Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by colin mcgrath on July 16, 2011 at 11:00am

it does thanks. Would I just use standard wall push tacks?

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Permalink Reply by Brian Hunt on July 16, 2011 at 2:15pm

I would use upholstry tacks, not thumb tacks. I don't think thumb tacks would be quite strong enough to hold up to the tension created by the rawhide as it dries.

 

While I have never made a drum head, upholstry tacks work great for edging a viking shield with rawhide and hold up well to a lot of abuse.

 

Brian Hunt.

 

 

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Permalink Reply by colin mcgrath on July 16, 2011 at 3:49pm

That makes more sense.

Brian Hunt said:

I would use upholstry tacks, not thumb tacks. I don't think thumb tacks would be quite strong enough to hold up to the tension created by the rawhide as it dries.

 

While I have never made a drum head, upholstry tacks work great for edging a viking shield with rawhide and hold up well to a lot of abuse.

 

Brian Hunt.

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Mungo Park on July 17, 2011 at 4:13pm

Clear packing tape makes a great low budget "banjo " head.

                                 Cheers Ron.

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Permalink Reply by colin mcgrath on July 18, 2011 at 8:13am

I have thought of that, but it is not the look or sound I want. Also I have found 10" goat skins for as little as $4 on Google. I am patient. At the least I have a busted drum, I can always take the skin off it. 

Mungo Park said:

Clear packing tape makes a great low budget "banjo " head.

                                 Cheers Ron.

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Permalink Reply by colin mcgrath on July 18, 2011 at 11:47am

You know the bummer is that I have had 2 other drums beside the ones I currently have that have passed through my hands. Wish I had either of those skins.
Ellwood T. Bear said:

Hay, use it....the cost would be zero...

colin mcgrath said:

I have thought of that, but it is not the look or sound I want. Also I have found 10" goat skins for as little as $4 on Google. I am patient. At the least I have a busted drum, I can always take the skin off it. 

Mungo Park said:

Clear packing tape makes a great low budget "banjo " head.

                                 Cheers Ron.

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Permalink Reply by Rand Moore on July 21, 2011 at 8:07am

Hi All,

Another option, especially for those folks in the States...

The YouTube member and clawhammer banjo player who goes by the handle "rpeek" has build at least 2 banjos using the large Priority Mail mailing envelopes available for free from the U.S. Postal Service. Who knows, maybe the UK Postage offers a similar envelop. Here's the link to the YouTube video: " Postal envelop banjo plays!" and I've embedded it here:

 

How's that?  Not bad and for free!

Rpeek also has a bunch of other banjo videos, some on building and some on playing.

He's big on old timey music.

-Rand.

colin mcgrath said:

I have thought of that, but it is not the look or sound I want. Also I have found 10" goat skins for as little as $4 on Google. I am patient. At the least I have a busted drum, I can always take the skin off it. 

Mungo Park said:

Clear packing tape makes a great low budget "banjo " head.

                                 Cheers Ron.

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Permalink Reply by Bad Finger (Eric) on July 21, 2011 at 8:20am

Those envelopes are DuPont Tyvek material.  Lots of places to find that including new home construction in the suburbs!  Or the post office.  Let your conscience decide.

 

Awesome!

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Permalink Reply by Rand Moore on July 21, 2011 at 8:30am

Hi Ellwood T. Bear,

 

Thanks for the link to Brent Santin's website where he describes how to build a drum. One of the things I don't like about the modern banjo is how heavy it is. I think maybe I'll build one now that I have info on how to build a drum. Will be a while, though. I have just bought a real 5-string banjo (which will require me to spend time learning to play it), plus I have a few other build in the queue. Maybe I should drop by the post office and pick up a couple of Priority Mail envelopes, too.

-Rand.

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Permalink Reply by Rand Moore on July 21, 2011 at 11:52am

Hi E D,

So they are made of DuPont Tyvek. Well that's good to know.

 

After lunch, by chance I was near the Post Office and so picked up a couple Priority Mail envelopes. They measure 14" x 11.5", so if your drum is much above 10 inches in diameter, then you may have trouble using them. But for the kind of hand drum I'm thinking of making, it should be ideal. As I recall from watching one of the Rpeek videos, he uses two layers. I guess if you had a larger drum, you could cut two envelops open (doubling the size to 28" x 22") and then use the both of them to cover your larger drum head. Maybe a third layer might me needed with such a big drum. Its worth experimenting with.

 

Here's what I learned from Googling on "Dupont Tyvek":

 

Q: What are the added benefits I get from a Tyvek® envelope? Why should I buy a Tyvek® envelope versus a paper envelope?

A: DuPont™ Tyvek® provides superior toughness and durability compared to heavy kraft paper and even other high-strength materials used for envelopes and packaging.  It resists rips, punctures and moisture, providing much more protection for the contents of your envelope.  Tyvek® is also lightweight and can save on postage as well.   Major overnight shippers and the United States Postal Service® choose envelopes made of Tyvek® for priority packaging because it protects important things, ensuring that they arrive in good condition.

