popularmechanics.co.za
Stand
together
I really enjoy reading
Popular Mechanics,
particularly the DIY articles.
My daughter is a music
teacher, and we jointly make
gifts for her students each
year. She also runs two
extramural music groups –
ukulele and marimba. In the
recent Eisteddfod, her TVC
Ukulele Society achieved an
A++ grading as well as Best
in Category, so we decided
to make them some gifts
for their achievement.
We decided on stands
for the ukuleles that could
be easily dismantled to be
stored flat in the ukulele bags.
Hinges would’ve made the
folded stands thicker, so we
decided to go with a slotted
fit-together approach. We
looked at various ideas on
YouTube and the closest
suitable concept was from
cardboard. No details were
given, so we adapted that
to be done in thin plywood.
We made a prototype, to
work out the dimensions and
angles to ensure the ukulele
would be stable on the stand.
It turned out to be fine-tunedfinal shape on the router table
with a template-following bit.
The parts were all sanded,
each slot fitted to width and
depth (they were marked as
matched pairs by then), and
my daughter did the hand-
pyrography of the logos
(adapted for purpose by
my artistic middle daughter)
and each member’s name.
One member is a cajon
percussionist, so two of
the rectangular plywood
cut-outs were used by my
daughter to make a mini-
shaker cut in the shape of
a ukulele body on the band-
saw and smoothed on the
spindle sander, again with
member name and logos
pyrographically applied.
We then applied the finish
and used a super-glue with
activator to fit the strips of
thin ‘crazy foam’ as feet and
padding to the stands for the
instruments to rest on. We
made ten custom stands and
the shaker for the members
and three extra stands (one
was the prototype) for the
classroom. All in all it was
quite a production line!LETTERSWHAT’S ON YOUR MIND?
W R I T E T O U S [email protected]WINNING LETTER
at a 9° slope and 15° for each
matching attachment slot
for width.
Three millimetre pine
plywood (actually 2.7 mm)
was cut into 200 × 250 mm
rectangles (using Kreg Rip-
Cut and Accu-Cut guides).
Two 8 mm holes were then
drilled in the corner of each
L-shape, made identical
by a fence and stop-block
clamped to the drill-press
base. This meant that the
bandsaw blade could be
turned and the straight
cuts stopped at the holes;
these were made at the 9°
angle, maintaining 90°
between the base rest and
the upright. A block was
clamped on the bandsaw
mitre gauge turned to 9°
off 90°, and the very rough
shape cut-out as straight
cuts, turning the blade at
the pre-drilled 8 mm holes.
Then, while there were still
plenty of straight and square
reference edges available, the
matching slots to fit the two
parts together were cut with
the bandsaw table tilted 15°
(again tested using the proto-
type). The bandsaw rip fence
was put in place halfway up
the height of the stand, on
the lower side of the tilted
table. The cuts for the slots
were made from the front
and back of the respectiveparts, spaced by the
thickness of the plywood,
then thinned slightly by
sanding, so the fit was
snug. This was the point
where the two parts of each
stand became different, and
concentration was crucial.
The length of the slots was
cut to just short of halfway
across the estimated final
width of the uprights,
also for final fitting later.
The waste in the slot was
nibbled out freehand using
the bandsaw.
While I don’t have photos
of the final shaping steps,
this is how I went about it.
The final shape of the two
identical halves of the stand
was drawn on to a piece of
9 mm MDF, cut out on the
bandsaw close to the line,
and then sanded smooth
on to the line with a spindle
sander. This then served
as the master template for
all the parts. The template
shape was drawn on to each
‘L’ half (the outer shapes
are identical, but matching
pairs were kept together as
the slots had already been
roughly matched), and
cut out close to the line
using the bandsaw. Spray
adhesive (repositionable
type) was then used to hold
each ‘L’ on to the template,
while they were trimmed toMAY / JUNE 2022 9