I’m a bit of a dabbling musician, and I’ve wanted to make a cajon for a while.

Apart from the snares, which were a cheap purchase from AliExpress, everything else is made from left-over materials I had lying around.

The body (top, bottom and sides) are made from 12mm poplar ply. It’s not the best ply as it has a few voids in the layers, but it looks nice and sounds ok.

The tapa is 4mm 3-ply birch (model ply, or aircraft ply).

Unlike a more traditional cajon, I made the sound hole in the side instead of the back, and attached a second tapa to the back. I plan to attach a drum pedal which strikes the rear tapa so that I can play with my foot while sitting on the cajon and playing guitar.

Usually the rear is thinner than the sides, but not as thin as the tapa (usually it’s about twice as thick). The thinner rear has given my cajon more of a resonant bass tone – a little more like as bongo than a classic bass drum, but it still sounds nice.

The knob on the side allows me to engage or disengage the snares from the tapa.

The body is varnished, and both tapas are oiled.