Here’s a couple of Yoruba Andabo style
cajons.
This was a recycling project, with a half sheet of plywood I salvaged from a remodeling job years ago.
I kept the plywood because of its quality: Douglas Fir 5ply ½”, no voids in plies, (the kind you rarely, if ever see anymore).
The only stumbling block to my using it previously was that one side had 3 coats of old paint: light blue, green and the surface color dull brown, so it just kicked around in my wood stack.
To me the really interesting looking
cajons are the funky looking ones, like those Yoruba Andabo, and Pancho Quinto boxes, even those taped up ones…..they have an earthy and street-worn look about them…after all they are boxes, that get beat on.
Never any worries about the perfect finish.
Anyway, I decided to strip the paint off the ply to make a couple of funky looking
cajons, with the weathered look of the old ply….however it looked under all that paint.
I started stripping paint using a heat gun.
Long story short…. It didn’t work too good...but it looked kinda cool, so I used it.
I used other plywood scraps for tops.
Tops are ¼” actually 3/16 “ glued and stapled.
I made the tops kind of fancy finish, red mahogany stain & lacquer
Funky on the sides, fancy on top.
I only had enough plywood to make 2: the Quinto II, and the Tumbadora.
Even if I made the others in the set, I’d never match that color finish.
Oh yeah, they sound great!
I especially like the Tumbadora, great tones throughout: bass, open, & slap.
I thing gluing top firmly is the key to good resonant sound, unless you are looking for a buzzy sound, in which case just nailing would suffice.
Thanks for making the plans available Barry.