the stand. Attach a 1″ piece to each open T side, and add another T, this one facing upwards. Your top section will fit into this.
- Connect the remaining 3″ pieces to the backs of these T’s, then add 2 of the elbows, pointing down.
- Finish the front of the stand by connecting the last 2 1″ pieces, and then the elbows.
Finishing
- Fit the top into the bottom. Make sure everything fits. Try it out. Tiny ukes, like a soprano, will barely reach the top bar, and if you have a sopranino, you’ll need to place the secondary bar lower. If everything looks good, you can glue things together now.
Let me know if this worked for you, or if I made any mistakes in the parts list! Happy making!
A Stand for my Ukulele!
So back about 6 months ago, I was super excited to purchase and hopefully learn to play the ukulele. I bought one,
loved it, but wasn’t so great about practicing. Then a few weeks back, I joined Ukulele Underground and I found this.Plans to build your own ukulele stand, this one already sized perfectly for a tenor uke, which is what I have.
All I needed was a piece of wood for the base, a 1″ thick wooden dowel at least 22″ long, some felt, some screws, and some metal hooks sold at Walmart to act as the brackets.
I was super tight on money but really wanted to do this, so I improvised a bit. The wooden plaque I bought from Michael’s, with a 50% off coupon for $1.90. The felt I already had on hand, thanks to getting sent the wrong item when I ordered fabric ages ago. Wood stain and E6000 I had on hand. The dowel was the most expensive piece at about $4.50 for a 48″ length, and the screws were about a dollar for a package of 8. The hooks/brackets I made myself out of polymer clay, then cast them in resin which I dyed a deep red color with some mica powder.
These are my polymer clay originals, slightly burnt from a slightly too warm oven. I drilled holes in them to test the placement, but not because I actually expected to use these pieces. Baked clay is pretty tough, but not that tough. 
This is the first piece being cast in Amazing CLear Cast resin, after the original was molded in Remelt, another Amazing product. 
The felt pieces I cut to act as a soft surface for my uke to sit on. I cut 8 of the smaller bits and one larger piece to build up and really cradle my uke’s bottom. 
This is the completed stand. Besides using more felt, I also drilled a hole into my base and glued the dowel into place instead of screwing it from the bottom. I’m not great at screwing things in straight, so this seemed like a better plan for me. 
The finished stand, with my ukulele in it. Not counting the cost of materials I already had on hand, I spent about $8 building this.
