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BUILDING THE BANJO RIM click on photo for larger image

This is the original rim design. We had hoped to turn this from a custom curly maple laminated 3 ply blank. When this proved not feasible we built the rim as follows.

We decided to use 8 3/4 inch thick blocks to make up each pie shaped layer. The bottom two layers were made from figured maple and the top layer was made of ironwood, a green tinged wood with bell like qualities.

Below is Sam cutting the blocks to angle and length. The blocks are then taped in line, glue applied, rolled into shape and clamped.

After the rim was glued up and cured, we took it to the band saw where it was cut into its basic circular shape.

Next it was placed into the lathe chuck and turned. It was important to true the outside of the rim for width, square and height.

Curly maple bindings were made, then bent on the binding jig. While the rim was still on the lathe the bindings were glued, then the rim was sanded.

This is when the fun began!

The rim was stained to match the ebony neck. The idea was to maintain the figure but have it fit visually with the ebony. I was not pleased in the least with the result. What a sin it was to blacken such beautiful grain with the stain. After much thought and consultation we settled on a ebony rim.

BUILDING THE EBONY RIM

First a stock of quality ebony was found, then milled into usable blanks.

The banks were glued into 4 rough circle forms. Then glued together to form a rim blank. There was a macassar ebony cap glued on at this time also.

Much of the waste wood was removed using our router table, saving much time and aggravation during turning.

The rim blank was mounted on the lathe and turned. The tone ring was fit at this time. This was the most time consuming rim turning I have ever done, not only was the wood precious but the ebony dulled the tools at an amazing rate.