Can a 3D Printed Ukulele Sound Better Than Traditional Wood One?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ต.ค. 2022
- A custom instrument is coveted by most musicians. Being able to say you designed and built the instrument...even more so. With the exception of the strings, every single part of this Concert Ukulele is 3D printed and was designed in CAD starting from a blank slate.
Printed on my customized Mingda Printer: • Original, Well Designe... - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
I designed the black tenor-baritone ukulele you referenced (weststar42). We both chose different and equally valid multi-print approaches to the size problem with you printing the front and backs separate. I have printed over ten of my Wave ukuleles and have not had any problems with the glued body. I have a new bigger UBass design that is so far holding up pretty well. Not too surprising, my number one requirement for a larger printer is to be able to print the entire body in one piece. My calculations show typically ukulele woods are probably 4X stiffer than most 3D printed materials and so I have been slowly exploring an inside corrugated pattern to add stiffness while reducing thickness and hopefully liveliness of the sound. Someone else suggested that an inside pattern could mess with the sound.What are your thoughts on the matrixed cell pattern on the back disrupting the sound waves in the body?
Wow! Great comment! I'm not knowledgeable enough to speak authoritatively about your question. But that never stops an idiot from opening his mouth. :) I like the direction of your thinking. The extruded plastic is far less stiff than wood. So increasing the cross section with the isogrid (Thank to @jonjon737 for the terminology) would be a way of using design to create equivalent performance in the final instrument. If both the wood and plastic front face soundboard are equally stiff then they should vibrate with similar behavior. Of course there will be a frequency by frequency difference because wood and plastic have different resonances but generally speaking the sound will be equivalent. The only thing left to figure out then is the loudness. A resonator is a very loud instrument because the cone has very little mass. A similar effect could be achieve with the isogrid top. The top skin could be just two layers thick. I made mine 4 layers thick in this project just because I wanted durability, but I think 2 layers would be plenty strong. In my judgement I think for strength and sound quality Jeff Kerr has the winning design technique. I also think it is important to accomplish the isogrid as an infill material. This way the printer lays down the grid as long continuous lines which greatly increases strength/stiffness. If you drew up a custom isogrid the slicer would not run continuous 'fibers' from wall to wall of the Uke face.
P.S. I realized that i didn't even answer your question about disrupting wave patterns. I'm 100% sure it will have some effect. It's a trade-off low inertial mass for superior vibration or put a skin on both sides of the isogrid and have superior resonance in the chamber. My intuition tells me that intertial mass is more important. Those grid lines are pretty thin. Slicing through the sound waves like a knife and not disturbing them too much before they hit the front face and rebound. Also there is a challenge in getting a good inner skin. The isogrid is spaced pretty widely. That's a lot of bridging for the printer to accomplish. You would need at least 3 layers in my experience to get a good top surface. Still, 5 layers of skin isn't too bad. I have 4 layers on this current design and it sounds quite good. Worth experimenting with? Yeah probably.
The first Ukulele in the world capable of performing Yoga.
Ideas to think.
1. 3d print your pieces in 45degrees
2. Cure every part in acetone fumes for 3 minutes. Let them rest for a week very carefully (otherwise you will get your fingerprints on it as it will micromelt and resolidify making it far harder).
3. Use pla+
4. As for them neck I'd redesign it in a way you can put a metal rod in it as plastic won't cut it to keep it in shape. (Oh, you just said the same, still watching yiur video).
Must tell you that it is an awesome experiment!
I love how you show your iterative process and go into details about the problems you're trying to solve and your approach to solving them. The 3d printed dominoes are brilliant. I'm stealing that idea.
Great video, thanks for getting back to this kind of content. I'm sure many of your sub's appreciate it!
Great video man! This was some fun and interesting content. Awesome job! Keep this kind of content coming!
I really enjoyed these last couple of videos. Thank you
Petg has less warping also torsion bars are used in necks to tune out the buzz on the frets as well as the action
wow. wow. wow. i have no illusions that this has everything to do with you as a creative force not the 3d printing except as a speedbooster/iterator in the process and more with being a master designer and an accomplished musician. creativity at this level is so fascinating. kudos to also making a concise informative video too delivering some insights into your process AND inspirations.
it further validates how your very unpopular truths resonate so widely on industry , tech and freedom etc. mad love and big respect to you , sir.
Awesome video, and now you’ve got me wanting a new ukulele. Been thinking about a bass one
one of your best videos, sir. More like this more often, pretty please!
