I remember Dad telling stories about how he wasn’t allowed to get a drum set when he was growing up. And then when I was growing up, I remember Mom and Rachel telling him to stop drumming his fingers on his desk downstairs because it made too much noise. This poor man deserves a drum!
Steve Ramsey posted a couple videos about making cajons. (Is the plural of that “cajones”?) I chose to make his bongo cajon version. It seemed like a simple project, but as usual, I was amazed at how many ways I found to screw it up. Woodworking really is about starting your project and then figuring out how to fix all the mistakes you make along the way.
It was fun to be able to pick pretty much any wood that I wanted for the main body of the drum. I walked around Crosscut Hardwoods for a while and ended up buying some sapele. That seemed like more fun to work with than the 1/2″ plywood that Steve used in his version. The top required 1/8th plywood and since I didn’t want to pay bunch of money for a full size fancy sheet from Crosscut, I got a really cheap piece from Home Depot instead. It doesn’t have quite the tone to it that I was hoping for, but I think it will still be a fun gift.
Merry Christmas Dad!
