Make a Ukulele Out of Cardboard

This project came about for two main reasons;

1. I had cardboard left over from my Clone Trooper project, and
2. I saw the fantastic job eplunkett did of creating a Playable Cardboard Ukulele using just corrugated cardboard.

I had boxboard, which is pretty good quality cardboard. Therefore, I thought, why not attempt to make a playable Ukulele too.

The dimensions for my Ukulele were attained using eplunkett's templates. However, I've added a few extra pieces to achieve what I was aiming for.

Materials required:

• Approximately six sheets A4 cardboard sheet. I used 1800gsm boxboard
• PVA glue
• 8mm dowelling (appropriately 60mm in length)
• 6mm dowelling (appropriately 40mm in length)
• 14 toothpicks
• Four pieces of hardwood (50 x 20 x 6mm)
• Timber for bushes (each bush is 20 x 12mm)
• Ukulele strings

When I get the time, I'm going to give it a decent paint finish and then gift it to someone; I'll post a photo upon completion.

Cut out your Ukulele pieces from templates provided.

Glue the two base pieces (B & C) of Ukulele together using a suitable adhesive. I used PVA.

Glue the neck pieces together. Refer to templates for instructions. Pieces marked 'B' get sandwiched between pieces marked 'A'.

Cut for yourself nineteen right angle triangle pieces; 50x50mm.

Using a piece of old board large enough to accommodate the base of the Ukulele plus the triangle pieces, glue the pieces around the base as shown. I used PVA glue for this.

Create the side pieces. If you can do this all out of one piece, great. I was limited to the size of cardboard sheets and made it from three pieces; two @ 300x50mm and one @ 130x50mm (This allows for some cut-off)

Apply a bead of glue to base piece and insert side panels. This may take a bit of gentle persuasion.

TIP: before applying glue, ensure that pieces will actually fit. If they are too tight, trim accordingly.

Glue the neck to the body. The most important thing here is to ensure that you maintain a true centre-line through the Ukulele, I.e.: you don't want the neck veering off at an angle.

Glue support members to sound board of Ukulele

Step 10. Glue sound board to body of Ukulele. I failed to take a separate photo of this step, but I think you can figure it out.

Step 11. Glue in place piece 'D' from template (NOTE: wait for step 10 to dry before this step)

Glue in place piece 'G'. Cut 8mm dowelling to same length as piece 'G' and glue in place as shown.

Step 13. Cut fret board to length, but don't glue in place yet.

Step 14. Mark the position of the frets on fret board using a pencil. I used the following website to ascertain this;  FRETCALC

Glue frets in place. I found toothpicks to be the perfect material for this.
Accurate fret positioning is important, so ensure to correctly measure and mark based on the information provided by the fretcalc website.

Widen the head. Glue in place, using rubber bands to secure

Glue fret board in place.

Getting the string anchor pieces in place. Refer to template for instructions

Fabricate the timber bushes. These will accommodate the timber tuning pegs... OK, so not everything could be made out of cardboard.

Create the tuning pegs. Best to use hardwood for this. I used Jarrah; which I cut from some garden stakes.

You may also be interested in this instructable; Make-a-Tuning-Peg-Shaver

Threading the string onto the Ukulele.