A 3D printed ukulele

 

A 3D printed ukulele - Soprano size

I recently took a class on 3D printing at the Loveleand Creator Space.  They aquired two Bamboo 3D printers.  I wasn't sure what I would do with the 3D printers, but I knew that I wanted to know how they worked and find out what was possible.  

Turns out, I was able to download plans for a ukulele (thanks to jwnicholson via bamboo studio) and actually printed it out.

Bamboo 3D printer

This pictures show the body of the uke in the Bamboo printer.  It took 9 hours to print this piece.  I printed it over night and was super excited to see it in the morning.  

This picture shows all the individual pieces.  In all, 28 pieces.  I just used super glue and some screws to put it together. It took about 24 hours to print all the pieces.  The good news is I don't have to watch over it.  I just hit print and then worked on other woodworking projects until the piece was printed.

 

The tuners were an interesting part.  Each tuner had 4 pieces and were held together with 2 small screws.  They work great.

I took the uke to a local music shop to get their feedback.  They said it sounded great.  It is loud and sounds as good as their mid range ukes.  

It was a fun project, but I think I'll stick with the wood versions.