 

Q: What is Tyvek®?

A: Tyvek® is a nonwoven sheet structure made from very fine high-density polyethylene fibers. These fibers are flashspun, then laid as a web on a moving bed before being bonded together by heat and pressure. The resulting sheet of material is then converted for a multitude of uses in envelopes and packaging, construction, protective garments, medical packaging, graphics, tags and labels. This unique process does not require binders or additives, so Tyvek® can be recycled after its use.

 

Q: What other things are made of Tyvek®?

A: Tyvek® is used in many applications where high-performance protection is a primary requirement:

• for protective garments for industrial, emergency or environmental workers
• as a protective barrier for homes and commercial buildings
• to package and protect medical devices and materials
• for high strength, weather resistant graphics (e.g. banners, tags, maps)

___________________________________________________________________...

-Rand.

 

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Permalink Reply by colin mcgrath on July 21, 2011 at 5:05pm

That is cool! I cannot hear the video, I am in safety mode (long story). But upon reading the description of the envelope I might try it. The question is how to attach to a small wooden ring? No bigger than 4" in diameter. I wonder if pins would still work? Hmmm?

Rand Moore said:

Hi E D,

So they are made of DuPont Tyvek. Well that's good to know.

 

After lunch, by chance I was near the Post Office and so picked up a couple Priority Mail envelopes. They measure 14" x 11.5", so if your drum is much above 10 inches in diameter, then you may have trouble using them. But for the kind of hand drum I'm thinking of making, it should be ideal. As I recall from watching one of the Rpeek videos, he uses two layers. I guess if you had a larger drum, you could cut two envelops open (doubling the size to 28" x 22") and then use the both of them to cover your larger drum head. Maybe a third layer might me needed with such a big drum. Its worth experimenting with.

 

Here's what I learned from Googling on "Dupont Tyvek":

 

Q: What are the added benefits I get from a Tyvek® envelope? Why should I buy a Tyvek® envelope versus a paper envelope?

A: DuPont™ Tyvek® provides superior toughness and durability compared to heavy kraft paper and even other high-strength materials used for envelopes and packaging.  It resists rips, punctures and moisture, providing much more protection for the contents of your envelope.  Tyvek® is also lightweight and can save on postage as well.   Major overnight shippers and the United States Postal Service® choose envelopes made of Tyvek® for priority packaging because it protects important things, ensuring that they arrive in good condition.

 

Q: What is Tyvek®?

A: Tyvek® is a nonwoven sheet structure made from very fine high-density polyethylene fibers. These fibers are flashspun, then laid as a web on a moving bed before being bonded together by heat and pressure. The resulting sheet of material is then converted for a multitude of uses in envelopes and packaging, construction, protective garments, medical packaging, graphics, tags and labels. This unique process does not require binders or additives, so Tyvek® can be recycled after its use.

 

Q: What other things are made of Tyvek®?

A: Tyvek® is used in many applications where high-performance protection is a primary requirement:

• for protective garments for industrial, emergency or environmental workers
• as a protective barrier for homes and commercial buildings
• to package and protect medical devices and materials
• for high strength, weather resistant graphics (e.g. banners, tags, maps)

___________________________________________________________________...

-Rand.

 

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Permalink Reply by Rand Moore on July 22, 2011 at 5:02am

Hi Colin,

You might try stretching it (your Tyvek head material) the best you can while tacking opposite ends (as you work your way around the drum) with strong tacks, the kind they use to tack upholstery onto furniture. (Maybe they call them "upholstery tacks"?) Getting the even stretch all across the drum will be the hard part. Rpeek was using banjo hardware that makes tensioning the head a lot easier. I seem to recall he used two layers of Tyvek. He mentioned it in one of his other videos about building a postage envelop banjo.

I have a Chinese made Qinqin ("chinchin") that looks like a banjo, a circular body made of wood and a small drum head (made of cast iron with sheep skin spread across it). The drum just sits in a well and it has no tensioning mechanism. The instrument sounds pretty nice, more mellow than a banjo, due to the wood. You may have similar results adding a drum to a wooded cigar box. The problem with my Qinqin is that the fretting used some odd-ball spacing that looked diatonic, but wasn't. So I pulled off the original frets and plan to re-fret it some day. In the meantime I got involved in CBG building. Well, some day I might get back to fixing my Qinqin.

Oh that reminds me. In the old days banjo players didn't have all this fancy tensioning hardware, so what they did when the humidity changed and the head began to sag was to remove the current bridge and put in a slightly taller one. That might do it. The combination of a taller bridge with string tension might be the mechanism you can use to add the final tension you need to the drum head. Fortunately, Tyvek doesn't stretch with changes in humidity (at least I haven't heard that it does). 

Actually it all boils down to string tension. The bridge should be tall enough to give your head the extra tension it needs without raising the strings so far off the head that you loose good action (i.e. the strings aren't so far off the fretboard that you can easily fret them).

 

Hope this helps.

-Rand.

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