building my own congas - help!

[random]

i'm an experienced woodworker and KNOW i can build a set of congas. the reason i want to build them is that i don't have enough money to buy them and i have cheap access to large amounts of wood.

i know they're stave drums but i need to know: how many staves, what size for the staves, what angles to cut, do i need to steam bend the staves and what hardware/heads should i use. i want to build a 10" quinto, 11" conga, and 12" tumba.

any help would be greatly appreciated.

[JohnnyConga]

In his book "Drums in the Americas" Dr. Howard reveals how a drum is made. If you can get a hold of a drum just use that as the example. Go to a store and take the dimensions off of a drum. Look inside the drum and count the staves. Where do you live,? maybe their is a drum maker in your neighborhood. You could do an apprentice thing ya know. A friend of mine did it with Jay from "skin on skin" and knows top to bottem on how to make a drum . But check out Dr. Howards book first, he has the descriptons on how to make a drum........Happy Holidays....Peace and Congas...JC JOHNNY CONGA... HEY I BROKE 700 POSTS ON THIS FORUM!....WOW

[yoni]

Congrats on your 700 posts, JC!

I once built a couple of "congas". Figuring out the angles was hard enough, but bending the staves? No way I could do it without the equipment or expertise. So the ones I made were tapered but straight-sided, no belly. I mounted goatskins on them and sold them long ago...

[stlouieray]

I was wonderin about this topic for a bit, thinking about how much the cost would be in time & materials. How much would just the hardware cost? How about the shell? The head then, add em all up.

The reason I'm asking, is that I've got a friend that is a master woodworking prof. He's never built anything like this, but that's not the issue. The issue would be: does it wind-up being cost-prohibitive, to think about doing this to save money? Does one do this, for the artistic expression, or emotional impact of building your own drum?

At the end of the day, if it doesn't cost too much, I could see my friend building one of these for me, but I would probably ask for a requinto, unless it was easier to build a super-tomba.

Jus' wunderin' down heah in Jawjuh,

Ray

[Johnny Conga]

You might want to consider doing a fiberglass conga.. All you need is a "mold" that the fiberglass could be put in and voula!..a fiberglass conga. It isn';t that simple working withthe fiberglass but having a mold for a conga is I would think a lot less work than dealing with staves...just turn any wooden conga upside down and count the staves inside so you know more or less how many you would need for each drum. Of course the Tumba uses more and the quinto less. Then there is the Glue...um this is the hard part what type to use or combination of glue to hold the staves together. I have also known guys to with the glue "staple" the staves together also. There are many ways to approach making a drum. These are just a few ideas to throw around.....At your Service.....JC JOHNNY CONGA... :;):

[stlouieray]

JC, I'm not gonna' let the statement go by ( I heard it somewhere before), regarding the staves. After reading your message I decided to flip over the ol' Giovanni Quinto . . . it has 20 staves.

Ray

[stlouieray]

Additionally, if anyone has tried to e-mail me, my recent e-mail was incorrect (about a month), and I have now, changed it.

Peace,

Ray

[timo]

what i did was go to a store and measured the dimensions of the congas and just calculated everything...though if you know someone who has congas you like(dimensionally i mean) i suggest you go and measure those congas, finding all the angles is relatively easy, just a few maths problems.. :p (plus any potential shopceeppers wont come and harrs you) not that hard...it also depends on how you make them..if you want to bend the staves or make them straight and then use a lathe to shape the congas..personally i bent them..which was chalenging to say the least...

[timo]

maan..jonhny you been busy during my absence...

[Johnny Conga]

Hi Timo..hope all is well in your part of the world.. How are your congas coming along?....yes a lathe is needed, if you can get one. also you might go to a welder to make your hoops,brackets and whatever else you may need . Of course you can also chop down a tree or find a log and hollow it out and make a solid conga out of it. I've seen that done too. Just as hard to do as, staving.......JC JOHNNY CONGA... :;):

[timo]

i whish...i havent gotten a chance to build any congas since i moved from israel to finland, cuz i lost my workshop in the proces..but otherwise everythings fine, thanks for asking.
you could make all the welding on your own, might not be as pretty(depends on how much time you want to put on practicing welding, which anyways should be alot), but atleast you can say everything is made by you...yeah a solid body conga is my dream.. :p fat chance of that ever happening...though you never know...maybe ill get my brother whos a carpenter to make me one...mmm...or let me use his workshop...



Edited By timo on 1086071398

[Johnny Conga]

Timo...have you heard of Finnish Percussion??? they make fiberglass congas, Cuban design and are very good congas. I have played them and Los Papines have Endorsed them.....JC JOHNNY CONGA..... :;):

[timo]

never heard of Finnish percussion...heard of Swedish percussion though, they make real good stuff surdos and pandeiros, at least what iv seen..ill have to check them out..finnish percussion..hmmm....theres a finnish company called KUMU that makes some of the best handmade drumsets in the world, thats all the percussion makers i know in finland..

[Johnny Conga]

To tell u the truth, Finnish Perc. might not even be in business anymore, but I would look them up anyway, they make really good fiberglass congas. But I saw them back in the 80's......JC JOHNNY CONGA... ???

[congastu]

We do this residency every sunday and use the bars own seats [cos theyre dead comfy]. anyway we had a proper look the other day and saw that they were old wooden beer barrels with cushions on , but it did occur to us that if you took the cushion off and replaced it with a skin, youre on your way to making a great tumba. So if youre into your ale....