Banjo making
So I’ve been working on making a banjo. I recently steamed the wood for the rim. I used ash for its steamability and because it’s softer than maple, which I want for the tone.
First, I had to make the steam chamber. It’s made from ABS pipe, foil, duct tape and a pot full of water and it looks like this:
It cost me about $20 at my local Ace hardware. I have it set on a small stack of stuff so it can be angled upward which allows the steam to get into the chamber. Here’s a close-up of the part that attaches to the pot:
WARNING! THIS IS IMPORTANT! DO NOT LET THE FOIL TOUCH THE BURNER BECAUSE YOU WILL HAVE TO CLEAN IT OFF! DO NOT LET THE DUCT TAPE TOUCH IT FOR THE SAME REASON. ESPECIALLY DO NOT LET THE PIPE TOUCH THE POT OR BURNER BECAUSE IT WILL MELT AND BURN AND MAKE EVERYTHING SMELL BAD AND YOU’LL DIE PROBABLY. After I learned this the hard way, I got around this by attaching the “skirt” a lot closer to the pipe and covering it with foil like this:
So back to the steaming. For some reason, I was soaking the wood for 2 hours. This is way longer than you need. Roger Siminoff’s book on banjo making recommends 15 minutes, which I found to be fine. 
After the pipe heated up an I could see some steam coming out of the pipe, I grabbed the wood and put the lid on the chamber.
After about 15 minutes per piece of wood, I pulled them out and started rolling it on my 8.5″ wooden circle made by my roommate John. This was not a task to do alone. I didn’t have a good enough strap clamp to hold the wood to the form. That’s why my wood isn’t super circular…
I hope this won’t be a problem when I need to glue the pieces together. I’ll let you know how that goes, Internet.