• What's New?

    I Built A Thing Today! (DIY Multi-Uke Stand)

    March 29, 2017 /

     

    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!

  • What's New?

    A Stand for my Ukulele!

    April 30, 2016 /

    So back about 6 months ago, I was super excited to purchase and hopefully learn to play the ukulele. I bought one, 32cef64cloved 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.

    Not counting the cost of materials I already had on hand, I spent about $8 building this.