Hi friends! Welcome to my small world of carpentry – DIY woodworking India. I have developed woodwork as my free time venture starting from mid 2013. It was exciting, new and there were lots of things to learn from carpenters, internet and many other sources! Although I did some wood work in my childhood days probably 20 years back, it was different in the recent times with a few tools I have purchased online.
To begin with, I took up a small project of making a musical instrument called – CAJON. It is a drum with snares installed inside. One face is used for slapping the music beat. Tools used: 1. Jig saw 2. Driller 3. Hammer4. Sand paperRaw materials:1. Plywood – a) 8mm thick. b) 4 mm thick(ply embedded with laminate will be better) 2. Nails 3. glue(Fevicol speed x)4. Guitar tuning head5. Snare – used in drum kit6. 2×1 inch wood pieces for the inside support carcass It is very important to have the plan right in the beginning. If the plan has defects, it will cost you wasting more time towards the end in filing, finishing etc. The plan:All the dimension below will be in inch.1) 20×12 – 8 mm – 2 pieces2) 12×12 – 8 mm – 2 pieces3) 20×12 – 4 mm – 2 pieces
Figure: 5The carcass should be such that it fits the main body of the cajon.
Steps:
1) Cut the 2×1 pieces based on the drawing cited above. I am assuming that you have basic knowledge about the wood joinery. To know more about it, please refer my other blogs on that topic. The famous mortise and tenon joint is shown below.
2) Keep a slot for fitting of the snare wires. It should be such that from that slot, it touches the slapping surface. Fit the snares using screws/nails whichever way is suitable for you.
3) Refer the figure above to understand how the carcass looks like. Snare is pulled by a string(strong thread will also do) which is connected to the guitar tuning head peg. So, when you tighten the head, snare will lean more into the slapping surface thereby you will get more snare effects. You loosen it, there will be less snare effect.
Here is a video which was captured during the making.
4) Once it is ready, it is time to fix the surfaces. Refer to figure 1 to 4 to get an idea how they are fixed. Front surface displayed in the figures are slapping surface. The opposite one has a hole in it for resonating effect. Refer below diagram. All the surfaces apart from the front are fixed with glue + screws. The front surface is fixed with screws primarily because you can tighten/loosen the screws to have different sound.
Figure: 6
5) Once done, it is time to fix the sitting cushion. I have used a piece of yoga mat for the purpose.
You are all done now. Enjoy playing your DIY cajon drum.