Radial Engine Themed Resonator Ukulele Construction. AVT 206 A&P

This video details the construction of a Radial Engine themed baritone resonator Ukulele built using Aviation materials and techniques. This is done for my own amusement as well as to demonstrate what can be done with the techniques taught in my AVT 206 Aviation Sheet Metal series of videos.

The instrument is formed of shiny sheet aluminum, and is a little heavy. The rivets were emphasized in order to play up the radial engine/aviation theme. The green color of the baffles and grills is Zinc Phosphate aviation primer. The neck is made from ash wood in order to mimic a classic airplane propeller. The biscuit is maple with a scrap of unknown dark wood. The fretboard and the contrasting stripes are also unknown woods that I have collected over the years, at least some of which were claimed from shipping pallets.

All of the compound curved parts were hand formed over custom cut molds except the cone. The cone was made from .016 2024-T3 sheet metal, and forced into the custom CNC cut mold by running the bit backward. The instrument has a banjo-like twang. I still need to adjust the strings.

Digital Modelling was done on Autodesk Inventor. The CNC machine used is a Tormach PCNC 1100. Gcode was generated by Inventor HSM. The fretboard was made on a custom fretboard CNC robot I built a couple of years ago - see my other videos for details.

I have no intention of releasing the plans for this one, but may try a more "serious" resonator uke build in the future, with the idea of being releasable.