Roll Your Own Bongo Cajon

In this Instructable I will show you how to make a wooden bongo drum Ricky Ricardo (or a hippie, perhaps) would be proud to own.  All you need is some plywood and basic tools.  If you can operate a garage door opener you should be able to do this.  Gird up your loins and let's rock!

(Statement concerning garage door opener not tested for accuracy.)

Step 1: What We Need

Here is a list of the tools that I am using.  Your list may vary.  There are often many ways to complete a woodworking project (and let's not even get into excoriating felines).  This is simply how I did it and what I used.  As well, I am using cabinet grade Baltic Birch plywood.  You may use something else if you wish, though I cannot speak to acoustical properties of anything other than this.  Cabinet grade is important for a nice finish and to avoid gaps that would need to be filled.

Tools:
Table saw
Miter saw
Orbital sander
Sandpaper
Contour sanding grips
Protractor
Clamps
Wood glue
Toothbrush
Dust mask
Safety glasses
Anything else I forgot

Materials:
3/8" Baltic Birch plywood
1/8" Baltic Birch plywood

Yes, I consider glue a tool.  Deal with it.

Comments

[Gobbels]

Hey there

I'm about to take my chances at the bongo cajon (just ordered some birch plywood.. hard to find in Turkey),and hopefully everything will be alright but I couldn't make the differences in thickness between your long sides and the short ones. Dİd you make them all from the 1/8'' or 3/8'' or is it my time to see the eye doctor??

[pdub77]

Everything but the playing surface is made from the 3/8. The part you beat on is 1/8. Have fun and let me know how it goes. And post some pics if you can!

[Verga]

I just finished building this. I didn't have any baltic birch, so I just used regular ply.
I used underlayment for the top and planed it down to 1/8th.
I used Gorilla glue for the whole asembly and it worked very well.
I put the divided at almost exactly 2/5th of the way and the sound is outstanding.
The only difficulty I had was in figuring out the width of the sides.
I ended up going with 6 1/4 inches.
I put one cotat of Minwax colonial Maple on the sides and will use 3 coats of laquer to finish.

[pdub77]

Excellent! Post a pic if you can.

[urban wombat]

Hey friger, Fat Jacks Tash Wax works well on long haired cats, but short haired felines, not so much. http://www.fatjackstashwax.com/
This is far and away the best sounding bongo cahon I have heard so far. Thanks for sharing the build Paul. I will give it a try at the weekend.

[friger]

Love it, much more portable than the floor model I built. Can you recommend a good cat wax?

[Kiteman]

An excellent project - I predict these will start popping up in woodwork classes around the world...