Banjo no. 2

After nine months of wracking my brain, and learning a few new skills—like how to cast my own alloys in a homemade forge in my backyard—this project suddenly became a full-on obsession. My wife named the banjo "Galatea," after a Greek myth in which a sculptor, in leiu of the perfect woman, decides to create her out of stone. She comes to life, and they fall in love. Seems about right. If you want to go deeper down the rabbit hole, you can check out the full build process here.

Stuff I Did:
Illustration
Carpentry
This stack will soon become a nice, round banjo pot.
Here’s a jig I invented for rounding the outer diameter of the pot.
Cutting the heel, at the base of the neck, where it joins to the round pot.
Here’s a drawing of my super high-tech forge setup. The fuel is charcoal. The air source is a blow dryer. Fuel + air = very hot flame!
Top view of my super high-tech forge with the lid on.
The sad-looking remnants of failed tension bracket designs.
The completed mold in the wooden flask. This will form 4 of the 16 brackets that go around the outside of the pot, and hold the tension hooks to give the “skin” of the banjo its tension.
Pouring the molten alloy into the mold.
The completed front of the banjo.
The completed back of the banjo.
This stack will soon become a nice, round banjo pot.
Here’s a jig I invented for rounding the outer diameter of the pot.
Cutting the heel, at the base of the neck, where it joins to the round pot.
Here’s a drawing of my super high-tech forge setup. The fuel is charcoal. The air source is a blow dryer. Fuel + air = very hot flame!
Top view of my super high-tech forge with the lid on.
The sad-looking remnants of failed tension bracket designs.
The completed mold in the wooden flask. This will form 4 of the 16 brackets that go around the outside of the pot, and hold the tension hooks to give the “skin” of the banjo its tension.
Pouring the molten alloy into the mold.
The completed front of the banjo.
The completed back of the banjo.