The last couple of days I’ve been making and setting braces for both ukuleles.  The soundboard tone bar bracing “dials in” the correct amount of stiffness to assist the overall tone and sustain of the instrument.  The horizontal and sound hole braces provide strength for supporting the tension created by the neck and fretboard.  I’ve been using a circular patch around the sound hole that, once the sound hole is cut, is about 3/16″ wide.

The soundboard is glued on first.  This can be tricky as having perfect center alignment is critical.  One “trick” I use to insure proper alignment of the soundboard is to add a 1/8″ dowel through the top and into the head end block.  Makes it easy to hold alignment even when the slippery glue wants to make the soundboard slide to the side. This dowel is hidden behind the fretboard once attached.  I also use a glueing caul through the sound hole to hold down the top firmly.

Glueing on the back is also tricky as if you put too much glue on, you probably will have a lot of squeeze out on the inside of the ukulele.  I good test of quality is looking inside the ukulele for excess glue as well as the quality of the bracing.  Anyway, I use the same sound hole glueing caul to keep everything in alignment.

Once everything is set up, I use a router with a laminate trim bit to cut the top and back flush to the sides.  I hope you both notice the very cool sound hole logo!