grizzly1 - Posted - 02/05/2012:  12:31:52

I am attempting my first hide head. The actual mounting has gone smoothly, so now it's on to drying. All the readings I have come across suggest  24 hours of drying before tensioning. Has anyone tried speeding up the the process? I was thinking about locating the head over a heating vent. Good? Bad? Otherwise? 

Thanks,

Mark

jbalch - Posted - 02/05/2012:  12:49:48

I have thought about doing that.  But I did not want to place the wood rim over the vent.

Someskins seem to dry faster.  I've had a few that were stable after only a few hours.  But I really prefer not to rush the process.

Good luck with it. 

(I'm linking this to the hide heads group).

tdennis - Posted - 02/05/2012:  12:53:36

The practice of slow drying is to allow a collar to form before final tensioning.  I would think that "speed drying" would make the collar constantly  shrink.   It also takes a much longer time for the wet areas of the head , which are tucked, & down inside the hoop to dry.  It seems that speed drying would dry the top surface very quicky,  which could pull away from the vulnerable wet edges.   (if you do try it, let us know how it works out)

grizzly1 - Posted - 02/05/2012:  13:18:57

Enquiring minds want to know! Here goes.

jbalch - Posted - 02/05/2012:  15:21:54

That is a nice looking hide.  let us know how it comes out...I bet it will be fine.

JB

Fathand - Posted - 02/05/2012:  16:03:03

Hair dryer works for me on a gourd tackhead banjo. If i take it out and the head is saggy, a couple minutes with the hair dryer works well to tighten it up.  The first time you want it to air dry though, otherwise you don't know if it will go too tight and burst.

banjonz - Posted - 02/05/2012:  16:05:32

When fitting skins, I tension up reasonably tight then sit it on the electric hot water cylinder (uninsulated) over night. She comes up a beauty. No spliting or breakage.

grizzly1 - Posted - 02/05/2012:  18:52:00

Well, so far it seems as if the heater vent speed drying method is working out. Just took the head for it's first test drive. It's been about 8 Hours since I soaked the skin through to stringing her up. It's been an interesting project. The only thing I would do different is seat the tension ring a bit lower next time. I have not idea how to describe the change in sound. Less like mylar, more like skin? Seems like the decay is a bit faster, different overtones, I like it. 

carlb - Posted - 02/06/2012:  06:00:06

quote:

---

Originally posted by grizzly1

I was thinking about locating the head over a heating vent. Good? Bad? Otherwise? 

---

 I think it's a bad idea. After mounting a wet skin, there should be a just a bit of looseness still in the head, which will tighten in 24 hours. Then you can start to adjust before cutting away excess skin. You can always remove the skin and start over if you're not happy about the tension, but once you cut the excess away, it's final.

Guess, my thoughts came a bit late.

Edited by - carlb on 02/06/2012 06:10:28

grizzly1 - Posted - 02/06/2012:  09:55:31

More data. Around the 11 hour mark, approximately 3 hours after stringing, I had to tighten the head about a third of a turn. I am not sure if the mechanism was the head absorbing ambient humidity, or if the new load of the bridge on the head was causing the head fibers to streach over a couple of hours and this is part of the adjustment process, or some other mechanism. The head is now nearing the 24 hour of drying mark. No detectable change in head equilibrium since the last adjustment.

Other info. The pot is 5/8 ebony block construction with a Deering tone ring. Fairly stable, so I felt it could take a few hours over over the heater vent. I am guessing the air temp was somewhere around the 110 degree mark. The heater is running about 20 min out of each hour.

rcmoore - Posted - 02/06/2012:  14:25:12

I've tried speeding up skin head drying. I've used a hair dryer, a heat gun, and radiant heater. The problem I had was addressed earlier. There was quite a difference in drying between the open head and the skin that was under the tension hoop. When I installed the strings and bridge and tightened things up; within a short period the head seemed to sag. I think this was caused by the skin under the tension hoop stretching because it was still moist. I just let them dry at least 24 hours in a reasonably dry atmosphere. Even after 24 hours, with the high humidity here in South Louisiana, I usually remove a skin head from the pot and tension hoop and let it dry an additional couple of hours before permantly installing one.
Bob Moore

Old Man - Posted - 02/06/2012:  15:01:16

I have installed several and put them next to my Dehumidifier in the basement, works well.

grizzly1 - Posted - 02/06/2012:  17:41:12

Thanks everybody for the experience/perspectives!

RC, I was wondering about the area under the tension ring stretching/drying too. The simple model I am working with is more moisture means looser head, less moisture means tighter head. If the area behind the tension ring was still soft I would have guessed as it dried out the head would have tightened up instead of relaxed. So far the tightest it's been was when it came off the heater. There was the initial relaxation around 3 hours after it was strung up and in looking at it next to the desk as I write, it need about another 1/4 turn. I have been wondering if what was going on was that the heater drove more moisture out of the head than is available as ambient humidity. The other process I am wondering about is fiber stretching as this is the first time the head is under load. Maybe a combination of both?

Love the sound, wife's giving it the thumbs up, I see more hide heads in my future.