Recessing a Curve

I'm making a banjo uke using a Remo 10" drum head like the ones on the Fluke. Rather than trying to cut the curve correctly on the neck, I'm going to put a small piece of oak between the drum and the neck. I'll do the cutting on that, and if I mess it up, I can try again.

That Remo head has a band around the top, so I'll have to cut one recess for that and another for the body of the drum. In my previous build, I used a 6" grinding wheel to cut the curves, cutting one piece of wood for the band and another for the body, and then I glued them together.

I'm hoping there is a better way to cut the curve into the wood - something that hasn't occurred to me. I have several hand sanders and a bench-mounted belt sander.

You have been given many answers to this many times Jerry. One poster sent a photo of the setup using a drum sander etc. Shaping the neck join on a banjo or banjo uke to a ten inch or eight-inch radius plus an 87.5° compound angle is probably the hardest part of the build to get right. I use a jig and a pattern sanding drum in the drill press to sand the neck join before the neck blank has had any work done to it. There are videos and photos available on tube/google

This is my setup. Very simple.
Photo 1 shows a finished neck in the jig.
Photo 2 shows the jig on the drill press
Photo 3 shows the sanding drum available from stewmac.

DPO said:

This is my setup. Very simple.
Photo 1 shows a finished neck in the jig.
Photo 2 shows the jig on the drill press
Photo 3 shows the sanding drum available from stewmac.

Click to expand...

Thanks, DPO. That sanding drum with the jig looks like the way to go.