Not sure how this is going to help you.....but, here ya go....

https://www.homedepot.com/

homedepot.com/p/Trendspot-12-i...306722532

There ya go

How thick a banjo pot do you wish to construct?
C= (Pi) D you do the math and tell us the "exact" length of 4" wide lumber
A two ply rim or pot can or may use two pieces of 1/2" lumber and then be turned on both the outside and inside to construct a 3/4" thick two ply pot.
What method of steam bending will you use?
What kind of joining method?
What type of woodworkers' joints Butt or Feather/Scarf? The word scarf is more vulgar from a production point of view and perhaps more common in cabinetmakers' realms.
How many rims are you producing?
I prefer to answer people who disclose who they are and where they are from.
What response. Mon bon ami?

I agree with Larry that it's tough to answer a question when you don't know the experience level or anything about the questioner.

I always look up a poster's bio and info on their page, and rarely respond to a poster wo tells you nothing about themselves, and I'm sure I am not alone in this..

I think many questions go unanswered because of it

On another note, I don't think Home Depot would have much lumber that would be suitable for a first try at steam-bending rim slats.

That’s why I recommended 1/2” lumber
Otherwise 1/8 & 1/16” make too much sawdust in my opinion
My friend in Kentucky makes the nicest two-ply rims with a pressurized steam cabinet he built to get 290 F. Math again
“Then you got about 5 seconds.”
Ken understands this

There are so many new young faces and players here that we have been relatively immune to others’ fear and hate and dumpster fires
The elders should relax a little and rejoin the hangout by soon because many other people would benefit

Can anyone here say they've successfully bent a banjo rim from 1/2" thick stock in a home shop environment?

Aren't most bent rims made of plies around 3/8 thick? And many others from several layers around 1/8" thick.

If I was to start bending wood for rims, I'd start in the 1/8th inch range and laminate.

Pressurized steam is extremely dangerous on several levels.

I've never bent a banjo rim but have bent a lot of wood and sets of guitar sides. Thickness makes a huge difference.

To the OP, if you are serious about this, you should start by learning how to calculate your own dimensions, it is something you will need to learn. Then spend some time researching steam bending wood.

Best of luck!

Laminated wood is a miraculously strong construction, — no method of curved wood construction is as strong but you have to have the right kind of wood in terms of species, grain orientation and moisture content.

As a brief description  of how I go about making laminated banjo rims (others have different methods), which may be interesting to some, I’ll briefly describe several steps:
(1) the most important things as previously stated, but it’s so important, I’ll say it again are: having the straight grain wood slats cut in the right grain direction and having a high enough moisture content —kiln dried lumber is a no-no to me—it ruins the wood for bending forever and can make it impossible to bend.  I would get the wood from a local sawmill, and tell them how I want it cut.  Here’s a picture of a birch log—you only need 4 or 5 feet:

Once you get the slats cut, you have to sticker them and let them dry out under weights for a week or so depending on the weather and what time of year the log was sawn (winter is best)—much of this is an experiential judgment call. 

Here is a steamer made of galvanized stovepipe—I have also made them from wood and PVC plumbing pipe—they all work. I don’t use any pressure, but let the steam freely escape from the box.  After steaming, slats are roughly bent to see if they are going to break, then glued into a form.  You can glue one slat per day because of the glue cure time when making the lamination, so it’s good to have several forms.

The moisture cooks out when you steam the wood, but the molecular structure of the wood is not altered, as has been suggested.—the wood just becomes momentarily pliable, momentarily being the keyword.  I would not try to bend a slat much above 1/4” with my setup—never 1/2"  The slats do not "click into place" as I have read, but must be muscled into the form very quickly during that brief moment of pliability.

The slats are clamped into the form with cauls until the dedicated laminating glue which won't creep and cures overnight at temps above 70F— I use a heat lamp @ 100F.  (I don’t use titebond)

When you knock the finished rim out of the form, you have to square it up with a lathe before fitting tone rings and bracket bands. You can do this quickly without a cross-feed once you get good at it.  I don't have a cross feed or chuck, but use faceplates—a subject unto itself.

If you did it right, you will have tight glue joints.

On the bottom close-up you will notice the quarter flake on the top of the slats—that's the correct, at least traditionally best grain orientation.I use that for block rims, too.

Compare that to a 1927 PW Gibson rim

Ken LeVan , in the two examples (yours & Gibson's) shown, are they built up of three separate pieces, one inside the other? Or are they one long piece wrapped around itself three (or more) times?
Thanks.

quote:

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Originally posted by Jbo1

Ken LeVan , in the two examples (yours & Gibson's) shown, are they built up of three separate pieces, one inside the other? Or are they one long piece wrapped around itself three (or more) times?
Thanks.

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They are three separate pieces with staggered scarf joints. Gibson developed a "jelly roll" rim that was one 9-foot piece years ago, but it never panned out.

