I turned to my wood lathe for challenge this afternoon. I successfully turned the body ring for a 7 inch & 7/8ths wide banjo. I turned it from a thick piece of maple salvaged from a street tree blowdown from Walla Walla. Wa. I was told the tree was "Silver Maple". It is an Eastern Maple of some kind, included among the impressive collection of street trees planted in Walla Walla more than 100 years ago. I was hoping it would be tough enough to turn a rather delicate thin ring to contain the tambourine that will provide the leather top. Follows is a rather lengthy series of photos showing the process. Enjoy
 This will be the front of the instrument. The first tasks were to round it, smooth it and determine its ultimate width, then to turn a bed into which a small fitting could be screwed at exact center |  I need to get this fitting in the perfect center as I will be turning the wood over to carve out the other side. I fit it carefully and marked the hole locations, drilling screw lead holes on the drill press |  Now I have the holes drilled and I am ready to attach the fitting |  Done- screwed down and ready to turn. |
 This is the back side which will be hollowed out to accept the tambourine and it's goat skin drum |  The gouge work has just begun. I want to go in one and 7/8ths inches with perfectly straight sides to the lip that will stop the penetration of the tambourine |  Aha! that is almost the correct width, just a little bit wider. I was able to deepen the hole to one 1/2 inches, almost to the lip. Then it was time for another lathe device. Turning the wood over |  I added to a Nova chuck these four wings which make a large circle and hold round objects between eight rubber nubs seen here. Now I can cut out the center. |
 SUCCESS- Note the lip which will retain the tambourine. It must be smoothed, deepened and finished |  Back on the lathe, now inside out, I can perfect the turning, fine things up a bit and do the final fitting. |  And here you see the final result. Tambourine in place, stopped just right by the lip. The maple was great, no cracks no problems. |  The Goal is another of these fun, noisy and very good banjo/ukes make only with scraps and a $7.00 tambourine |
There is nothing like a wood lathe to make a mess in a workshop. shavings and sawdust accumulate in incredible abundance. Sawdust is a real problem without a vacuum system. Note my homemade system which works very well for the fine stuff. Lathe work however is very interesting and satisfying. This heavy duty lathe has turned many very large and heavy bowls, but it also is great for fine work such as the strap buttons for the butts of ukuleles.