Guitarist dont have the " justification" problem. We always "NEED" another. Having more already is not a factor.
What a learning experience! So many aspect from different angles. You can add height modifier in SuperSlicer (as in Prusa) to play with top layer and infill like in Simplified 3d . I can't express how awesome the whole process pictured here is! This is such kind of content that has keep me on here. Have a good time and good projects to share!
cool project! great way to film and show the ongoing challenges of figuring something out.
I love the shower song! Lol.
Awesome project!!
Incredible effort.. That song in the shower was funny 🤣! Very inspiring to see someone make a musical instrument from scratch.. So creative!
I print some parts with curves (tubes with irregular internal structures) that want to warp inwards in thinner areas (using ABS.) I actually put a bar across the part that I later snip out with side cutters to resolve this issue. The longer I am professionally 3d printing, the more I hand jam in supports wherever I must have supports or braces.
Super aggressive design challenge. Well done!
Thank you! I hope you have a great day.
That's an incredible amount of work... SHOWER UKULELE!!!
I bought my Grandson a composite Enya plastic and carbon fibres ukelele a year ago and I've learned a lot in that year. One is that plastic doesn't play nicely with wound strings. Another is that I don't like re-entrant tuning because I wanted it to behave like a 4 string guitar for small hands. There are Low-G strings but they are either wound or unwound and too thick for the nut slots. Enya have introduced a 'Pro' model with metal frets and thinner Japanese strings that aren't available in the UK yet.
The triangular supports are called an isogrid and are very popular in the aerospace world for maximizing stiffness in light-weight panels. Cool video.
Great video. These types of videos are why I subscribed.
Great job! I have been interested in 3d printed instruments for a while. I printed on of the electric violins from Thingiverse a while back. It is holding up still, but it has a carbon fiber rod that is doing most of the work. You can get some great sound from the ocarinas that are out there by printing in PETG and going with solid walls. Plus PETG has the benefit of being polishable.
Very well-done, buddy!
Nice. Love the channel. Learning a lot. Just ordered my first 3D printer. Went with the anycubic kobra. Hope it is a good printer. I was going to comment about the rod in the neck as I used to help my uncle with building guitars years ago and the rod was a must. He builds them from scratch. I am glad you mentioned it at the end as a carbon fiber rod or steel would help so much for sure.
Really awesome job! I think it looks great. Would love to see you try to overcome the problems but it would be an arduous task and eat into much of your time.
Awesome content, thank you :)
So awesome I went to try printing this
Thanks for sharing your entire process in this interesting video. Particularly interesting to me cos I'm wondering about (leaning very much towards it now) using a 3d-printed fretboard (with regular nickel frets) for my current guitar build. I'm currently on version 4 of the fretboard (printed in three parts on a Prusa Mini+).
Now that's a fun project!
Oh btw, have you tried Cura's lightning infill? For the arm thing (i have little to no idea what musical instruments parts are called)
Great work! What if you resin printed the whole neck assembly? Would that solve the creep/flex problem for it?
Dammit man. Now I have to buy a 3rd, Larger, 3D printer, so that as a ukulele player, I can complete my N+1 equation!
N+1 I forgot about that. 😆
Rhino is an interesting program. Very much about surfaces. Not a program I would have thought about using for 3D printing.
Considering that this is your first pass at the design and fabrication of this ukulele, I think you did very well. I was particularly impressed that it makes a bigger sound than your wooden instrument. You mentioned the possibility of carbon-fiber rods being used to strengthen the neck. This might be worth pursuing on a future iteration of this design. I would suggest looking at the design of two 3D printed violins that use carbon fiber tubes for strengthening the neck and body; the Hovalin and the Modular Fiddle. You also might find it interesting to note that some versions of the Modular Fiddle use commercial ukulele tuners, rather than 3D printed gears.
I don't know anything about stringed instruments, but had a thought regarding the neck bending from string tension. I wonder if it would be possible to model a design with four separate "structural" strings that attach to the instrument body where the neck is attached, routed up through the neck and tightened with the tuning knobs. Essentially installing guy wires through the neck that match the tension of the "playing" strings to counter the forces on the neck.
Maybe print the neck vertically, so it gets mostly compressed? I would also include a channel inside, fill it up with resin and insert either carbon fiber tube(-s) or metal rod. Resin would bind it, seal it and combine a bit of elasticity to the stiffness of the insert, so thermal expansion won't cause any problems.
