About the Heart-shaped ukulele
Designed for a Valentine's Day contest on Printables, with as many hearts as possible, this soprano ukulele set the pattern for the same designer's later Hex ukulele. It fits almost any printer (210 × 210 mm), prints without supports, and assembles without glue using printed bolts and joints. The tuning pegs, with printed gears, are inspired by an earlier printable guitar-tuner project. The only thing you buy is a set of strings.
Print with a 0.6 mm nozzle if you like. Use PLA for the body and neck, since PETG can be too soft there, but PETG is good for the small dots and nuts. Two optional carbon-fibre strips stiffen the neck. The files are already oriented flat side down, and a brim helps the small pegs. Print spare dots, because they break easily. The page lists every part and how many to print, and the pegs come in three lengths for the different strings.
There's an assembly video, and a second video compares the updated version with a cheap commercial ukulele.
What you'll need
Printed parts
- Body and neck
- Pegs (3 lengths) and gears
- Bridge, nut and dots (print spares)
- Printed bolts and joints
Bought parts
- One set of soprano ukulele strings
- Optional: 2 carbon-fibre strips, 2 × 8 mm, about 35 cm
Tools
- A tuner
Build overview
Print settings
- Material: PLA (body, neck); PETG fine for dots and nuts
- Nozzle: 0.6 mm works for everything
- Supports: None
- Adhesion: Brim for pegs and dots
Videos
Play video: Heart-shaped ukulele assembly (loads YouTube)
Play video: The updated ukulele vs a Mahalo Smile (loads YouTube)
Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play. Video thumbnails are © their creators.
Photos
All photos: Tomek, from the design page on Printables, licensed CC BY-SA. We resized them and converted them to WebP. These adapted versions are shared under the same licence.
1 more photo on Printables ↗