Djembe Repair: Rope Puller with swivel base. Instructional video by Jason Megibow

“Why I use a pulling table to build drums”
The effects on your body from building drums. I've been working in the construction industry doing physical labor for 34 years. It's a marathon, not a sprint. Learning to work smarter, not harder. Using your body correctly with good posture. The same rules apply to all work requiring physical labor. Just like any physical work and repetitive movements, building rope tuned drums require physical labor and if we really need to take care of our bodies.
So… How do we work smarter?
For myself, firstly, I had to get off of the ground and stop using sticks & pipes to pull the rope. I needed a better way but didn’t know one existed. Then, back in the early 2000’s I saw a picture of a pulling table using a 2x4 as a foot lever and I built myself my first table, it worked way better than being on the floor and I was happy. Then in 2009 I met Shorty Palmer at a drum gathering, he was building drums using a hand & foot lever style table. I immediately purchased one.
Over the past decade I’ve modified Shorty’s design several times to make this work for me because balancing on one foot while using the other foot to depress the lever is not good for my body. .. Here’s what I did, I made the pulling lever longer so that I only use my upper body and not my foot, while my feet stay planted on the ground while I maintain proper posture… and I made the table longer so that it doesn’t tip while pulling, which also gave me a bigger work table. Additionally, I installed upright pipes to hold the drum during the pull.
I hope that we drum builders keep on innovating, creating, designing, engineering and making new and improved ways to build drums.
See it, learn it, and teach it. Pass it on.
Your brother in rhythm, Jason