Also PET-G or ASA might be better materials for this type of a print...
Very cool. Great video. Would the neck have been better for strength if it was 3d printed solid?
Dude, this was a joy to watch! I loved seeing you go through the process, and MY GOODNESS a uke in the shower. hahahah. Epic!
Thank you Joel! This was very nice of you. I hope you have a great day.
after discovering guitalele I need more of them
That grey design goes the other way bro
Fret*
Dude! Thanks!. Funny how we can be blind to such simple things sometimes.
Awesome video! The CAD timelapses were great to watch! How much did the final product weigh? Would something like a CF PETG help with the layer adhesion and creep? I know that would be expensive filament wise, but I use that stuff for shelf brackets, and it performs way better than other filaments I have used.
PLA is just so ideal because of the ease of printing and the stiffness. PETG with CF might match the stiffness and printability...you make a good point.
Great to see you making something. Have you seen TriangleLabs CHC hot end? It their version of a Revo. Can be a complete V6 replacement.
I would recommend a truss rod in the neck but that would defeat the point of it being all plastic. I would love to see you remake this with wood pla and give it a coat with epoxy. Or some experimentation with using a vacuum chamber to impregnate the wood pla with epoxy resin for max strength
Hahaha I feel the same about guitars. A t8 diy truss rod Matt. I use rustoleum spray crack filler on 3d prints and then paint and clear coat.
It is worth trying PC Blend type filaments and fiber filled filaments to see how they stand up.
Yea!!! 3d Printing! Can't wait to see your results. 9 minutes in, I think you could put a champer/flat on the end of your curvy body behind the face. Tilt it back to print. Should be able to preserve the form of the front view profile. (Should you revisit your initial inspiration). Ending comments: You need some ply for the tuner head. Perhaps a 2.5mm thick face that is glued to the face (printed flat on the bed)
I'm curious to hear how the pla handls the string tension. It may hold up just fine. If not, it seems like you could try other PLA alternatives (anneal some high temperature PLA, PLA+, etc), or print the neck stronger with more infill / perimeters. If that doesn't work, it seems like ASA or ABS would work perfectly if you have access to an enclosed printer.
I enjoyed this build a lot, I did wonder why you went with the soldering iron vs stir welding with a rotary tool since PLA supports that and it would have effectively removed the 3D pen requirement. Just curious.
try printing with abs, asa, or pc as they have similar stiffness and resonance with playing (from listening to parts I printed) but without the creep of pla. also maybe add a slot in the neck and bond in carbon fiber rods.
amazing project 👍
I just thought. You should build a headless one for guitar snobs like me haha. Awesome video. I swear I said headless before you showed one. I recently procured a beautiful headless six string. A very snobby guitar.
Ive been critical of your opinion pieces but this is great stuff.
This video took me two weeks to make and fewer people are clicking on it than the opinion videos I can record and edit in a day. I don't know if this is caused by the algorithm or if it is a reflection on to the audience. Strategically speaking I should make the videos that get the most views for the least effort. I knew this video wouldn't perform very well the whole time I was making it. It was kind of a labor of love. All that is to say that you probably shouldn't expect more content like this from me. It's too much effort and does nothing to help the channel. Passion projects never pay the bills. IDK Maybe some external website will pick it up and blow it up. When I get featured by hackaday it always helps. Maybe there's some instrument building website that will link the video.
@@DesignPrototypeTest I will upvote and watch your positive videos while ignoring your opinion pieces. Not because I think you are 100% wrong (I also don't think you are 100% right) but because that is what I want to see and promote.
This is also the reason why I will probably try to start creating content again.
Hope more people do this so we can focus on this as something positive again.
As a sidenote, I still want to get rid of fusion360 in my flow and would prefer something like rhino with a one time purchase, does rino allow less aesthetic inclined people the sketch extrude way fusion does?
FreeCAD is my other go to but it's soo much slower to work with
@@budhiw Rhino has many workflows and ways of doing things. What I was showing is a workflow commonly called "surfacing" which is different than when you use that word referring to CNC machining. Rhino is infact more user friendly (easier and faster) than F360 or Solidworks for the "sketch to extrude" workflow you are talking about. B/C in Rhino you don't have to click into a separate screen to work on your 2D sketch. It all happens in the same 3D workspace. I showed this functionality in another video I made about Rhino a while back: th-cam.com/video/pKLSTQcFTUI/w-d-xo.html
If you know that PLA has a issue with creeping and z axis layer adhesion, why would you give your ukulele an almost conventional design?
