Thread: Dun duns

Finally managed to get the big Dun together.

The bigger pieces were harder to handle.

I put a cross cut blade in the tablesaw to see if I could get a cleaner bevel. Didn't work so I have a fair bit of work planing the bevels.
The timber is the tropical hardwood used for decking. It is coarse grained and didn't want to cut cleanly.
I was able to do the glue up the same way as the smaller one by clamping half the boards, 8, together to glue and stand on end. Then tape and band clamp the two haves together.

I used the same stain and coconut oil. The 3 drums are different timbers but with the stain they look like a set.

My lack of welding skill let me down as one of the rings broke when I was pulling the ropes tight. I had to undo all the ropes and tape to re-weld the broken join. The re thread the 40m of rope through the 24 loops.

Dimensions
43cm diameter by 76cm high.
It will take a week to dry out completely but sounds good even fresh.

The stand also works well. I put a hook on the back of the stand.
All I need is a short loop of rope on each of the dun. The run it over the rail and onto the hook.

The duns will be at the right height to play and the tops all level.

It is quiet stable.

A small sale but a sale nonetheless.

One of my drum teachers paid me to make a stand for his dunduns.
It has pegs holding the rails so that it can be broken down to make it easier to fit in a vehicle.
A fellow drummer likes my duns and wants a price to make her a set.
How much?
(How much is a Domino??).

Another drum teacher is interested in holding a drum making workshop - make the timber shells, metal rings then fit the skin and tune the drums.
This would be pretty serious - a lot of organising, investment and time - but the Domino would be looking good.

Then the drum shop wants one of my cajons and would like to display some of them for sale or orders. We are thinking about prices?
What do I get and what do they get??

This is tricky.......Making things for fun and family is one thing but how do you work out a reasonable price?
It would be good to pay for some of the materials for the next project (the jumbo Gecko Dun) and the fancy Senegal Djembe I just acquired.

How much to charge? Start with the cost of the materials and add the hours you spent on it x $50. That's your COST price (your time included).

So a dun dun with $50 wood and glue and hardware
if it takes you 4 hours all up to make (not including glue setting time) that's $250

Then work out whether there's a market and whether you can make a profit from one of them by adding a margin.

I think you can just past your link in neat:

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKgq-OM56Vk[/media]

How did you paste that in??

That looks much better.
They were just fooling around so it looks and sounds pretty ordinary.
I have bought a little Sony camcorder so should be able to get better quality - once I can convince Windows Movie Maker to recognise Sony video??

On costs, I was thinking along those lines.
That gives me a bit more confidence - thanks.

The skins are $200 for the 3 drums, so $70 each
Metal rings about $20 per drum(4 rings each).
Rope at 30 to 40m per drum, approx$$30 each drum.
Timber, from the right source, about $50 each
Materials add up to $170 per drum.

Typical prices are $1600 plus for a set of three drums.
Somewhere between $800 and $1200 would be a ballpark charge I would guess.
(Kenkeni $200, Sangban $300 and Dununba $400).
That sounds a reasonable deal for a buyer and I get a few dollars. It would still take a while to afford the domino. It is a small market.

At my speed that is about $10 an hour.

You just paste in this bit of youtube code

Code:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRlMqavfZqc

and you get

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRlMqavfZqc[/media]

That seems nearly simple enough for me.
We'll see.

I will see if I can get some reasonable videos at Coastfest on the weekend.

Here are a few pics of the group performing at Coastfest.

It was a cold wet, windy miserable weekend but this lot warmed everyone up.

Really amazing how fast and clean they can play.

The group before had a blackout while they the playing.

Our drummers went on with Djembes and Dun duns and jammed with their drummer. Then danced and sang.
The crowd loved it.

It must be great to have that talent.

I have some good video so when I can get a clip organised I will paste it here.

Her is a short clip of some of the drumming and dancing our troupe did at Coastfest.

I hope you like it.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9UWvKXtJN8[/media]

I am finally ready to put the cow skin on the big Gecko dun dun.

Dimensions: 870mm tall by 570mm diameter. Close to the 44 gallon drum size!
32 Blacbutt boards were ripped to ~120mm wide.
11.25 degree bevel cut on each edge on the table saw then cleaned up on the jointer.
West epoxy applied liberally to the bevels and the drum assemble around a 20mm thick ply disc. Then band clamped together.

The wide boards meant that I needed to remove a fair bit of material to get the outside round. The Rotex and 50 grit did most of the work.
Unfortunately I cracked one of the glue joints in the process and had to reglue it. I added fibreglass cloth to the epoxy to reinforce the joint.
The drum was sanded and stained to match the rest of the drums and two coast of Danish oil applied to the outside and one coat to the inside.

2m lengths of 8mm rod were bent into rings, welded, taped and loops tied on the outside rings.
50m of poly cord has been threaded through the loops.
Two pieces of cow skin were cut to cover the ends. They spent last night soaking in the bath tub.

Today is the big day.
I am hoping my drumming mate from Senegal turns up to give me a hand to get the skin on.
The last pic is us performing at a local festival with my Dunduns.

Wish me luck.

The skin is on.


It is quite a task wrestling a thick wet cow skin onto both ends of the drum at the same time.
It took a good couple of hours to tease it on and steadily tighten the ropes to hold it in place.

Now it needs a few days for the skin to dry before the ropes are tightened .
Then we will see if it has a good voice.

thats a nice looking drum scally. Is the artwork on the side burnt on? how is it done?

Cheers,

Peter

Hi Peter

The drummer and gecko were carved into the drum.
Nothing flash as they are just outlines.

I carved 2-4mm deep.
The drummer was 'sketched' on with a carbide burr. It cut very easily. The idea was to make it look like a simple line drawing. The texture is very scratchy from the burrs.

I like the S shape of the Gecko.
I cleaned the edges with some finer carbide mill bits. First in a die grinder them in a dremel.
The surface was smoothed down with a range of sanding discs. It is still textured but it is smooth.

There is a pic of it unpainted a few posts back that might make it easier to see.

Then I painted the recess with Black Japan.

I gave it a few coats to get it nice and black.


The brown stain tones them down a bit.

The Gecko dundun is now finished.

Cow skin has been trimmed. Ropes have been tightened enough to give a good voice.

The lump of pipe is a lever used to tighten the ropes. You can get a fair bit of tension and much easier on the hands.
I have attached a rope cleat to make it easier to grip the rope and it works well.

looks nice
good idea with the pipe