Frame Drum Jingle Extension

These days, it is quite popular to add some jingles to a cajon or frame drum which opens up a completely new world of sonic options when playing. Alas, not all frame drum companies do offer a jingle extension. Thus, in the following, we will make our own one.

We just need:

• Some quality jingles
• A 3D printed clamp
• Three M3 screws
• Twelve M3 hex nuts
• Two 2mm nails, same length as the M3 screws
• Two wooden strips as stoppers, hard wood (e.g. beech), 170mm*16mm*3mm

The length of the screws and nails depends on the required pocket size for the jingles. I think having quality jingles is important. So I got my jingles from an online shop, that is specialized on making jingles (“platinelas”) for pandeiros: Haffner & Perander Percussion. They have a big assortment of hand made jingles. Actually, one “pair” of jingles consists in most cases of 4-6 parts made out of different material (brass, copper, steel, silver etc.). And each combination of materials produces its own, unique sound when playing. I got the “Choro Samba” ones for a pocket size of 14mm. In our built, 25mm M3 screws is the length we need.

All in all, the jingle bar extension, we will build in the following, is designed in a way that allows you to adjust the pocket size as you need. We will build a jingle bar that consists of 2 pairs of jingles and with some wooden stoppers for a good sound. However the 3D printed mounting clamp could also be used to mount just one pair of jingles, without the wooden stoppers, by directly putting the jingles on the M3 screw. When using a knurled nut, one can even adjust the pocket size during playing, which also produces a different sound.

The following instructions presume a 22” Remo frame drum with Renaissance head. If you have a drum with different dimensions, you need to adjust the attached Fusion360-CAD-file first (JingleBarExtensionV2.f3d).

It is important to print the mounting clamp (MountingDrum.stl) in a lying position due to the force that will be later applied to the part by clamping it on the drum. The part needs to be printed with support material. To improve bed adhesion, especially when printing with ABS, it is also important to add a brim. Cura slicer settings: infill “50%”, infill type “grid”, wall line count “3” (i.e. print it with 3 outer walls).

[UPDATE: To keep the wooden bar from rotating on the clamp, I have now added a fixation sleeve to the design, see FixationSleeve.stl. It helps keeping the bar into position.]

First, we need two wooden stripes of a length of 17cm. I used some tape to mount them on top of each other. Next, mark the bore holes and drill them out.

The nails I used were longer than the screws. So I had to shorten them first. This is not the worst thing you can do, since it also gets rid off the sharp tip of the nails.

Next get the nails and screws into position and mount the jingles. (Use threadlocker glue to keep the nuts in position.)

Now put on a new “layer” of M3 nuts, put the top stopper on top of it and secure it with another layer of nuts. Make a sound check and adjust the pocket size as you like it by moving the nut layers up and down. Finally tighten the nuts.

We are done! Mount the jingle bar on your frame drum and enjoy playing! And by the way: If you found this instructable inspiring and life-enhancing for you, you can also buy me a coffee :-).