Thread: Dun duns

Nice work Scally, it looks like a lot of fun. I particularly like the drummer carving, very much like the 1950's art depicting black characters. Not sure if the style had a name, but it was done in paintings and clay fired and glazed figurines.

Thanks fellas.

Prozac that is interesting about the 50's art. I saw a version on a dundun on the net somewhere and liked it. Most of the carving are geometric and Red, Green, Yellow, Black Mali coloured paint.

I don't know what a gecko has to do with drumming but it has that nice S-shape. He really needs a couple of drumsticks.

Thanks for the bright news Seb! I did hear that news story. They can't take a break in England.
My skins are locally grown so should be safe. As a precaution I always drink and smoke when I am making drums.
Fode Mane is doing a Drum and Dance workshop on the Mountains this weekend.
Take your mandolin down and see if he can play it?

The pipe rope puller is not my idea Black_labb. They cost about $100 from the US so I thought I would see if I could make one. I bolted rod through a pipe on my first effort. It worked but was awkward because it was hard to stop the rope slipping.
Now I have a small welder I can make one that is more rigid.

Time to take the big Gecko off to drum lessons.
Cheers.

The Gecko performed well.

Everyone wanted to give it try. They strapped a bell to it and we played all through the lesson.
Then these two wanted to test their rhythms on it.

That's a mighty drum you have made there Scally. Who wouldn't want a wooden 44 gallon drum that they can annoy the neighbours with (can I borrow it please).

I have toyed with the idea of making a Jembe in the same way you make the dun duns as I destroyed a chainsaw carving one once. I'll never buy Mculloch again. It was in a piece of African Mahogany ( Khaya Senegalensis....they grow like weeds up here) while ripping out the whole for the stem. I finished it by hand and never made another.

Will we be seeing any other styles of drums from you?

Jim

That is bad luck about the chainsaw.
There is a fella at Lismore, George Peel, who tells me he makes dunduns with a chainsaw. He uses Camphor laurel and mounts the log on a lathe.
It still sounds pretty scarey to me.
Attached pic is concentric Walnut shells from a place in USA. They sell shells and full drum sets, dunduns and djembes, from the one log.

I have a few more ideas for instrument making. Mark Huxtable in Perth makes nice Ashiko drums with staves. They are a cone shaped drum with a goat skin on one end like a djembe.

Congas would be a bigger challenge but I don't know how to work out the taper on the staves.

A friend has got hold of two wine barrels. They are over 300 litres. We are talking about making a pair of Taiko drums.

I recently found a Drumshed forum and these guys have a smart set up for using a router to round the inside and outside of drum shells - see Koko pic attached.
Someone else has joined the staves with Bullnose to Cove join. This does away with getting the bevel angle exact and increases the glueing surface. Sounds interesting.

Yes Jim, I do have plans for more drums.

Here is my version of Koko's router lathe.

The threaded rods are long enough for me to make a full set of dunduns.

It needs a bit of tweaking but it will save a lot of planing and sanding once it is done.

I haven't had a chance to give it a good run but routed the first few centimeters with a small 8mm straight cutter. I only took a shallow cut but it is looking good.

The other pic tickled my fancy.

Now that is skill....Those guys could kick a footy with a drum on their head.

Jim

Here is a pic of the first drum shell from the router lathe.

Smooth round and less than an hours work.

There is more description in the Router Jig section but this makes life much easier.


Now to see if I can balance it on my head!!!

Niiice!

man, I had no idea the gecko was so big. Having the pic of the guys beating it just put the size into perspective. Quite an effort there. Great work,

Cheers,

Peter

I'm not sure how some of you guys radius your fret boards but you can use a similar Jig to Scally's.

Jim

May the toilet of life never splash back at you.

I am working on a dundun set for a friend and a big dununba for Jamo Jamo.

There has been a lot of cutting, jointing and glueing.

Yesterday I started shaping the Jamo dununba on the router stave jig.
I replaced the small skate board bearings with larger sealed bearing. They are much solider but don't roll as freely.
I tried a 1/2" router bit because I thought it may cut easier. The finish was pretty rough but after using the Rotex with #40 down to # 180 it came up fine.

It has been difficult getting a flat edge on the rim. Someone suggested a big disc sander.
Mine has #40 grit belt sandpaper glued with contact adhesive to a disc of 3/4" ply.
It is a wild machine to use but did a good job on the endgrain rim.

The ,almost finished, Jamo shell with their logo. I shallow carved the figures with a dremel then painted the recess black.

Next is to shape the bearing edges. I will bevel the inside with rasps and files then roundover the outside with a router.
Then weld up the rings and find a cowskin.

First I have to shape the other three dununba shells.

that looks great. logo is a nice touch

Thanks Black_labb.

My mate liked the logo too.
Unfortunately it will not stand out much because I need to stain the shell a dark brown to match his other two drums.