Ken

Excellent post as usual, factual and supported with how to information and real world pictures.

Thanks!

Double post deleted

Can anyone here say they've successfully bent a banjo rim from 1/2" thick stock in a home shop environment?

Aren't most bent rims made of plies around 3/8 thick? And many others from several layers around 1/8" thick.

If I was to start bending wood for rims, I'd start in the 1/8th inch range and laminate.

Pressurized steam is extremely dangerous on several levels.

I've never bent a banjo rim but have bent a lot of wood and sets of guitar sides. Thickness makes a huge difference.

One has eloquent call outs.  A two ply rim is a two ply rim, 2- 3/8" strips don't make the math.

Steam chambers are just that.

I have the rim in my possession with feather joints.  Provenence photos are not necessary unless something else is bugging a person.

I remember starting a discussion about using Cherry and being told it was the most unstable and how I must put pieces in a plastic bag with water in it and so forth.  One didn't follow that advice themselves, so neither did I.

A two ply rim and 290 F. are totally possible and are realities.  It's Friday night, I'm off to socialize with other musicians.  The Autumn evenings are quite enjoyable during this harvest moon.  Neil Young knew about that, too.  I hope one would enjoy this season. (  ))==='== ::}

Postscript:  The Quaker Meeting Hall here was built in 1947 and utilized laminated beams for the forward thinking cantilever roof.  There are two planks of Tiger Maple installed in the ceiling panels.  This is the character of such people.  The planks are completely innocent and still in place. (     o}==== :::]

In terms of the thickness of plies, of course, it depends on how thick the rim is, how many plies you want to use ,and whether the rim will have some configuration other than a plain cylinder.

Gibson type rims are three ply—one-piece flange ones different from two-piece flange ones,Vega rims were 7 ply, there are numerous other systems.   and BTW, glue interfering with the sound is abject nonsense. Gibson made three-ply rims because it was cheaper and they couldn’t make one or two ply ones.

The rim geometry is determined by your banjo design.  I don't make Gibson type rims, but if I did, for OPF rims, I would make a 5/8" rim with an added ply around the top instead of turning away a thicker ply.

I failed to mention in my brief tutorial that you have to plane the slats to some parallel thicknesses— you can use a planer or Saf-T-plane for this.  I made a set of aluminum thickness gauges made for my rims, which are three-ply and a little thicker than 5/8". Only the outer ply is 1/4"+" If I make a 3/4"rim, all plies would be 1/4"+. There is no point in making a rim blank that is thicker than it needs to be, it's just a waste of wood. I always put a veneer that matches the neck on the inside that makes them a little bit thicker—you have to develop a system.  I always make the thickest outer ply that will have rabbets for the tone ring skirt and bracket band the same wood as the neck, the two inner plies maple, cherry, birch, or beech depending on the stiffness I want to achieve for that particular banjo, and the inner veneer the same as the neck.

Stelling rims have a  complicated design with a taper which made laminating problematic, so they went to a block rim construction.  Rims for tube-and-plate flanges or tube bracket bands need a bump-out, which requites an extra piece to be added if it's a laminated rim.  Tapered "megaphonic" rims are a whole different animal.

There is no "best" system.

As noted by many other posts about Home Depot.
Birch sheets of "proper proportion" are available.

Note: I visited the Musical Instrument Museum in Mark Neu Kirchen in former East Germany in 2003. C.F. Martin was born there.
They have a Martin dreadnought held hostage in a lower case there noting that he moved away to New York, USA.
They still provide apprenticeships and masters' employment for 220 or so craftsmen still hand producing the finest violins.
In the alleys behind the workshop I saw straight stacked silvered Maple instrument neck blanks.
Stacked straight/Cured straight. These were out in the weather year-round until specs were met after scrutiny.
The stacks were covered with minimal plywood covers but were protected from direct sun and rain and other "elements."
They have the perfect cold dry weather up at those latitudes because of the jetstream which produced the moderate ocean temperatures.

The latitudes equal to Winnepeg, Manitoba.

I had the Smokey and the Bandit '76 Bellflower in my shop.  

The elegant Maple production rim with butt joints and pyramidal flange ledge was the most innovative I have seen. The ledge was Black Walnut inserted.

An entire Black Walnut flange is then economical and strong

He was using two tier flat grain latitudinal weaker "Lay up" rims post Maple for budget reasons prior to Tony Pass rims of Birch.

The two tier layups are known to be inferior by all cabinetmakers and the holes needed for round rim rods were too close to the tier joint.  I was on the phone with Mr.Pass when he opened up a warranty package from Mr. Stelling. 

Delaminations are more common with greener lumber used for production.

So look forward to the OP's response.  I don't trust 1/8" ledges because people don't properly center one piece flanges, 

And trim is still necessary with any good/better/best rim blank.

The Tootsie Roll rim was just another disconnection from the people actually playing mediocre tone ring holders.