Project 2 – Lap Cajon – Updated
Updated for single Page View.
For my next project I decided to make a lap sized cajon. I’d seen a smaller flatter Cajon in Cuba which looked pretty handy and I’m aware that Meinl make a good looking Bongo Cajon.
Cajon Drum Plans
I’ve put together some plans for building Cajon Drums. There may be a some errors but it should be enough to get you started. The plans are available as a pdf on this link.
For details of my diy Lap Cajon and a video of the drum in action read this.
Good luck with the Cajon construction.
Project 2 – Lap Cajon Stage 2
With the frame built the remaining items are the playing surface and resonant side. As previously described I planned to use an angled resonant side on the lap Cajon to try and create a difference in pitch end to end. This seemed to be simpler to construct than two separate chambers and should provide tone across the length of the drum.
Both the resonant and playing surfaces were cut from 3mm plywood. The resonant surface was glued into position at an angle supported by wood strips and clamped to give a good seal. Once this had dried the playing surface was then glued and clamped into position.
Lap Cajon Resonant Support
I decided against adding any snares / strings to this Cajon to give more of a bongo sound. I also decided not to cut a sound hole as I was unsure how this would work on an angled surface but it may be something worth experimenting with in future versions.
To finish off the project the edges were rounded and the drum given a couple of coats of Danish Oil.
Side View
Cajon Building – Big Images
As requested here are some much larger pictures of my diy Cajon.
Cajon Building – Stage 3
The next part of my diy cajon project was working out how to get a good snare sound on the drum. I purchased a 12″ snare off the web from Thomann which I planned to string across the drum.