Well, it's been nearly a year since my last post.  I have not been able to work on my banjo very much during that time and only made real progress in the last month.  I'll make a few posts today to get up to speed. I have done some shaping of the neck and peghead...

Jason and Pharis Romero make some beautiful banjos at their company, J. Romero Banjo Co. Check out this great video by Matt Miles: [vimeo 35964972...

I have been looking forward to this step for a while.  I traced my template for the peghead design onto the veneer side.  The circles are where the tuners will eventually be installed.   The cuts to shape the peghead are made on the bandsaw.  It is traditional to make...

The tuners I purchased are made to work with a peghead thickness between 7/16in and 3/4in.  I decided to finalize my peghead thickness at 5/8in.  I ran the peghead through the bandsaw to take off about 1/8in from the back side.  I then sanded everything smooth.  Below...

After the fretboard was glued in place, I transferred lines from my template to the neck.   And made the cuts on the bandsaw.   Here is the neck with the edges of the fretboard cut.  The neck tapers from the rim to the nut.  The neck also bumps out in between the 4th...

The fretboard is glued to the neck, leaving a gap for the nut.  It must also run straight down the neck so the fret slots are perpendicular to the centerline of the neck.  Below I am fitting the fretboard and nut, making pencil marks for alignment during gluing.   To...

After sanding what will be the top surface of my peghead veneer with 400 grit sandpaper, I marked and roughly cut out the hole for the tension rod pocket.  The blade I had on hand for my coping saw was too rough so I used a Dremel tool to rout it out.  While I was...

I dressed my fretboard a bit in preparation for cutting the fret slots.  I sanded the top surface with 400 grit sandpaper and trimmed the piece closer to the final dimensions on the table saw.  When the fretboard is complete and on the neck, it is tapered and...

The neck attaches to the rim by means of the dowel stick.  The dowel stick is glued to the heel of the neck where it meets the rim.  When the neck and rim are assembled, the dowel stick passes through a hole in the rim and crosses to the opposite side, where it is...

I decided one of the first things I should do, while the neck is still in its squared off shape, is cut the radius where it will attach to the rim.  Adapting some examples from Old-Time Banjocraft and the web, I made a jig to hold the neck at 3 degrees.   The neck is...