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This is the raw lumber…. maple on top of the purpleheart. You can use a
variety of woods. Keep in mind, some of the more musical “tonewoods”. There
are many, kinds of wood that make great instruments. I suggest that you look up
instrument woods for examples: maple, oak, ash, mahogany, etc are some that I
have used. Keep in mind that some exotics are being exploited and make
environmentally conscious choices. No vibes in killing the last tree!
Look for woods that can be recycled! I have built many quality drums from
scrap wood. Look for shipping pallets and containers etc. Just make sure to
remove nails etc.
I am building a drum from staves. Staves are the individual pieces of wood
that create the shell of the drum. This is how I cut the staves… all to 1”
and 5/8” in this case. If you want a larger drum use wider staves. The amount
of staves determines the angle of the cuts on the side of the staves…. You can
figure out the correct angle by using the following method… amount of staves x
2, then divide 360 by that number. I use 18 staves so it will look like this…
18x2= 36. 360/36=10. 10 here is the degrees to cut the angles. If you use 16
staves you will cut to 11 and ¼ degrees. I like using 18 staves because the
more staves used the easier it is to make the drum round. And getting a setting
of 10 degrees on the table saw is much easier than 11 and ¼ degrees…
After all of the staves are cut to 24”x 13/16”x1 and 5/8”. Now they are
ready to be cut to the proper angles, I am using 18 staves so that makes the
required angle 10 degrees.
Here is how I set the table saw. The rip fence must be set so that the edge
of the wood is JUST BARELY being cut. The angle of the blade leans in toward the
rip fence…
Here is a picture of the desired cut…. Saw is unplugged!
Top view. Notice that the tip of the blade is just barely getting any of the
wood. It must begin to bite there. After all saves are cut on the right side,
you must adjust the rip fence to cut the left side. Cut the left side the same
way, with the same angle. Just barely getting the bottom corner of the wood.
They will look like the following…
Here is the 10 degree angle cut on both sides of each stave…
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