Build a Cajon Drum Like a Pro

Cajon drums produce a professional percussion sound and are easy to build in a typical hobbyist woodworking shop. Joe Cruz is a professional Cajon builder and provides the basic information needed to build one including a scaled drawing.

The Cajon (pronounced ka-hone’) is a wooden percussion instrument that is simple to make, can be played as a fair substitute for a full trap set, and is used by professional musicians to deliver a full, rich sound in studio or live performance venues. This style drum has been around for hundreds of years, and can be built by most woodworkers with basic tools and skills. To help us get up to speed on the nuances of producing high quality sound in a Cajon, I consulted with Joe Cruz, a veteran Cajon designer and builder from Minnesota who has built Cajons for many professional and amateur musicians. Joe has been refining his Cajon design for about a decade, and he was willing to share his secrets for those of us who want to take a crack at building our own. Joe even provided his personal scale drawing to simplify the building process if you want to take this on. If you are still not convinced, click here  to see a video of Joe playing a Cajon that he built.

Joe is a well known professional musician in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, skilled on stringed as well as percussion instruments. He is also an accomplished woodworker, with a stellar portfolio of furniture as well as turned pieces. When he started building Cajons, he found it to be a great way to mingle his music and woodworking passions into a single project. Since building that first Cajon, he has continued to hone the design to achieve a richer sound, experimenting with materials and even incorporating a snare into the design (this is cool!).  

Don’t be fooled by the modest appearance of these drums. These relatively simple boxes deliver professional sounding percussions, suitable for a variety of performance and studio environments.  Cruz said; “when I work in small venues where it is not practical to bring in a full set of drums, the Cajon allows me to produce nearly any sound I need while requiring very little space. In fact, since it also serves as my chair, it doesn’t really require any additional space. It is also not as loud as a traditional trap set, so it serves as a way to scale back the volume for quieter venues. Mostly, I love the unique, rich sound, and the portability and versatility of the Cajon”.

Tips for making a Cajon

The Cajon can be built to a size that makes it ideal for the person using it. Because you sit on it while playing, the dimensions should provide a comfortable sitting platform for the intended drummer. Joe finds that the dimensions provided in his drawing produce a comfortable Cajon for most people, but obviously the dimensions can be adjusted as you see fit.   The larger you build it, the lower the frequencies it will produce.

Square up the sides. Joe cuts the playing surface (front) to the specific size in his plan, and he uses a clamp to pull the sides into alignment with the front prior to attaching.