Headstock Design #1, for a 3-String Cookie Tin Canjo

I'm working my way up from "one string soda can on a stick" variety canjos to "3-string round cookie tin Banjo-Canjos," I finished a "
2-Stringer" a few days ago and have been playing and tweaking it, since. The instrument is tuned G-D, and the second string plays/sounds best as a drone. So, playing it is not much different than a one string canjo, but it sounds a lot better. Now I want to add another string, but that means a more complex headstock design. So, here are some ideas I have been floating around in my head for the first design. Need to get the ideas on paper, so I will do that here.


My 3-String Banjo-Canjo Project -- Building the Headstock


The first thing I did was to buy some pine wood stakes from the local garden supply store, picking the three best looking ones. These pine stakes are 3 foot long by 1 & 3/8" wide by 3/4" deep. I am doing this project with pine, a soft wood, as I am still a "beginner" wood worker. The pine should be easier to cut, drill, plane and sand as compared to a hardwood like poplar or oak. However, the resulting instrument won't be as durable. If you prefer hardwood, go right ahead.

To form the guitar headstock (head), I sawed off two pieces from two of these pine wood posts at maybe a 25 degree angle. The angle should be anywhere from 15 degrees to 30 degrees, but not much more. The angle I chose was enough to provide a 2" long gluing surface when I join the head to the neck. Next, I needed to decide which sides of the two 5.5" boards to glue together to form the headstock, and I did this by trying to match up the grain of the wood as best I could (not very well). To strengthen this double-wide board for the guitar head, I carefully measured & drilled 2 holes on each side for dowels, placing them roughly 2" apart and centered along the length of each board. I then glued in the two dowels and pounded them in with my mallet for good measure, and then glued the two sides together and pounded them together some more with my mallet, again for good measure. I then clamped the two pieces together, wiped off the excess glue and let it dry over night. That was 2 evenings ago. Yesterday, I planed (with a hand plane) and sanded the two boards so that they look like a single board, then cut the corners off the lower, angled side where the head would fit the neck.

In the meantime, I drew up a design for my headstock, Pretty basic. Here's the target design:


After cutting the two 5.5" boards, installing the dowels, gluing them together and planing them to form a single double-wide board for the headstock, I went back and drew up these diagrams to document the process. So,
here are the diagrams to better illustrate the steps I've made so far...


Step 1:
Making the cut


Obviously we'll have to make 2 pieces like this to make a wide enough board to make our headstock out of.


Step 2: After cutting the two halves of the headstock.




Step 3: Drilling the holes for the dowels.

Also, for the second piece, pay close attention to which side to drill and glue because that
view is not diagrammed here. For the second piece, the top side (rather than the bottom side)
will have to be drilled and glue so that it matches the first piece. You can see this pretty clearly
in the next diagram below.

Step 4: Inserting dowels & gluing both halves together.


Notice how the "Head Board Part 1" piece has the holes drilled in the bottom while the
"Head Board Part 2" piece has the holes drilled in the top. After drilling, hand fit the pieces
together to make sure they fit. When it looks like they'll go together right, apply glue to the
ends of the dowels, press in the dowels, glue the sides and the other end of the dowels and
press the two halves together. Tap them together with a mallet if necessary. Then clap
them together tightly and let dry as long as recommended by your glue's manufacturer.


Step 5: The Joined Halves of the Headstock



After the two halves are glued together and have dried sufficiently, you'll have to plane (as with
a hand planer) and sand all the surfaces so that the result is a single sooth surfaced board of
about 2.75'' wide.

This project continues with my next blog post.

-Rand.






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