Friday Afternoon ... A Tradition Continunes

We shipped out the two big tables Friday afternoon, which called for a round of rum for my men and a little banjo music by Will. He was showing off his new (to him, but older than him, 1981) Stelling banjo ... It sounded really sweet ....
summer afternoons ... is there anything better?
Kit stopped by on her way home from work ...


We'll post a little audio clip one of these days ...

The Banjo Is Done !!

Well .... It's done and it sounds GREAT ! For a first shot at building a banjo from scratch, I'm completely happy with the way it came out ... It took considerable patience on WIll's part to get the neck on right, and we learned a lot, about building a banjo and about working together on a project where we both had a little knowledge, but neither of us had the whole picture. We both stuck up for what we thought was right, which made the process decidedly more interesting. It's a good thing one of us (and it wasn't me) knew a lot about how a banjo should play, how it should be set up and what little things you can do to fine tune the finished product. Will has a couple more tweaks that he wants to do to it, but I think he's pretty happy with it too .... Hopefully, we'll add some sound to this entry soon .... Click the pictures to enlarge them .....

First notes, yesterday afternoon ...

The pot

The fretboard

Side view

Head on ...
Other Posts about making this banjo
First post/start up Making the rings and turning the pot
Second Post Progress Fitting the neck to the pot
Third Post Shaping the neck and adding the fretboard

Banjo Progress 8/28

8/28/09 Click the pictures to enlarge them ...

The strings were on briefly Thursday, just to check the fretting, and, while it was tempting to tune it up and play a little, the next step was to take the neck off and finish it before installing the fifth string tuner and the little nut that goes with it. After some internet research, Will decided that he would try French polishing the neck even though, except for a few small furniture repairs, we haven't done much of that.

The process .... and there are many descriptions of the french polishing process on the internet ... (Here's one) ... It's not brain surgery, but you definitely want to practice a little before attempting it for real, and you want to have some time AND some patience ... It takes a while to get it right

After doing the research, Will went with thinned, dewaxed shellac, olive oil as a lubricant, and rottenstone as a filler/polisher ...

8/28 The french polished neck curing for the weekend .. it is sooooo smooth ... Strings/notes/music? Tomorrow? Soon? I'm ready whenever ....

Inside view of the pot and the steel rod that holds all the parts together ...

8/26/09 ... Frets and side dots are in, neck is final shaped ... drilled for tuners and ready for the nut and the strings ....

Filing a bevel on the peg head .. I was not on hand for the installation of the frets, but I know it involved a brass hammer, a sand bag, some filing with a special fret file and some sanding/polishing

New banjo top right ... 110 year old project banjo from ebay lower left ... 12 and 3/4" pot ...really short neck ??? Peg head looks right with others by the same maker but Will has not yet found a picture of that exact model number with the short neck online

In an earlier post, we got to the point on our banjo where it was time to shape the neck and attach the fretboard. Will's got that all under control now and says he just has to final flatten the fretboard and then he can start installing the frets. After that I think, is a little finish on the neck, final fit up and bolting to the pot, tuners, strings, and music .... This week, I hope ... Click the photos to enlarge them ....

The jig for holding the neck blank for shaping. The neck is clamped to it on both ends.

The heel inlay

The peg head overlay

Locating the fingerboard placement using the nut against the peg head.

Gluing the finished, slotted fretboard to the rough shaped neck

getting close
The previous banjo post showing the steps in fitting the neck blank to the pot, turning and drilling the pot is here ....

Banjo Progress 7/31

July 31st Update .. Click the pictures to enlarge them ...

Cutting the neck with a 3 degree angle. we made this jig with a pivot 5.5" from the blade to cut a swinging angled arc on the end of the neck.

We added onto the other end of the same jig, dropped it over the spindle sander, added another 5.5" pivot, inverted the neck blank and sanded the bandsaw cut smooth. the 'same jig' innovation was Will's brainstorm.

We added a 3 degree inclined ramp to the neck to cut the rabbet where the neck intersects with the head tensioning ring.

This is where we were as of Thursday, ready to cut the fretboard and shape the neck

I'm cutting my fretboard with the pockets for the inlay on the cnc ... The peghead inlay is also ready to cut. The cnc is a luxury and this can be done by hand as long as you accurately layout the frets beforehand
7/19/09

OK ... We're making some progress on the first of two banjos Will and I are building (first post) ... (one to figure out the problems, kind of move it along and see what happens, and then the second one, hopefully, for really real). So far so good on #1. It's complex, but not mind boggling, and it helps that Will can really play the thing, knows what makes a good banjo and what makes a not so good banjo. So here we are, as of Thursday afternoon ... click the pictures to enlarge them ...

First thing after we turned the pot (see previous post) we had to figure out how to drill the holes for the hardware. The tensioning ring has slots in it (see photo at top) and a recess for the neck to attach and we traced the center points of those notches onto the plywood part of the lathe faceplate creating an index. We then removed the metal faceplate and drilled a hole through the center of the faceplate and then one in the table of the multi router, inserted the pivot center pin, set the bit height, backed up the holes on the inside of the pot with a piece of 2x4, figured out how to clamp it, and proceeded to plunge 27 holes through the wall of the pot. ... click the pics to enlarge them ...

Then we put it back onto the lathe, touched up the finish where we drilled, and parted it off the faceplate ... far out ,,, felt like a major accomplishment ... beer time !!

We had previously made some patterns for the neck, fingerboard and head stock veneer ..

and figured out the jig for cutting the angled arc on the end of the neck and now it's fingerboard time ....

Banjo Progress

6/27 .. I turned the outside of my banjo pot this afternoon. It only took a little time to get it to this stage ... The apple turns beautifully ... First I turned the ply ring true amd round and then rabbetted the face to make sure that when I glued on the ring, it would run true with the faceplate, and it did ... I want to discuss the interior diameter and the sound ring (the part the head fits against) with Will before I go further but it's starting to feel pretty good .... On to the the neck and fretboard ....

Gotta love that apple ... it's sanded to 32o and it already shines, even with no finish ...

the trued up faceplate and rabbet

gluing the rough pot to the faceplate

6/26/09 ... These 'spare time' projects certainly take a while to get going, but we're creeping along now .... Will's done a lot of research on turning the pots, and I may try mine over the weekend sometime. His is in the foreground, cherry, walnut and bubinga, and mine's in the clamps, apple and walnut ....

6/15/09 Well, Will wants to build a banjo and now I do too ... We got underway today by doing a test glue up of what's known in the business as 'the pot'. It's three bricklaid rings that will be put on the lathe and turned to about 11" in diameter and a half inch thick. Then you put the skin (head) over that with the hardware and attach the neck when you get it finished. I'm absolutely sure there's more to it than that, and it'll take a while, but not likely as long as The Resonator Guitar did last year. We'll shoot for the middle of July for this one ....

Overall shot of the glue up and form for clamping .... still working out the details

Close up ... Click to enlarge ... These rings are mdf .. real wood maybe tomorrow ...
Sample banjo music here ... Goldtown ... at The Barn in Pawlet 2nd and last Fridays of the month ... Will on banjo, AJ Stearns on guitar and vocals, Josh Loun on bass

6/10/09 ... Action on the real thing .... The rings are glued up individually now and we'll glue up the stack tomorrow and attach them to the metal/plywood disc for turning on the lathe tomorrow ,,

all circle parts cut on the cnc...quick and clean ... the pocket jig in the foreground above is for running the parts through the sander to remove the 'skin' that is left after cutting on the cnc ..