Posted by TD_Frailin on Monday, April 22, 2013
I just finished up a gourd banjo and decided to start on my next build. I had been looking for various things to build a banjo with at local thrift stores and a couple of months ago I bought a nice solid wood salad bowl for $1.00. So, I forked over the dollar and it's been sitting on the kitchen table and holding various fruits and other kitchen items. Now I'm hoping to make a functional instrument out of it. While looking up information regarding the building process, I came across some of Jeff Delfield's YouTube videos and it turns out he has made some fine banjos from wooden bowls. I suggest you check out his videos or his website by searching for Deep Creek Strings.
Here's the bowl:
Day 1:
As usual, I started the neck from a rectangular block of maple that I had cut from a large slab that I picked up from a yard sale last summer. I cut the shape out of the block using a hand saw.:
I then used a wood rasp to start forming the shape of the neck:
Day 2:
On the second day I finished forming the neck with a wood rasp and began sanding. I first used a sanding disc attachment on a power drill to get the really difficult stuff under control. Then I did the rest of the sanding by hand. I decided to go with a slotted head this time around. I have no idea if I'm doing it right, or if it will even work, but I'm going to try it. I first used a pencil to draw the slots on the headstock. Then I drilled a hole at each end of the slot pattern. I used a coping saw to cut out the wood that remained between the drill holes:
So far I have worked on this during 2 evenings (~4 - 5 hrs), mostly using non-powered hand tools.
May 4, 2013 update: I broke the bowl when attempting to drill my dowel stick hole through the side. Now I'm searching for another nice bowl to use. I've drilled out the dowel hole in the heel of the neck and have started reaming out my peg holes in the headstock. Once I get a new bowl I will drill the dowel holes and tack on the skin head. Until then . . .
May 26, 2013 - I didn't have any luck tracking down a replacement salad bowl, so I repaired the large gourd I intended to use for the first gourd banjo build (it had a 2 inch crack starting at the rim). I used wood glue and applied pressure overnight. The crack sealed nicely and seemed strong enough to withstand a tacked skin head. The skin head dried nice and tight, and the old crack is still nice and sealed.
I finished working on the neck that I had intended to use on the salad bowl banjo and fit it to the large gourd. This is the first assembly:
I strung it up to see if everything aligned correctly and found that this gourd has a fantastic sound. I can't wait to apply the finish and put it back together so I can break it in. It has a much fuller, deeper tone than the first gourd banjo (which still sounded pretty decent in my opinion).
1 comment on “Salad Bowl Banjo #001 which turned into Gourd Banjo #002”
mainejohn Says:
Tuesday, April 23, 2013 @1:20:13 PM
I like it!
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