Hooray ! Uke #91 is strung up and singing. I put linear (low G) strings on it and it sounds great. Heres what preceeded the playing.
this morning I took off the clamps and the bridge was nicely glued to the top. By the way, these homemade clamps work great. I only made this pair so I am a bit slow in getting bridges attached on a number of instruments.
The Peghed geared tuners that I use on Pinecones screw into the peg head with a spot of glue in the threads. They have a 3 degree taper. This tapered awl cuts its way in to just the right depth which allows the head of the tuner to protrude the proper distance
you want to be careful to not make the hole too large. Go slowly and try the tuner frequently.
you want to be careful to not make the hole too large. Go slowly and try the tuner frequently.
Once the tuners are installed I put a spare string through the 1st tuner and use it to gauge where on the notch should be on the nut and the hole on the bridge. Mark those spots with a pencil
You can just barely see the pencil marks on the left side of the bridge
 The nut is marked with a pencil and placed in the vise. |  Now carefully make a cut on the mark with an exacto saw. The files will find that cut and start there. |
Now the string groove is cut with a special thin file with teeth just on the edge. I have four of them, each with a different width. You want the string to fit in the groove without a lot of extra space.
Here is the bridge drilled with its four string holes. above you can see the tools used to make those holes. Calipers to measure the separation, a calulator to divide by three the distance between the two outer holes to figure the space between strings. an awl to mark the spot, A selection of tiny drill bits and the hand drill, and finally a couple of diamond round bits to round the hole so the string has a soft bend.
When this is all done its time to string it up and play some music
