DIY Wooden Musical Drum

Wooden drums come in many different shapes and sizes.

The benefits of making a tongue drum consist of producing a sophisticated resonating sound, while only requiring a minimal amount of woodworking skills and tools. Tongue drums can be constructed in a variety of sizes. In general, the larger the volume of the box, the deeper the sound the drum makes when the wooden tongues are hit with drumsticks. The number of tongues on the top side can vary from two to upwards of six or eight.

Things You'll Need

• Fir of pine for the base wood (1'x6' or 1'x8')
• Specialty wood for the top piece (good choices here are rosewood, walnut, mahogany or other hardwood)
• Pencil and eraser
• Hand-powered miter saw
• Electric power drill
• 1/4 inch wood bore bit
• Scroll saw with fine-cutting wood blade
• Piece of fir of pine for the bottom of the drum
• Sandpaper of various grits
• Carpenter's glue
• #4 finish nails
• Nail set
• Small nail punch
• Wood putty
• Design for top face of drum
• Danish oil finish
• Bristle paint brush

Instructions

1. Cut the 1'x6' or 1'x8' fir or pine lengthwise into pairs of two equal lengths. Most tongue drums are much longer than they are wide. For this project, we will use 1'x6' clear fir for the sides, which will give us an actual in-the-box depth of 5 1/2 inches. The side pieces will be cut at a length of 5 1/2 inches, which allows for both the bottom and top piece to be crafted from wood that is also of 1'x6' stock. The length of the side pieces is least critical, so we will go with 10 inches here.

2. Sand each piece thoroughly with medium (150) and then (180 or 200) fine-grit sandpaper. These pieces can be hand sanded or completed with an orbital sander.

3. Glue and nail the four pieces of wood together using four corner clamps to hold the bottom edges in place. Please note that it is very important to place the long 10-inch side pieces inside the specially cut 5 1/2-inch short side pieces. This keeps the box width at 5 1/2 inches.

4. Let the glue dry and remove the four corner clamps.

5. Mark the bottom piece by setting the side frame on top of the wood and tracing the outline on the bottom piece. With the sizes specified in these instructions, you should only need to make one cut at each end of the bottom piece.

6. Cut the bottom piece with the hand-powered miter box. Then sand the edges thoroughly.

7. Glue and nail the bottom to the side frame. Make sure their are no air leaks between the bottom plate and side pieces.

8. Cut the top piece to length just as you did with the bottom piece. Thoroughly sand the piece, when you are done cutting.

9. Sand the top piece and then glue and nail it to the top side. Let the glue dry.

10. Lay out the locations of the four tongues on the face of the top board with a pencil. (Beginners may want to cut only two.) Each tongue is surrounded by a incision on three sides so that the tongue vibrates when struck with the drumstick. Gaps between and around tongues should be the thickness of the scroll saw blade. Some drum makers leave a center wood strip between the ends of the tongues, while others have no such wooden strip. Remember that the side frame is underneath the top plate, so no part of your tongue design should be closer than 1 inch to the perimeter of the top face of the drum.

11. Drill two 1/4-inch holes to mark the central end of each tongue. This will be the starting points for your scroll saw cut.

12. Carefully cut out the design with the scroll saw. Follow the lines carefully with the scroll saw, as they create the outline for each tongue.

13. Set all nails, then fill the nail holes with putty and sand. Some hard woods may need to be pre-drilled before nailing.

14. Add a coat of Danish oil finish with a bristle paint brush.

Tips & Warnings

• Simplified tongue drums are sometimes called slit drums.

• Your first drum will have a nice drum, but it probably will not follow a musical scale.

• Drumsticks can be made by drilling a hole in a small round ball of wood and then inserting a piece of dowel.

• Keep in mind that the width of the bottom piece will have to equal the length of two shorter side pieces, so don't make these pieces too long.

• Each tongue drum has its own particular pitch. Well-trained musicians will want to build tongue drums with notes in scale. Following plans created by highly-skilled drum designers will yield a roughly-made musical instrument with a very specific musical range.

References

• DrummerCafe: How To Build Your Own Slit Drum
• Tonguedrum: How We Make Tongue Drums
• Woodworking-for-mere-mortals: Make a Slit Drum