Gluing the Rim Strips Together

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:

Rim gluing form

The form is made from 4 layers of 3/4in plywood glued together.  The inner circle is about 12 3/16in.  The form has a clasp in front and a hinge at the rear to allow the form to open to make it easier to remove the rim.

Hinge

Form opens for removing rim

The strips are fitted into the form in concentric circles.  The first strip needs to be fitted to the inside of the form so the ends of the strip just come together with no gap.  The next strip is then cut to just fit inside the first strip

The strip needs to fit into the form with the ends meeting

I cut each strip on the bandsaw, removing a bit at a time until it fit properly.

Cutting a strip on the bandsaw

Here I have the first two strips gluing together in the form using all my clamps:

Gluing the first two strips together

I placed the seams 120 degrees apart so there would be no weak point.  The neck of the banjo will be attached where the outer seam is in order to hide it.

Once all three pieces were glued together I had my rim blank ready to be turned to its final dimensions.