UKELELE
This project was an attempt to make a ukelele out of a polycarbonate sheet. Acoustics is not looked upon in this project. It was done solely to explore acrylic sheet as a material and make something out of it. I have no background in music and does not know how to play a ukelele.
The ukelele had to be made by laser cutting acrylic and sticking the pieces together. Bending was not an option due to the lack of infrastructure. The ideation was done based on these constraints.
I made a mock-up using foam sheets before designing the plan for laser cutting. This was primarily to get the dimensions right and test for ergonomics. The dimensions are based on the dimensions of a Soprano Ukelele from the internet.
After getting the dimensions right I designed the ukelele on Rhino 3D and sent the .dwg file for laser cutting.
After recieving the laser-cut pieces, they were put together using chloroform ( Acrylic can be welded together using chloroform. ). Did not document these steps out of excitement to see the final product.
Making the neck and the headstock
The neck and the headstock are side profiles cut and stacked together. The initial plan was to stick them with chloroform but the optical clarity between 2 layers had to be compromised for doing this. Therefore, they were screwed together thus keeping it as optically clear as possible.