A good question. Most artists struggle with this issue. If you deviate too far from what is known and loved the audience revolts.
that's nice ukelele, maybe if the stair was in the other direction may works a little better IDK. anyways good job🎉
Now I need a resonator ukulele too. Banjo Uke, Tenor Uke and Bass Uke
Don't forget about the double neck 8 string and 4 string Uke.
Wondering when you're going to merge welding into your channel. I know you had a van life channel and you were tig welding.
Look who's talking. I saw you welding a go-cart for your kiddo. :) Metal welding is a lot more impressive.
there is a hack way or making it work. a trus rod made out of threased m4 or m5 high tension rod that goes from the headstock end up to the outside body edge with inside bolts keeping body expanded while headstock like usual truss rod would work against strings, you could also make it a 5th string internal on the backside to make it all plastic :P
Do you have any opinions/plans to look at the vzbot project? The Goliath and hextruder combo is amazing for high speed printing, and it genuinely can punch out a mosquito 2x to 3x it’s price. They even are planing to delete the heat sink and use a water cooled metal direct drive
Mosquito patent moment
Pctg might be a better choice for isotropy
Hows the neck now?
Nice. Very impressive, that is. Technically and musically. Then the last 1% takes 90% more of the time.
Maybe print the body of the neck
All one piece not worrying about the fretboard since your going to cover it later with fretboard. Design a couple truss rods into the neck that work all way to the bottom of the uke to be able to tighten on the bottom with a wrench to fight against the string tension.
Overall excellent work man
…and here I thought you were going to put a truss rod in when I saw you split the neck in half. This would solve the problem of the string tension warping the neck. So, kind of wondering, why didn’t you?
Trying to make it 100% 3D printed except for the strings. The truss rod has already been done before. Many times.
You could try printing it in hips, and then smoothing it by brushing on limonene. I believe hips is a lot more workable for larger parts than abs and limonene isn't as nasty as acetone.
One of the good (and bad) things about acetone is its high volatility. It evaporates quickly. I would worry about limonene permanently plasticizing HIPS, because you can only wipe off solvent that is not already absorbed.
@@AwestrikeFearofGods You could probably bake the part at around 70-80c to get rid of the limonene but I'm not sure about the fumes that makes, would more than likely negate the advantage of not needing to use stinky acetone.
@@georg6876 Plasticized HIPS would be very soft at temperatures high enough to evaporate limonene in a reasonable time. By the time the limonene diffuses to the surface and evaporates, the part would have already slumped into a worthless blob.
@@AwestrikeFearofGods Womp Womp. Could still print it in abs and do acetone smoothing, but I'd think printing such a large part in abs would be way too difficult and the amount of acetone needed would probably knock you out with the fumes.
@@georg6876 How about acetone smoothing HIPS in a well-ventilated area? Acetone is only about as toxic as isopropyl alcohol. It is frequently used for nail polish remover.
Can you please share the name or link to that other channel you was inspired by? (no not Prusa HA HA HA)
www.youtube.com/@lobocnc
(Jeff Kerr)
Do not mix up support material and infill words! Infill inside model. Support outside
Great video… I wonder how this would work out if it were printed with Carbon fiber Nylon with strands and not chopped.
Nylon is a semi-flexible. The CF makes it stiffer but it enough? Siffness is key to a functional instrument. Better would be CF Polycarbonate but WHOOO BOY! Talk about layer separation and problems with shrinkage. That's far more of a challenge than I'm willing to take. Would probably require a very nice large format printer inside a 100°-150°C heated chamber.
My experience with CF polycarbonate is that it is actually quite dimensionally stable, CF fill really helps resist warping
no link to the brand of printer.
th-cam.com/video/yBOQgpGwLUc/w-d-xo.html
Fret buzz or distortion?
Distortion. It's a feature not a bug. 😁
What's the point of ukulele in general?
It's just fun and feels good to play one. We can't all be eight string guitar Metalheads trying to be the most technical god-like players.
I NEED IT
i got great sound & durability out of the nuke design with metallic gold filament at a 0.2-ey magic height & I think 2 walls 20% infill, & the same on the neck but with 4 walls 25% infill. The delta interference pattern gave it a beautiful sheen & a great resonance profile. When I hammered the brace through the hole it looked like a luper mario bros pixel or something with the curvey toplayerey stepping all gold & chrome it was seeeeck. It sounded nearly as good as my cedarwood. I intend to iterate on the design as I ginally snapped the neck after about 1000 drops thing was as durable as a nokia even with the drop g
Nice video. Very bad filament, or possibly bad settings for that filament. Or both.
