by KenK | Feb 7, 2015 | Banjo
Once I was finished with shaping the rim and sanding it smooth, it was time to separate it from the plywood backing it was glued to. The rim blank was about 3in deep and I decided that the finished rim should be 2 1/2in deep, based on how the rim, the heel of the...
by KenK | Feb 2, 2015 | Banjo
I somehow managed to not take any pictures of my rim blank before moving on to the next step, but here is a photo of one from the web: The blank needs to be mounted on the lathe so it can be turned. I decided the easiest way for me was to glue the blank to a circle...
by KenK | Feb 1, 2015 | Banjo
Once the rims strips were bent into shape and dry, they needed to be glued together to build the rim blank. The rim blank is then turned on a lathe to make it perfectly round and the correct size. I made a form for gluing up the strips shown here: The form is made...
by KenK | Feb 1, 2015 | Banjo
The rim is made from 3 pieces of maple, each about 1/4in thick and 3in wide. Each piece needs to be steam bent to form a circle about 12in in diameter. I used an electric water heater element as a heat source to create the steam. I fashioned a little boiler using...
by KenK | Jan 27, 2015 | Banjo
I started work on some mother of pearl inlay for the peghead. Later, I will cut some inlay for spots along the fretboard. I designed the peghead inlay on my computer and printed it out, then glued that to a piece of mother of pearl. The inlay is cut with a saw...
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