Help needed : traditional japanese taiko drum building

[jorgoz]

Hello,

I would like to build a traditional japanese taikoa, or several, but am looking for different ways of making them. A small nagado daiko, http://users1.ml.mindenkilapja.hu/users ... -daiko.jpg

I have done straight sided stave drums, but taikos have a smaller top and bottom diameter as a middle diameter, like a barrel. Problem with wine barrels is that finding thick (1 inch minimum) barrels is very difficult and clean up is an absolute mess, not even talking about cracked staves, which you can't see on the outside when your buying a wine barrel.

Here's an overview of what a wine barrel type taiko building proses, http://www.stanford.edu/group/stanfordt ... ocess.html

Here you can see a couple of pictures of a taiko building course in Germany, a couple of photos show the staves and i think he bandsaws them but putting consistent bevels on them i've no idea (band sander, but sanding consistent angles ??) http://www.simonsen-holzart.de/workshops_taikobau.html

I would like to know how i can shape the staves, with the help of a table saw, if at all possible.

The staves need to have this shape and then bevelled on all sides, the sides are somewhat rounded, http://www.flickr.com/photos/33757485@N04/4311385776/

For bevelling there is an easy jig for a double tapered stave, but i the tapers to stop in the middle and i need to make the tapers on both ends.
I could work with straight sides, the outside will be rounded, but i would need to use thicker staves (40 mm ?)

Another problem is maintaining continuous fibres along the length of the staves. Many conga builders for example bandsaw the curve into their staves, but this creates stave of inferior strength, shortening the longitudinal fibres and creating lots of waste.
I'm thinking about a) laminating 3 10mm planks over a bending
mold or
b) steam bending 30mm wooden staves.
All very time consuming, so if bandsawing is the easiest and quickest then i must give the purchase of a bandsaw consideration.

Bandsawing conga staves : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3hs_JVE9vo

Any ideas ?[/code][/url]

 

[Sportique]

Jorgoz,

As a last resort, if you can find the building instructions in Japanese, then maybe I could persuade my wife to translate them for you?

Dave

 

[woodsworth]

I seen these drums at a show. I would say it was simply the most moving display of music i have ever seen. No other music has brought tears to my eyes before. I have often wanted to build one of these, but to what end i finally told myself.

I like the idea of the congo drum building idea. I would of just used over sized timbers and glued them like a normal straight drum and then glued a false bottom on it so it could be turned and on the other end glue a rim on it that can be used like a guide on three bearings around the outside. So essentially you'd be building a jig that will mount the drum like a washing machine that you can access the sides to round them and then the inside to do like you would a big bowl.

I don't do sketch up but i can't see it hard building something like this. It would be similar to a drum sander but crossed with a lathe.

 

[jorgoz]

Haven't found any building instructions in japanese.

Here's some more pictures i found of nagado shells, there quite thick.
http://www.oliver-boldt.de/taiko/instru ... rkind.html

And they indeed do sound incredible. I started taking lessons a little over a year ago, and it's really energizing. After class i came home and couldn't go to sleep for several hours, buzzing with energy.

Don't own a lathe, i did my stave drum with a router and the shell mounted in a grill style jig, turning the shell and having the router run in a sled on top, works quite well.

To save me some time i could go the whine barrel route, found some new small port casks in Holland (about 60 quid), but i believe they are quite thin, about 15 to 18 mm.