Funny shower clip 😃
More videos like this, please!
4:00 quite substantial
You remind me of Jello Biafra, you sort of look and sound like him to me.❤👍
Similar culture that I was raised in and I've lived in all the same cities as him. Some of my friends in HS absolutely revered DK. I can completely understand why you would think this and I consider it a compliment. Have a great day!
@@DesignPrototypeTest It was most surely intended as a complement😇, Class of 86. DK, Jello and the PMRC🤐 a.k.a. Tipper Gore was and still is a huge influence in how I entered the "adult's" world. 🤨 Fight the Power!🦾
😆🤣
_"... but instead I found this picture of a woman doing yoga....."_
that's the moment I died! 🤣🤣🤣
And with such a strait face too... ROFLOL
Very nice video! Enjoyed every minute of it!
Lots of useful practical info and tidbits.
About the triangular infill I'm not sure about. It seems that might damp the produced sound, me thinks. On the other hand, it sounds loud enough, and I wouldn't know how to stiffen up the body in another practical only 3D printed way, so... good enough and KISS?
EDIT: and now I'm wondering, speaking of instruments, has anyone tried to print a didjeridu yet? It doesn't need strength, so.... the sound would of course be quite different and more like a PVC home made didj (or a slideridu), but still.... Would also be the ideal instrument to do on belt printer...
Nice
would of sounded better printed on a prusa ;)
In the words of Nelson: Ha Ha! It has to be printed face down so it just barely fits on a 300mm² bed. Maybe when Prusa sends me my review unit of the PrusaXL I can revisit the project and make one that sounds better.
Ukulele is pronounced Oo Koo Leh Leh and not You koo lay lee
I mean this with 0 ill will - THIS type of content is the stuff that separates your channel from the rest of the 3D printing channels on youtube.
I love watching your design process. I would love to see more of this. I know these videos are probably harder to put together, definitely tons of media to put together, but its some of the best of its type on youtube.
Yogalele
Sorry I should have pronounced it ookoolele, but I've never been to Hawaii.
i enjoyed it lol i would love to print it@@DesignPrototypeTest
Hi, I really like your critical thinking, your derision and your channel. However, I don't understand how you manage to have so many faults on your impressions with the skills you have! Between the cracks, the supports that haven't been bridged, the elephant's foot... It's really a point to improve, but you have the honesty to show them to the camera. Keep it up ;-)
Congratulations you have assembled the quintessential s#!t sandwich: Compliment-Insult-Compliment. It sounds like you compare yourself to strangers on the internet and when they display skills you don't have it makes you feel bad. But then you tell yourself "At least I can print better than him. I should tell him that I can...Hmm. How should I word this?" Anyone can achieve high quality with a little effort. I decided that it wasn't worth the effort in this project. Which is a decision I should have made again instead of replying to your ego vomit. If you want to stop creative people from posting projects like this one you are doing exactly the right thing. It's the lord's work really; making sure nobody has to see creative or unique things. Maybe when everyone who can do things that you can't do stops posting you will be able to feel good about yourself. Or maybe not. Thankfully I don't know a thing about you beyond this comment.
@@DesignPrototypeTest Creative people are often open-minded, given your answer, you're not one of them. Being open-minded also means accepting being told the truth even if you don't like it. You can't stand criticism, that's all, even when it's based on fact. On this project, your impressions are of poor quality, it is undeniable. You spent time modeling the instrument in 3D, it's a shame not to have spent time presenting an object with a good quality finish. It's still the base on a chain oriented 3d printing.Thankfully I don't know a thing about you beyond some vidéos.
name your videos better
Any suggestions for this one?
Nice job deleting your ranting video about prusa! 🤣🤣🤣
Also, if you were observant you would have noticed that I took down all of my opinion videos about Chinese printers as well. All that's left up is the high performing"technical" videos.
What a liar you are, naughty boy!😘 You still have the Mingda Magician Pro video still up! Hahaha I guess your still just a joke! 🤡
You still also have your rant on your prusa i3 mark3s+ video. 🤣🤣🤣 I'm crying!!! 🤣🤣🤣
"...found a picture of woman doing yoga..." I fucking lost it :-D DPT is a certified Chad 👌