Update on the update :-)

The body, bridge and tuner buttons complete. The prints are far from perfect but I'm at that "I'm sick of this" stage so ploughing on. One roll of filament done now, there is some left on the roll but probably not enough to do the neck.

Skeleton Ukulele July update

Hi, its time to update you on the Skeleton Ukulele build.

If you've read some of the previous posts you'll know that while the print was completed, it had its issues. I decided to get some more glow in the dark filament but it showed up the wrong colour. I gave feedback suggesting batch numbers be added to the rolls of filament (and still suggest they do) so people doing multiple roll prints have access to the same material. Were I not so poor I would just order more than I need but I'm not in that situation and unless I win the lottery I never will be. $80.00 is something I have to save for and that would take 2 to 3 months with my income source.

Another roll was sent to me but it too was a different colour, it was suggested it was due to all sorts of silly reasons, uv light etc etc but as someone who used to manage a plastics company, the truth is that it too, was from a different batch. It's not too hard to see how even companies making these rolls of filament have to source their base plastics from different suppliers and how these base materials including the colouring agents can be different from batch to batch or supplier to supplier. Even the mixing recipe could have been different.

This means I still have all the bits and pieces to make the old one but a lot of repairs to make. I wanted to make to some of the pieces again and that meant I needed more filament and this is where I ran into the colour matching issues.

So with the new roll I'm reprinting the thing.

The new material even prints differently from the first batch and issues are arising again. Joining the pieces will never be that perfect, you'll always see the joins but the new prints are not quite as good as the first print.

One of the things you need to do, is not work when you are tired and not concentrating. I had to put some super glue on the base of some of the ribs to fix and strengthen them.

I hadn't removed any of the lower supports which I should have before gluing and spilled some without realising and glued the supports to the effing thing aaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!?????

You can click on an  image to embiggen it!

The bridge need printing again as I printed the wrong one.............well technically its fine, but I redesigned it to be like this one.

The bridge has two holes and allows the string to be its own holder and its neighbours holder as it were. Which is fine, if you're right handed, but for us lefties (which is why I wanted to make my own instruments in the first place) the pointy string ends up stabbing you in the forearm...................so I redesigned it to be mirrored so they sting ends point down. I made one with just the single holes for inclusion in the files when I make them open source and accidentally printed that one instead so have to go back and reprint the correct one. I'm in the middle of the 16 hour print for section 4 atm then I'll redo the bridge, and tuner buttons.

Well don't that just rip the crotch out of ya nightie!

Update octopi you said, use a bigger sd card you said.

Note to self: Don't (ever) change anything that is already working without issue because the new card with the new octopi on jessie lite waits until you've done about 10 15 mins printing then stops.
FFFFFFFUUUUUUU@@@@@@@@$$$$$$$$$$!!!!!!

I need this like I need to be a black man minding his own business in America.


At least I can just use an sd card directly but sheeeeesh, now I have more work to do.

Photos from my Cyberman helmet 3d print

I've had the man flu so here's a few pictures of my abs enclosure

My abs enclosure

Both the perspex and the wooden top hinge open the tape was only going to be temporary but its been so good I haven't bothered to change it

Errrrrgg The colour is all wrong!

Edit: I've been in contact with Daniel from Blueprinted and he said I could return it even though I've used a bit. It turns out its a test roll sent inadvertently, its all good.




The new roll of glow in the dark blue is a different colour aaaaarrrrrrrrr

You can even tell its an older roll

The ones I had before seemed to be the new design.

I have a bit left over on each of the old rolls so I'll try and use it despite it now being brittle and very short lengths on each roll.

I wish I'd never bought it @$40.00 aud its expensive and I'm not really wanting glow in the dark blue if it looks like this. No even sure I have the money to return it even if I could.

Skeleton Ukulele progress

Things are nearing completion for the printing part of my Skeleton Ukulele. I decided to add some tuner buttons and a printed bridge as well just for fun and am pretty happy with all the progress so far.
I keep giggling to myself all the time hahahaha .

I ordered some usb headphones with microphone and they arrived from china with plugs and not usb and a microphone that was fixed so far away fro my mouth it meant shouting to get a decent recording of my voice. Soooooooo I ordered a lapel mic that should suit my DSLR my phone and my laptop so I can record some videos with some decent sound soon and will do a video of my process.

In the mean time these pics will have to do.

The tuners came from Aliexpress I think. I'd need to check and will do so later.

I box modeled some tuner buttons to look like bones and ended up thinking some of the "knuckles" from the kids game would have been perfect so I used what little is left of my memory to emulate them :-)

Making the internal shape for the buttons to slide onto the double sided D Shape shaft was trial and error. Printed on a raft with 50% infill was going to be 100% but I forgot.........still pretty strong so not really an issue, but it does speak of my allergy riddled brain atm.

Bloody auto focus just wouldn't play the game except for this one I deleted about 5 other pics to get one in focus!

I ended up squeezing the buttons on with a clamp :-) they are designed exactly to the dimensions of the buttons and shaft of the tuners I have so there was no wiggle room and it winter here so some shrinkage was to be expected hahaha   

Here's my bridge design based of one I have laying around. Since I had to shorten the wings of the bridge I decided a bigger surface area needed to be added back so threw together this quick design. In hindsight some more crossed bones would have been more apropos. Meh next time....maybe.

Here's a group shot of everything including the spare ribs I had to print to replace the ones that broke. They only broke because there wasn't enough support used on the first prints.

In order to print the bridge I need over 3 metres of filament so that means the household 3d printing Gods needs to be looking after me, I'm gambling that there's 3 metres left and I don't fuck it up lol

I decided no to be so lazy and redesign the bridge.......it's printing now!

I printed it but realised that is would look really good if it were rounded on the bone ends more 3 dimensional if you like. I discounted it before as I was concerned it would interfere with the strings etc...........but there's plenty of clearance..........and I'm now out of glow in the dark blue pla and I was hoping to not have to get anymore, but get another colour next time instead. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrr

If you're like me then you'll be wondering if this thing will sound any good. The easy answer for me is I just hope it's loud enough, as I think the sound will be there. I'm basing this on hearing a lot of unusual instruments I've seen and heard through the years along with this video from Luthier Robert O'Brian which reinforces that its the top that produces most of the sound on an acoustic instrument.

Plus I can always add a pickup if need be. :-)

Check out his cardboard guitar build https://youtu.be/_elx2OvWN58



I went ahead and made the crossed bones more 3d. This picture is just a render in 3ds Max I need to buy some more filament.

I thought I could have made the bridge a traditional Skull and cross bones but I need to stop and get on with making the neck and other projects I have waiting in the wings