Eye of Nu – P3

In taking the section of the base to be engraved I stumbled upon a common problem I have been faced with over the years…a perfect,level glue-up.? Because of the way I cut my staves to conserve wood, I end up with a stave that looks like this…

Rather than like this…

I’ve just ignored this as I level the top and bottom of the drum by hand.? There is another angle on the ends to make the section level and top and bottom perpendicular.

Stave how it usually is on glue up.

Stave how it should be on glue up.

Like I’ve said, I’ve always just leveled the edges by hand after glue up, but they’re not perfect.? This little bit out of ‘square’ is ok with a one section drum like an ashiko because there is a skin on one end and the other sits on the ground, as long as I visually level it and it sits flat, I’m happy.? When joining sections, this edge being level and flat is crucial to a solid glue-up and a level drum…

Doing this blog has inspired me to do these staves right.? I had attempted a while ago and things went from bad to worse so I had scrapped the idea.? This multi-section djembe has me realizing the potential if I take a bit more time to get these angles just right.

I know my miter saw has been out of alignment for way too long…but I will have to tune it up so I can get these specific compound angles cut on each stave.? My miter saw is far from a precision machine.? It’s a cheapo that I’ve had for years.? I’ll upgrade it right after the lathe, planer, band saw and router table… the list never stops.

An hour of tweaking and my saw is tuned up as good as it can be.? The bed is pretty far from flat and level, maybe 1/64 off over the distance of the table…not horrible, but not good for this type of work.

The first stave came out great…? now 13 more to go before the test fit!

I’m really happy with the results.? Other than some tare-out because of my crappy miter saw blade, everything worked out nice.? I love finding a new process…. this will now be a regular part of my drum building routine.? The section is level, flat, and will need minimal work to smooth up the ends before connecting to the other sections.

On another note, I found a source for blood wood.? At 9 bucks a board foot it ain’t cheap, but it sure is purty!? It will make some killer accents on this mostly maple djembe.

All wasn’t lost at the engravers though.? I did some test runs to figure out my depth settings and line thickness and how the laser would act on the maple.?? Back to the engravers tomorrow for some more engraving.? I also need to order in some inlay material for filling the logo.