Birth Of An Idea: Stretch Wrap Bongo Drum

The original idea was born in Harbor Freight with the stretch wrap in my hand, so I
needed to try it! I agree a better head would make a huge improvement,
but it WORKED. I not going to pretend to be anything short of excited
about that. It’s fun to see a crazy idea come together….

It’s a bongo drum with a stretch wrap head and copper binding. I had a
lot of fun with this project! The head is a bit unorthodox but it was
the inspiration for the drum. It’s simple stretch wrap, and I think it
gives the drum an interesting look and cool sound. You opinions may
differ!

The woods used in this drum are oak, mahogany and acacia.
I had an allergic reaction to the acacia and had to buy a respirator
to finish the project!

There are 13 pieces of wood here, all segmented together or rather, coopered.

Each piece is:

1 1/2″ wide 
1 1/4″ thick
12″ long
Beveled at 13.8 degrees

I then glued them together and turned them to shape on the lathe.This was a bit of a scary process if I’m honest. The jaws in my chuck couldn’t expand wide enough to hold the drum tight, so I used the tail stock to add pressure. It was basically turned between centers.

I
used a 30 degree chamfer bit in my router table to get the bearing edge
for the drum head and a nice matching look for the bottom.

After that it was just a matter of wrapping the drum in stretch wrap and securing it. I toyed with lots of ways to do it and settled on the copper. I drilled some holes, inserted one end of the wire and tightly wrapped it around. I ended up doing three wraps on the top and one on the bottom.

I used a wipe on poly for the finish.

Will this last forever? No. But it will look cool on my shelf. Sometimes trying something fun is more important to me than making something practical! 🙂

Thanks for looking!