Things With Strings

Following on from yesterdays woodpile , I thought I'd have a go at cutting some sections that can eventually be formed in to a banjo pot. The idea is to build the rim in circular layers with each layer initially being formed from sections of an octagon. To do this, in theory, you just set the mitre saw to 22.5 degrees and cut out sections of the desired length. In practice, it's never quite as easy as it sounds and it was not a complete success, mainly because my source material was not square, so getting a tight fit between segments was difficult, however, it was my first time, and I learned a few things in the process, and I've still got all ten digits remaining on my hands, so I'll just put it down to experience. Anyway, my plan is to build two banjos at the same time, or more precisely, a 5-string banjo for me, and a banjo ukulele (or banjo uke, ukulele banjo, banjolele or whatever) for my son. And since he's getting it for nothing, I figured I'd experimen

A couple of years ago we had some paving done at home and the crates/pallets that the flags were delivered in looked to be made of some sort of hardwood, which one of the builders said he'd been told was mango wood. That sounded interesting, so I spent a few hours (many hours actually) disassembling the pallets and removing the nails, then I stacked the wood up in my garage and it's been there ever since. Well, today the weather was fine, and I decided to start planing some of it up to see if any of it could be of use to start building a banjo. So far it's been a bit hit and miss (mostly miss) and it's pretty poor stuff, but there is a lot of it, and I think I'll be able to find decent stuff in there. The planing came to an abrupt halt though when the drive belt on my electric planer bust, so I didn't get much done, although I did create a ton of wood shavings and a fair bit of firewood. A new drive belt has been ordered, so watch this space!