rudy - Posted - 06/24/2011:  15:21:32

Hi guys & gals,

Here are a few quick photos I shot while trimming the overhang on a new rim I'm working on.  I often cap the bottom and sometimes the top (as in this case) with a contrasting wood.  This rim was capped with scraps of ebony out of my big 'ol scrap box, flush trimmed, rounded over, and finish sanded.  The resulting rim is shown in the last shot, it is block constructed, veneered with 1/16" segments of spalted maple with ebony separator strips, cherry veneered in the inside, and capped top and bottom with ebony.  The rim is a bit unusual, as the bracket shoes will be mounted in the inside surface of the rim.  The head fits in the top recess and the tone ring is "pushed up" against the head to tension it.  There are 12 #10X24 propeller nuts mounted from the outside of the rim before the spalted maple veneer is added.  I thought I better explain the rim a bit before I received a lot of "What the heck are you doing?" questions.

The pics on my homepage have more descriptive text about what they show.

SpaltedRim5	SpaltedRim4	SpaltedRim3	SpaltedRim2
SpaltedRim1

xnavyguy - Posted - 06/24/2011:  19:07:39

Very nice work! That rim ledge and head tensioning arrangement is exactly like my 100 year old Roland banjo uke.

DantheBanjoMan - Posted - 06/24/2011:  21:45:52

Beautiful work. I love the spalted maple.



I've done the same thing, even to the point of trimming entire layers of block rims. I hardly use the lathe at all anymore on most rims. I used the router table fence as a guide on the outside and gradually backed it off until the bearing did the job, but your method is better because your guide block does the inside as well.

rudy - Posted - 06/25/2011:  05:15:42

quote:

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Originally posted by DantheBanjoMan

Beautiful work. I love the spalted maple.



I've done the same thing, even to the point of trimming entire layers of block rims. I hardly use the lathe at all anymore on most rims. I used the router table fence as a guide on the outside and gradually backed it off until the bearing did the job, but your method is better because your guide block does the inside as well. 

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 Thanks, it's good to hear of others that have abandoned the lathe for the most part.  I've been making lathe-less rims for quite a while and the more I do the more I appreciate the ease of rim construction using the router.  I do the entire rim the same way, starting with a circular guide disk to use as a pattern to route the first layer.  Each successive layer is added and pattern routed to the previous layer.  The huge advantage in using the guide block for both the ID and OD is limiting each pass to 1/16" depth of cut.  That ensures that you won't get any chip-out from a overly aggressive cut from the router bit.

I did stick the circular pattern disk on the lathe for the stepped inner wall shape for the first layer when building up the block rim, but I could have used another option as well to avoid the lathe if I had wanted to.

rudy - Posted - 06/25/2011:  05:21:29

quote:

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Originally posted by xnavyguy



Very nice work! That rim ledge and head tensioning arrangement is exactly like my 100 year old Roland banjo uke.

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 Hi Jerry.  Looks like your banjo uke has 6 tensioners, I'm going with 12 and a bit more robust design.  Did you get it back together and playable?

DantheBanjoMan - Posted - 06/25/2011:  06:49:49

Rudy,

I now use the same method you described to build rims.  It's just so much easier.  I made a stepped outer wall on a resonator type banjo and used the router table.  It was so easy that it felt like cheating.

I still use the lathe to make resonators.

Many of your methods are exactly like or at least very similar to my own, and I think you and I have been unknowingly traveling the same path for quite some time, although it seems that you were ahead of me at every turn.