Saturday March 14th 2014

  I can't think of a clever title for this blog.  After 621 blogs I hope you will forget a small case of writers block. Aside from lacking an interesting title I to have two videos and some photos to share.

  Last November I blogged about making 30 Cajons for a local school. Yesterday some photos arrived of the Cajons finished and decorated by the kids.  I have been sent a bunch of photos, and to be fair I have to show them all.

 Well done kids.  I hope that you have hours of banging and pounding and making music.

 The first video I wanted to share was a short article  by Chris Schwarz.  "Why I love Spade Bits", is certainly going to make me rethink the spade bit. I especially like the idea of re-sizing the bits slightly. As with every other product, things seem to be more expensive in Canada, but spade bits are still reasonably priced, and there are always cheaper brands available.

 The second video is a router table video. The video shows components being made for another project but what I wanted to show off was the use of the auxiliary fence and the push block. Even though the wood workers in the video are using a very good router table system, the Kreg table, they realize that a couple of specialized jigs can make the job even easier.

 cheers  Ianw

ps. we are getting ready for a trip to Sweden, soon you will be hearing from an international correspondent. 

  Think spring, it is just around the corner, maybe, although our snow is melting, finally and that is a good sign. 

 

Cajons at School

                                               

   Last November 3rd I showed a pile of 30 Cajon kits finished and ready to be delivered to a local school. It was a big job for a small shop space dealing with the sheet stock, and a bit repetitive too. 

  Today I went to the school to see have the kids were getting along putting their kits together.  As with so many school activities the parents financial contributions have been slowish to arrive and so not all the kids have their kits yet.  The drum above belongs to a good little boy that was the first in the class to finish.  All that remains is whatever wild paint job he decides.  He can also really play the cajon.  I opted for 1/8 ply for the front and I feel that contributes to a fine sound.

  You can't imagine the chaos of the class room with about 12 kits in various stages of assembly.  Some of the kids have never held a screw driver or driven a nail, but they are right in there making it happen.  I supplied the kids with clamps for assembly and a hand plane to trim the edges once it is all glued together.

  I've been promised photos of the fully finished and painted Cajons. The sound of the drums is remarkably good so I suggest the cajon as a basic wood working project for you and your kids.

cheers, ian 

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

The Cajon Project

  The Cajon drum is currently a fashionable folk instrument. It has a number of attractive points, it is not very loud, it is easy to play and fairly simple to make.  All of the above virtues gives it potential as a elementary school musical instrument. I have a long time friend teaching in a local elementary school that has commissioned two class sets of cajons for his kids, 30 drums in all.

  I am not by nature a production wood worker but the cause was good and there was a bit of profit in the project,(if I don't keep track of time invested too closely) and so I have under taken to make 30 Cajon drums.(with my friend's help)

1st. you begin with a pile of Baltic birch,
 7 sheets 1/2 inch and 4 sheets 1/8 inch.
 

  

 The next part of the task was work space, there was no way to comfortably work with 5 foot by 5 foot sheets of plywood in my down stairs shop.  Two saw horses with a sheet of plywood and some supporting pieces made a work table arrangement that was up to the task, when there were four hands available for moving the sheets and holding them firmly while cutting.

  The Kreg Rip Cut jig proved to be an excellent tool for cutting those sheets of plywood into 11 3/4 inch strips. There are two things which you need to be aware when taking on a job like this with a circular saw and a jig. One, the long arm of the jig makes clamping the wood a problem, thus the need for an extra set of hands. Second, the jig doesn't have much registration left as you get to the very end of the cut and so you have to be very, very careful not to nip the end a bit as you finish the cut.Keeping those things in mind the jig worked a charm.

 As well as a good jig I used an excellent saw blade. The Freud blade I used cut very smoothly with nearly no tear out, the edges of the Cajons will need only the lightest sanding, just enough to break the edge, not to hide tear out.

some of the plywood ready to be cross cut.

  I will cut the plywood to length with my sliding mitre saw because I want to work in my shop where it is warm rather than in the garage where the only heat is supplied by mother nature, not because I think it will do any better job than the circular saw with the good blade.

  Next week I am away on holiday so the blog posts will be atmospheric, not practical.

  cheers, ianw