congaplace.com

I wanted the ultimate smooth finish, so I used wood filler to fill grain.

30 minutes with belt & orbital sander brought it close to bare wood.

Red mahogany stain was a perfect match with a Gon Bops tumba ITL I have.

Luan wood has a very uniform grain pattern, but is variable in color from light to dark brown, to almost pinkish.

3 coats of red mahogany wood stain provide a very even tone to the wood while letting grain show through.

5 coats of brush on satin lacquer. Completed in one afternoon.
Wet sanded with 600 grit, prior to waxing.

Finish coat after paste wax and buffing.

Now that shells have finish coat….back to hoops.

Making reference marks for hoop placement.
A bunch of masking tape arrow-heads point to hoop location.

Second photo is blurry because of camera exposure required to show laser level light, which I used to re-establish hoop locations

The laser lever set-up. A $29.00 item that I already own. It has an astigmatizer attachment which shows a projected level laser line, instead of a dot. Very handy.

Loose rough hoops were placed at reference marks and taped together at loose ends.

Tape held hoops together for drilling and riveting.

After installation, rivets must be hammered down on the inside surface to be flush with inner surface.

After hoop ends joined, they are laid out on a flat surface.
Width of hoops was purposely cut large, in order to fine tune irregular cuts.

A sanded down pencil is used to mark irregularities on hoop edge.
Hoop is put on bench sander and sanded to pencil mark.

After establishing one flat edge, hoop flipped over, and a marking gauge marks edge to exact width of hoop. Edge is sanded as explained above

Each hoop is placed over X-Y axis marked in inch increments from center.
Hoop is centered on axis, and then marked at 90 degree intervals to drill holes for screws, which will hold hoops to shell.

I have a recycled washing machine motor I converted into a wire brush / buffing wheel.
After all machining, hoops were buffed / polished with white rouge.
Stick rouge is like a big waxy crayon that is melted by pressing it into the rapidly spinning cloth buffing wheel. Metal is then polished with rouge saturated buffing wheel. It produces excellent results.

Crown and lug plates were also polished in this manner

Polished hoops loosely placed at reference marks.

Detail of polished aluminum hoop joint installed on shell.

Fabrication of hoops produces 50% waste…it’s recyclable.

Meanwhile, while doing all the above,
….and I’m certain there are strong opinions about the following….

….I recycled some LP handpicked skins I had removed from my Patatos.
These skins were not overstretched, and really didn’t require replacement.
I considered this an experiment, making use of something that is otherwise sitting on a shelf, gathering dust.

Skins were soaked, stretched and stapled to a piece of plywood.
The flesh rings fit perfectly over the inner ring shown on stretched skin, which is where skin previously bent over top edge of Patato shell.
Another piece of ply was clamped over skin and left to dry flat.
When dry & flat, I wet sanded the LP silkscreen print off skin surface.

Holes were drilled all around circumference of flattened dried skin.
Light twine was threaded through all these holes to hold flesh ring in place.

Using the twine on the edge of the skin gives a great degree of control in deciding how “deep” to mount the crown. One must slack the twine as the flesh ring is pulled down by the crown.

Closing observations

Hoops
If I were to fab exterior hoops again, I would cut rough hoops, then bring back to sheet metal shop to have them run flat shapes through a roller to give a more consistent curvature to hoops, rather than my somewhat inconsistent hand-hammered efforts.
Out of 8 hoops fabbed, I am not satisfied with the fit of one of them which is a bit “gappy”.
I’ll re-do it eventually, but for now is acceptable.

Here’s a video example of a roller bending sheet metal.(apologies for advertisements in video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puBLjpAmXAg

I also contemplated using stainless sheet to fab hoops, as it was available at sheet metal shop, however additional cost, and greater working difficulty of stainless made aluminum an easy choice for first attempt.

Finish
I wanted to give those battered old shells a new lease on life, not just to have them look like old beaters with a new finish coat.
Wood filler sanding is messy / dusty, and another phase of the refinishing process, but it is not at all difficult(with power tools!), and made all of those deep gouges on the surface disappear under the stain.

Wood filler /stain / lacquer / paste wax produces a very even toned “hand-rubbed’ look .
I couldn’t be more pleased with final finish.

Recycled skins
As stated, an experiment.
They sound very acceptable to me.
Less ringy than when they were placed on Patatos.
Sound is compares quite favorably to my other Gon Bops.
Eventually I’ll replace them, but for the price I really can’t complain.

Done!

They came out looking beautiful. Fantastic work, them metal bands look terrific. You the man.

I am stunned, period.
What an amazing arts & crafts talent you are,
my respect and congrats on that resto job of yours!

Joseph,
Thanks for taking the time to post all of that. We love stuff like this. I really like your custom-made laser stand!
Cheers,
BMac