The Cajón, Day 3

August 16th, 2013:

 

Last night I worked a little bit on the dowel rod that the snare will rest against, when I choose to turn the snare off. I flattened the two ends of the dowel (I think it's about a 3/4" dowel), so I could easily screw on an L-bracket. The L-bracket will then be screwed into the sides of the cajón. I will cover the dowel with some felt, where the snare will rest against.

(By the way, that little piece of wood above the dowel is just there so that the dowel wouldn't roll backwards when I took the photo.)

 

 

 

 

This morning I first glued the sides to the base and top piece. (Forgot to take a photo of this!) Using two Pony web band clamps, with their aluminum corner supports, helped keep it all square. Here's a photo of the product from the web:

 

After the basic frame was dry, I glued on the battens for the sides and top and base. These will give some extra area to screw on the tapa (top).

 

ABOVE: Here's a close-up of the little cut-out I made in the side battens, to accommodate my snare-adjustment modifications.

BELOW: After I had glued on the battens, I realized that I wouldn't need to use the L-brackets to attach the snare-rest rod. I cut a new section of the 3/4" dowel and just slightly flattened the two ends of the rod, so they would rest on the underside of the batten. Then I glued those flattened ends to the batten. Later I might screw those two ends into the batten, just to make it a little more secure.

 

       

After I got back from dinner with some friends, I removed the snare-adjustment rod. Then I glued and clamped the back onto the box.

 

Here you can see the snare-rest dowel in the upper part of the box. I decided I didn't need to screw the dowel onto the battens, as the glue bond was strong enough.