Gluing Skin to Rim

[David Schooley]

I ordered the minstrel kit today. From watching the videos, the preferred technique for gluing the skin to the rim seems to be put put the glue on the rim and then lay the skin on top, which can mean sliding the skin around and getting glue on the skin that you have to wipe off later. Why not lay the skin on the table and then flip the rim over and lay it on top of the skin. The skin will be flat on the rim starting out and you won’t have to slide it around. I’m sure I’m missing something.

Thanks.

[Carver Banjos]

Thanks for your order!
You can do that if you want, but you’ll still have to handle the skin and pull it with each tack and push/hammer the tacks into place. I focus on getting the skin tacked to the rim, it’s a pretty physical process, then I wipe the extra glue off of the skin and rim with a damp rag. You’re doing all of this while the skin and glue is damp, so it’s not really possible to set the skin on and not slide it around while you are tacking it.
Hope that helps

[David Schooley]

That makes sense. I’ll do it the way you suggest.

The Jay Cobalt video mentions a strap and included hardware as an option. I couldn’t find that option on your site. Does the kit come with hardware to attach a strap?

[David Schooley]

That makes sense. I’ll do it the way you suggest.

The Jay Cobalt video mentions a strap and included hardware as an option. I couldn’t find that option on your site. Does the kit come with hardware to attach a strap?

[Carver Banjos]

Strap and hardware used to be an option I sold but I no longer have a source on those materials to be able to sell at a reasonable price. Sorry for any confusion. My videos are a bit outdated but you will receive everything shown in the pictures on the kit page.

[David Schooley]

Is it too late for me to add the peghead scroll?

[Carver Banjos]

You can purchase the scroll separately any time and I’ll ship for free 🙂

[David Schooley]

My banjo arrived Monday. Thank you! Sanding is basically done so I’ll start applying shellac this evening.

How stiff should the leather tailpiece be? Mine has no flex to it at all. I’m not sure if that’s ok or if I will need to soften it some.

[Carver Banjos]

The leather is stiff as it should be, so it doesn’t stretch under string tension

[David Schooley]

One reason I didn’t initially order the scroll is because I was thinking about laser engraving my own design. That’s not a practical option. A nice accessory would be a blank disk of the same diameter as the scroll. A small blank disk would be trivial to engrave and it wouldn’t be a big deal if you mess it up while engraving. I never get it right the first time. I considered laser cutting a disk out of walnut, but then you don’t get the nice beveled edges that come from your lathe.

[David Schooley]

I’ve finished the build. I think it came out really well and I’ll post some pictures soon. I used two different shades of shellac and strong coffee on the skin.

Two final kit questions:

How high should the peg posts be above the peghead? I got a bit of shellac in the holes and I can fix it but I don’t want to make the holes too big by mistake?

Why did the small screw near the tuning peg for the fifth string go away?

[Carver Banjos]

Glad to hear David! Looking forward to seeing it!

If the pegs are holding tuning, I wouldn’t even worry about the shellac being a factor. If you need to clean the shellac out, roll up a piece of 320 grit sandpaper and turn it around in the hole a few times.

The pegs should sit wherever they need to to hold the strings in tune. You’ll want to guide the strings downward on the peg as you turn to keep a good downward tension of the strings at the nut. This will prevent nut buzz.
The exception is the fifth (thumb)string peg. You’ll want to guide that string to whichever height you prefer- usually to the same height that the other strings are floating above the fingerboard at the fifth fret position if this makes sense- it’s uniform string height.
I never used a 5th string small screw (pip) on this type of neck. Because the peg passes through the fingerboard I have always used the peg itself as the pip. It’s a simplified way of terminating the fifth string and it in my opinion is better than a pip because it allows you to adjust the fifth string height (action) to suit your needs. I do use a small screw in necks that have the peg going into the side of the neck as you can see on other models on the site.

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