Making Salad Bowl Banjo #3

These photos and videos were done for the person who commissioned this banjo. I documented many aspects of the process of my making this banjo for him, but made it public for all to see here.

What follows is in opposite chronological order (in other words, if this is your first time viewing this page, scroll to the bottom first).

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Here it is completed and demonstated on youtube:

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Test, one-two, test. Check. Check. Is this thing working?

Strung up, tuned up...how does it sound? Take one.

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New bowl - new skin - Perfect!

While the new bowl is not as "beautiful" as the first bowl, it actually is better suited to being a banjo. The skin is super tight (and it was humid in my basement when these were taken - 2 inches of rain that day). Here are a few pics and a video.

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Setback has gone from minor to major. The reason for the loose skin has been diagnosed: a skin cannot tighten on a cracked bowl. I'm devastated by this turn of events. This was (is) such a beautiful bowl. I'm heart broken that I can't use it for this project. The wood turner has been called and a new is being produced.

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Well, this is the first setback of the whole project (everything went so smoothly until now). The skin did not dry tight. I can think of two possible causes: 1) I did not apply enough glue and 2) the top of the bowl is beveled forcing the skin to come off the top of the bowl as it dries and tightens. Anyway, see the video below, which was taken 24 hours after the skin was tacked on, to see the sad state of this banjo head.

Anyway, this will not cost anything to the owner, except time. I have plenty of spare skins. This skin will come off, the top of the bowl will be de-beveled and a new skin will be tacked on.

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Calfskin tacked on Still needs to be trimmed (masking tape protects the side of the bowl)