Copyright 2015 © C. B. Gi
Ʃ
y Cra
Ō
er Supply 3
Step 1—Marking for the Neck
Now it’s time to mark the box for the location of
the neck. As an overview, you will want the
neck to be mounted to the cigar box exactly in
the center of the side you glued the neck brace
to.
The top surface of the neck should end up flush
with, or slightly above (1/16” or so) the top of
the cigar box. Having the surface of the neck
be just a bit higher than the top of the box can
help keep the string action lower, which makes
for a better-playing instrument.
It can be helpful at this point to put some blue
painter’s tape (removable masking tape) on the
box end you’re marking for the neck. The pre-
vents you from having to make marks directly
onto the box’s surface.
The tape should be able to be carefully re-
moved later, before mounting the neck, without
damaging the box surface.
Find and mark the center point on the neck
side of the box, as shown in
Figure 1
. Also
mark the center of the neck that will be joined
to your cigar box. Line these two marks up together (
Figure
2
).
With the top of the neck brought even to the top of the lid,
trace the heel of the neck onto the box.
Be careful to hold the neck firmly in place without letting it
move, while tracing the outline onto the box surface/
masking tape.
Figures 3 and 4
show how we did this. If
the neck heel extends below the bottom edge of the box,
mark it for cutting/filing off later.
Step 2—Drilling the Neck Mounting Holes
in the Box
You can now set aside your neck. On the box, you should
have an outline of where the neck will be mounted.
In this step, you will be marking out where the mounting screw holes will be placed, and then carefully drilling
both the box and the ukulele neck. Be sure to use all appropriate safety precautions when drilling, being es-
pecially careful to never have your hand or fingers over the point where the drill bit will emerge.
Using your awl, or a fine-tipped Phillips screwdriver, mark three points that can serve as starter holes for the
mounting screws, as shown in
Figure 4.
Position two holes towards the top by the wider part of the neck heel, and one towards the narrow bottom por-
tion (see
Figure 9
below for a visual).
Now, as shown in
Figure 5
, use your
⅛
” (3mm) bit to drill the three holes you’ve marked. Be careful to not
drill into your fingers, if you decide to hold it like the person in the photo above. Drill through the box.
Figure 1
Figure 2
