I am putting this journal to bed. I now have three hoops to build banjos with, and I am going to do that next. You may see one or more of these hoops in a banjo journal in the future, depending on time and motivation.

I started this project on Feb 13, 2011, and it is now June 25, 2012. It has taken me one year and four months to teach myself how to bend and make banjo hoops. I will probably make some more hoops if I use up the ones that I have making banjos. I don't know if I would publish another bending adventure or not. Doing this has been a real hoot.

Here is a summary of the successful bending procedure that came I up with. I am sure that improvements can be made, but this will be the starting point for my next experiments.

Select a board with straight grain.
Set up the steam box and preheat for 30 minutes.
Insert the board and steam it for 20 minutes on the first side.
Turn the board end for end and steam the other side for 20 minutes.
Remove the board and wrap it around the form quickly.
Allow the board to dry for 24 hours.
Cut 2 3/4" off the inside end of the hoop.
Cut 4 1/4" off the outside end of the hoop.
Make a 3 1/4" heel block from 3/4" pine or fir.
Clamp the ends together on the bending form.
Screw the ends to the heel block with six #8 3/4" brass flathead wood screws.

That pretty well sums up what I have learned.

I never did figure out how to use that nylon strap that I bought to make a bending strap.

Here are some ideas that I would like to try if and when I bend some more wood.

Figure out how to make a bending strap.
Increase the size of the baffle in the steam box.
Make a baffle with no steam holes in it.
Steam the wood a little longer.

But that is all in the future. So I went down to the basement shop to visit my three banjo hoops. Here they are.

My Three Banjo Hoops

Here are the mistakes and shards that I created along the way.

The Leftovers

I will have to give some thought to making use of those so that I can bury them along with the others that I repurposed.