Tag: stave

News – July 30th, 2019 – Teaching, Filming, and Turning

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Trent Davis

Teaching

I recently got to teach a class on Router basics. Other than it having to be rushed due to the time constraints, it went well. I’ll be converting the documentation for this class into a post on this website, much like I did with my Dado Information class.

I was also working on a beginning woodworking class for Skillshare but life got in the way and I wasn’t able to finish it before the deadline. While making the class, I realized that the subject matter was much too broad for the amount of time I had to put it together. I’m still going to put together some Skillshare classes but I’m going to have them be more focused and less broad.

Filming

I’m working on a video that will walk through how I am making a small 8″ snare drum using stave construction. I filmed Day 1, which ended up covering everything up to the glue-up. As the glue was curing, I started editing the video. That’s where I discovered a pretty big problem.

Lets see if I can explain this…

My snare drum is going to consist of 16 staves. A circle, as you are aware, has 360 degrees. which divided by 16 is 22.5. This amount gets divided by two, since the staves will each have two sides, so each edge needs to have an 11.25 degree bevel.

Still with me?

Now, I use a digital angle gauge. I first square it to the table, then attach it magnetically to the blade. When I do that, it changes from 0-degrees to 90-degrees. This means that when I angle the blade, I need to set it to 90-degrees minus 11.25 degrees. This comes to 78.75 degrees. I knew this, but for some stupid reason (probably because I was distracted with trying to get this on video) I accidentally set it to 79.75 degrees. This makes each edge of each stave one-degree off, which multiplied by 32 edges comes to a total of a 32 degree gap for the drum shell.

Of course, being an idiot I just assumed that the glue was making things too tight so I clamped it down and didn’t think much of how off my measurements were. I didn’t notice the actual problem and its cause until I was editing the video. By this point, the glue had pretty much cured so there wasn’t anything I could do about it.

It’s time to start from scratch, being a little more careful this time.

As a present for you, since you’ve been so patient with me sharing this story, I’ve decided to upload the edit of the video I shot. Keep in mind that it’s a very early update. I was leaving room for a voice-over in parts so some of the shots are too long since I was going to edit in the voice-over then cut as the video to work with the audio.

Turning

I’ve been doing a good amount of woodturning lately and I’ve been getting into bowl-making, which although I’ve been turning for years, I never really got into. Below are some examples of my turning experiments.

One downside to bowl-turning is that I really don’t have anything to do with these. I don’t have a desire to place decorative wooden bowls around my house and most of these don’t have a food-safe finish so they’re not really functional. This is why I wasn’t really interested in bowl-turning in the first place. I like that I’m learning some new techniques but I suspect that I won’t be making a whole lot more bowls.

News – June 5th, 2018 – Rainstick Prototype

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Trent DavisOne Comment

I Decided to Make a Rainstick

I’ve wanted to try my hand at making a rainstick for some time.  Not that I really enjoy playing with them but it seems like a fun project, especially with the amount of experimentation you can do.  Like most of my projects, I start with a prototype.  Like a fool, I forgot how horrible it is to turn MDF on a lathe.

I started by cutting staves on my table saw.  I used the Stave Calculator to calculate the dimensions and angles for each stave.  Since it is only six stave, the calculations are pretty simple but I always like to double-check my calculations.

I applied glue between each of the staves.  One thing I didn’t get a picture of is how I laid each stave next to each other and applied strips of tape to what is now the underside of the staves so the whole thing can be rolled up into a tube.

After applying the glue, I rolled it up and added more tape to act as a clamp.

I cut a piece to act as an endcap and glued it to one end of the tube, using the lathe to clamp it together while the glue dries.

After it was all dry, I drew a grid on each stave and drilled holes through one side, then at corresponding locations on the opposite side.  I then took some 1/4″ birch dowels and sharpened one end with a pencil sharpener so I could guide it through one hole and into the opposite one without having to deal with the alignment of the two holes being slightly off.  These dowels were glued in place.  It looks pretty deadly at this point.

Here’s an internal view.  You can see that there is a lot of glue in there.  This is fine because it just adds more bumps for the rainstick filler to bounce off of.

I trimmed off the spikes and put the prototype on the lathe.

After a lot of turning, I got it it so the thinnest parts of the walls were about 3/16″ thick.  Since this is just MDF, I don’t really want to go much thinner.

As you can see, I made quite a mess.

I left one end open so I could experiment with different fillers.  I tried unpopped popcorn and rice.  I also want to try sand and B-B’s,

I’m ready to make my first real rainstick.  I’ve decided on a few things.

  1. The diameter is too big.  I’m going to aim for about an inch narrower.
  2. I’m also going to aim for thinner walls if I can make it work.
  3. The dowels need to be thinner as well and more frequent.
  4. Rice is a great filler but I need to add a lot more.

I’ll do a detailed write-up and possibly a build video when I make a real rainstick.

Any ideas?

Have you ever made or even just played a rainstick?  If so, do you have any ideas of different construction techniques or materials that would make this more interesting?

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.

If I use your idea, I’ll be sure to credit you.  I might even feel the urge to send out a free rainstick to whomever gives the most interesting idea.  The idea needs to actually work, however.  Filling the rainstick with gummy bears is definitely interesting but lacks certain acoustic characteristics  that I am looking for.

Don’t ask me how I know this…