harp ukulele project - Gluing down the bridge...

[John Parchem]

Thanks guys,

I am going to make a ukulele vacuum clamp for the bridge today or tomorrow so I can finish this instrument.

[Dave Bagwill]

John I am not suggesting you do it this way - but I was reading a thread on some luthier forum who members do the following:
Prepare the bridge and the surface it is being glued to
Prepare the HHG
Apply the glue
Rub the bridge on the top, forming a rubbed joint (I think there is another name for that process)
Use finger pressure only for a minute or so
Walk away and let the HHG do its thing.

They claim no failures over a period of years.

Gonna try it? :-)

[John Parchem]

John I am not suggesting you do it this way - but I was reading a thread on some luthier forum who members do the following:
Prepare the bridge and the surface it is being glued to
Prepare the HHG
Apply the glue
Rub the bridge on the top, forming a rubbed joint (I think there is another name for that process)
Use finger pressure only for a minute or so
Walk away and let the HHG do its thing.

They claim no failures over a period of years.

Gonna try it? :-)

I have read that as well. I have a gluepot and hide glue ... but I have no experience with the glue. Also the joint has to be prefect. I may be wrong but I think a rubbed joint is relying on a vacuum like attraction between two perfectly matched surfaces. I will get the surface really close sanding on the ukulele itself but I am not sure I want to roll the dice again with a new way. Thinking more about this technique ... I am using index pins to get the bridge exactly where I want it, the pins seem to rule out the rub joint. Maybe I am wrong.

[John Parchem]

I figured out how to glue on the bridge! (Hopefully). I was struggling how to glue the bridge on to the harp ukulele. My main problem was my hand is too big to get a caul in the right spot in the instrument. I was working on a vacuum clamp, but ran into two problems. The first was as this is an 8 string instrument with four of the strings off on one side, I could not make a vacuum clamp that would give me enough space around the bridge and still stay on the instrument. I could have gotten the one I made to work except for the second problem, my impatience waiting for the gasket material to come in the mail.

Anyway I finally had a flash on how to get the caul in and hold it as you can see in the pictures. I took off the blue tape before I glued down the bridge! I did run the whole procedure twice by my self before gluing for real. Also on the real run I had my son help.

[John Parchem]

btw sorry about most of the photos my website went down yesterday and no one is at the hoster to fix it :(

[Dave Bagwill]

Nice ingenuity John!

[Kevin in California]

Very clever indeed. Isn't it amazing how our minds can figure stuff out.
Good job John.

Kevin