Well, ok, now we're rolling. The first banjo we did together and it took a while to figure out and build ... Most of a summer of spare time, actually. Number 2, Will did on his own and that one also took a while, but not as long as the first one. Number 3, on the other hand is rolling right along. The first picture in this series is from 11/17... Less than a month of spare time .. Pretty good. It's a Christmas present from a grandmother to a grandson and it looks like it will be on time ... Click the photos to enlarge them ....The photo at the top shows the traditional neck to body 'dowel stick' joint. This required a drill press set up with the table on the 4.5 degrees and skewed out of vertical ... an anxiety ridden set up for sure ... He hit it right though ... good to go ..
He started, as usual, by turning the pot, which he bricklaid in cherry and walnut...
This banjo is being referred to as a 'mini' ...and at 8", the head is pretty small.
Next the head and hardware arrived ... It's brass and now it's antiqued, which is a pretty classy look. The plywood is left on the pot until it's drilled for the hardware ...
Since the head is small, the scale is shorter so he had to cut a new indexing jig on the cnc ... That fits into this jig that guides the saw to cut the slots for the frets.
The one on the right is a steel one for a standard scale banjo.
Next is the neck and the truss rod. The pot to neck angle is 4.5 degrees and it's set off from the perpendicular a little to align the cent of the neck with the 'g' string ..
Good fit ... no, perfect fit ...
Here's the finished fretboard and the peg head with the 'swann' inlay ... that's his last name ....
All for now .... Next step .... string it up and add the finish ...