Cigar-Box Hawaiian Ukulele: Spanish-Cedar Body, 11 in Neck and Frets by the Rule of Eighteen (Boy Mechanic, 1919)

"The size of this instrument makes it especially suited to the cigar-box type of body construction."

Take a good Spanish-cedar cigar box about 2-1/2 by 6 by 9 in, soak off the paper without marring the wood, take it apart and trim edges with too many or broken nail holes. Fit the parts so top and bottom rest against the sides and ends, the ends between the sides (Fig. 2; drawn 9 by 6 by 2-1/4 in). Cut a 2-1/2 in hole in the top 3-3/4 in from the neck end. Make corner strips A 1/4 in square and strips B 1/4 by 5/8 by 4-1/2 in for under the top and on the bottom.

Cut the neck from Spanish cedar or mahogany, 11 in long, best in one piece (or with the peg extension and the wide body end glued on and doweled): head 4-1/2 in, fingerboard 6-5/8 in from the 1/8 in nut, 1-1/4 in wide at the nut and 1-3/4 in at the body, heel 7/16 in, section 7/8 by 2-1/4 in as drawn (Fig. 3). Make the nut D of mahogany or walnut with the grain lengthwise, notched for the strings as spaced. Make the bridge C of hard wood, 2-1/2 in long and 1/2 in high, hollowed under the notched edge, with a metal string contact.

Measure the string length from the bridge contact to the nut (13 in here). Set the first fret 1/18 of that distance from the nut, the second 1/18 of the distance from the first fret to the bridge, and so on (notebook). Cut grooves 1/8 in deep and drive in frets of aluminium (or brass) 1/16 by 3/16 in, tight enough to need no fastening.

Glue the body's end to the neck with animal glue, reinforced by screws, its upper edge parallel with the fingerboard and the fingerboard flush with the top. Glue the body (without the top) to that end; when dry, glue in the strips, bridge and finally the top. Clean, sandpaper, stain and shellac or varnish. Fit tuning pegs (bought or made) and a set of strings.

From "A Homemade Hawaiian Ukulele" by S. H. Samuels, in **The Boy Mechanic, Book 3**, Popular Mechanics, 1919 (Project Gutenberg 71856; checked on the archive.org scan boymechanic0003unse, pp. 358-359). He gives the box as about 2-1/2 in deep; his drawing shows 2-1/4 in. He names no stain and no string type. The fret table, its equal-temperament comparison and the metric figures are ours.