Today is the day I start building a banjo to donate to the Channel 10/36 TV auction.
Took me about half an hour just to clear the junk off the workbench. Being a slob has certain drawbacks.
GOOD news is, it's cold, damp, and windy out. Good day to stay indoors and make sawdust.
Plan is to make an octagonal frame, attach a cut-open soft drink bottle for the head, use stainless steel windshield wiper segments for frets, fishline for strings.
Got a shiPload of nice maple 1x2 from a guy who gets it from a furniture factory, for him to use as firewood!
I was maybe perhaps possibly going to abandon the project, but, Vernob says "GO", and that's all the encouragement I needed..
Body and dowel, with the notch cut. Don't see any real point to making a square hole.
BIGGER pix and more of them in my "PETE Plastic Head Banjo" folder, on my home page.
Pre-drilled about half the depth of the nails, since the first on bent like pascetti when I pounded into what seems to be some HARD hard maple. Trimmed it with a hook blade.
Luckily, a 1500 watt moustache dryer was available, to shrink up the wrinkly plastic.
And, as you can see from the reflection of the sunlight, once the plastic gets heated and shrunk, it's pretty (expletive deleted) tight and shiny.
Mike, Great idea for a project and to donate to a good cause. Also fantastic progress in three hours. It might take me more than that to clean off my bench....
"Young man, your room looks like Schmelzer's workbench!"
And here's what another hour or two looks like:
Didn't notch deep enough. Pretty nail heads would have had strings hitting them. Replaced with brass plated nails.
Countersunk a couple of #6, with glue.
Looked up Stew-Mac's fret calc site, for a 66 mm, 22 fret fingerboard, took the printout to the basement, clamped a metric tape measure to the neck, and commenced to make marks.
And there they are, penciled in and waiting for some stainless steel strips pulled from recycled windshield wiper blades.
Having trouble posting photos,HERE, so I'll add them as attachments, and explain. Spent SOME of the time making a scrap block with a couple of slots and a bolt in the end, so I could lay a piece of recycled windshield wiper blade in, and saw each piece to the right length. Works well, since the neck mis not tapered. Every fret from 5 to 22 is rthe same size.
Glued them on with the front edge of the fret at the edge of the pencil mark. As long as they all go that way, INCLUDING the top nut, they'll all work.
Nice! It sounds good, and not just good for what it is, but just plain good. Make sure PBS has someone on hand to play it, people won't expect it to sound like a proper banjo. Hopefully potential bidders will realize its not a toy and will bid accordingly.
That hand shaped headstock reminded me of a carved electric mandolin I saw up in the Orkney Islands once , a ''mandangling'' Cast your eyes on these beauties
I got tired of my strap clamp and went to masonry twine, 'cause I can TWANG it on every segment and tighten it up. Also Pank twine glows orange under blacklight. I know, how did I learn that?
Body and dowel, with the notch cut. Don't see any real point to making a square hole.
Pre-drilled about half the depth of the nails, since the first on bent like pascetti when I pounded into what seems to be some HARD hard maple. Trimmed it with a hook blade.
Luckily, a 1500 watt moustache dryer was available, to shrink up the wrinkly plastic.
