30 Cajons Later

My drum kits have rabbets instead of finger joints.

 On the 17th of October I wrote about cutting down the plywood for the 30 Cajon kits that I was to make.

 60 sides.
 60 tops/bottoms
 30 fronts
 30 backs.
 120 rabbets
 30 three inch wholes
 15 snares cut in half
 and three hours of wrapping. 
 All that remains is to cut 120 battens to be glued inside the drum to support the thin plywood that makes up the front and back of the cajon.

  This is a job that was not engaging but still required quality control.

 These are the two stacks of bundles that will be delivered to the school at weeks end.  I have to cut 1 x 2 to make the battens for these 30 drums (boxes) and provide the 5/8 #2 screws that will be used to screw the fronts onto the boxes.  The backs are going on with glue and brads.

 This is a task that would have been overwhelming if I didn't have a sliding mitre saw and a router table.

 I cut the sides and the fronts at the same time so that the pieces for each drum would be exactly the same length.  I also cut the top/bottom in pairs so that they would be exactly the same length.  When you are making this many units by hand it is inevitable that there will be slight variation one to the next, but that isn't a problem as the parts are not meant to be inter-changeable. 

  The process of making 30 Cajon drums in a home basement shop was interesting and educational. It taught me that I would not really like to take on another project of this size and type again. 

 Initially I tried to do each operation only once like a factory production line would but that didn't suit my space or disposition. It was dull and meant that there were big piles of pieces stacked on my bench and they seemed to be in the way half the time.  

 By the time I was making the last ten drums I had settled on a system of cutting the front, back and two sides, then drilling the whole in the back with a three inch hole saw bit and cutting the four rabbets.  That way I ended up with a manageable number of piles in my shop.  After I had the first section done I cut the top/bottoms and added them to a four piece package and sanded the rough bits and edges.

  Once I had the ten x six piece bundles done I taped four rubber feet inside the bundle and wrapped the whole thing in stretch wrap.

  Mixing up the procedure turned out to be less boring and easier on my back as I used a variety of postures instead of staying in one position for an extended time.

  

this is what the cajon can do.

cheers, ianw