Help with Banjo Ukulele Build

I have a tenor neck and hand drum and I am working on putting everything together. I need a little advice.

I know I need to notch the neck to clear the drum rim. I assume the bottom of the neck (without fret board) should be level with the drum top. I assume I have to sacrifice the higher frets since the fretboard shouldn't touch the drum top.

What is the best way to attach the neck to the drum?
1) Can I just screw the neck to the drum, or does it need to be adjustable?

2) Should I put some sort of rod in the neck and through the drum body?

Sir, you are very much in luck.

just click on the "Ukulele Building / Luthier's Lounge" tab up there and click on the forum "Banjo Ukes Illustrated" which is an excellent pictorial tour trough the construction process of these instruments.

as for your fret dilemma. perhaps you could lengthen the neck, with a block and most banjo hybrid instruments I have seen have the frets set directly into the neck. No fretboard. If you have a fretboard made though, certainly use it.

Good luck.

The Curious Kid

If you click on that thread you will see the BU I made recently. This has a 6mm threaded steel rod glued into the heel, and the rod passes through the drum and has two nuts to hold it in place - one to tighten the neck to the drum side, and the other to tension it across the drum. Tightening this second nut can change the action slightly by distorting the drum rim.

You need to start from placing the bridge - around the middle of the drum, or maybe 1/2 inch back toward the tail. Then work out your scale length (twice the distance from the 12th fret to the bridge), and this tells you where your neck must join. Almost certainly your neck is too short, so you will need to make a block to go between the current heel of the neck and the drum. On mine, soprano scale, the neck would join round about the 18th fret on an 8 inch drum. For tenor scale an 8 inch drum would mean a join even higher up the scale - or you could try a 10 inch drum.