Ringing conga, new skin?

[seisporocho1]

It should be in water until it is maleable i.e. flexible and easy to manipulate in any direction.
Normally it takes 3-4 hours. Try not to let it sit in water too long. It will expel a lot of its natural oils (which it needs) and take longer to dry later !
Hope this helps...

6x8

[Mario2CP]

So after all the time i got desired skin on monday and mounted it yesterday. I soaked my 3mm skin for 8hrs, i had to leave for 4hrs so i put it out of water and put it back for 30min more after. Than i centered the inside ring, made a sandwich with rim. I found this part quite hard, bacause the skin was aproximately 6mm. Puting it on the drum was very hard too, it took me an hour i guess. Than you know the rest. At 2:17am I found out my blade is not sharp enough so I had to go to store to buy a new one . After I came back, skins edges dried out quite a bit which made it pretty difficult to cut. I was done in 4am:) now its drying and I'm excite about the sound of the drum. Unfortunately, i sofly cut the skin around the drum (1cm long). Very little,not deep at all, but its there:( I thought maybe some little amount of strong glue could help it to preserve its... Is that all screwed up?
Anyway here are some pics of what i've done...

[Mario2CP]

There are picturec of the cut:(

[thomas newton]

Others with more experience may know better but... I think you've made a weak spot and unless you are very lucky the skin will tear when you tighten it.

I hope I'm wrong.

[Mike]

Not a big deal really, that cut as it does not appear to be deep at all.

You should do the following:
First of all let the mounted skin dry naturally.
Carefully sand and degrease that spot and fill it with the strongest epoxy glue available,
employing a 100W light bulb to make the glue stronger, and the skin will NEVER tear at
that point. Do not tune it up for a couple of days.

After that, you can treat your conga "normally".

Cheers
-Mike

[msb501clave]

its hard to tell from the photos if there will be an issue down the road. I agree that you should do some very light sanding on it. if you have a 3-4 mm thick hide and you just hit the surface not to worry. 1mm deep cut may be an issue over time w/ tension.

[KING CONGA]

As thick as that hide looks and considering that the cut is not very deep, maybe .010 to .015, you should never have any problems. If you have doubts I would recomend that you treat it as Mike described .

[thomas newton]

I'm happy to be wrong in this case given all your previous troubles. Let's hope you can finally be happy with this drum Mario.

[bongosnotbombs]

That's just a little scratch, you should be fine. Be more careful and
better prepared next time, seems like you made the whole process
more difficult than it really needs to be. I don't like to soak my skins
as long as you did because it makes them too thick and harder to put on.

Other than that the skin looks great, hopefully it will solve your problems.

[Mike]

Yeah, Geordie is right indeed.

I did a far worse cut a while ago when mounting a mule skin on my Gio quinto.

Actually, if I remember correctly, I "undersoaked" the mule skin (not even 6 hours),
it thus became hard to cut off the excess skin and that was why the knife blade slipped and
I cursed that the trees were shaking..
This is how the fixed cut looks:

BTW a flabby skin consistence is easier to tackle
- if the soaked hide has not become TOO thick of course.

Yes, looking good, Mario, you needn´t worry!

[seisporocho1]

First of all, Holy S#@*!! That's a Thick skin!!!!
Secondly, if the cut didn't go thru the other side, you should be ok. You'd be surprised how strong these hides are and since the pulling down force is distributed equally throughout the head by the flesh hoop, I don't think it'll tear any time soon.
Regardless, following Mike's advise might be a good idea just in case.
I think you did a good job being it your first time skinning a drum. Nice job!
For a skin that thick, I suggest letting it dry for a no less than 4-5 days. Perhaps you live in a very dry area and could start tuning in less time. But to play it safe (since the rim is already lower than ideally desired), wait and make sure your skin is FULLY dry before you start tuning it.
I hope the skin works out for you. It will definitely get rid of your overtones (IF the problem was the previous skin and not the drum's manufacturing defects). Let's hope you get nice tones and that it doesn't choke your drum too much...cause that is a seriously thick skin!
Best of luck.
6x8

[Mario2CP]

Hi guys,
thank you all for the precious advices and comments. This is a great forum and it helped me a lot. I'm very hapy to find nice ppl who advice me and support me solving this problem. Now I'm very excited about new skin and also very happy that the cut is not such a big problem. I write back as soon as i record the sound of the drum.
Thanks to everyone one more time!
Mario

[Mario2CP]

Well, one more thing:) As the drying process goes on, skin on the top of the drum is no longer flat from edge to edge, but it droped down slightly to a "lake shape". Should I thightent skin more to make it go away?
Thanks for help
Mario

[thomas newton]

Well, one more thing:) As the drying process goes on, skin on the top of the drum is no longer flat from edge to edge, but it droped down slightly to a "lake shape". Should I thightent skin more to make it go away?
Thanks for help
Mario

Mario, you are going to have to be really patient. 6x8 has advised you to wait until the skin is fully dry, don't worry about the 'lake'. Depending on the conditions where you are it could take more than the 4 or 5 days he has advised you to wait.

You are really going to have to work on your technique and condition your hands slowly to get the best out of this skin. So if you don't have the patience to wait until the skin dries, it is very unlikely you will have the patience to learn this instrument.

[Mario2CP]

Hi,
I only dont want any more mistakes... I just called one local conguero who recommended to try pull skin up so that it statches.
Considering i have troubles with this drum almost a year, i think i'm patient more than enough. I think if I spend the same time working instead of trying to fix this drum, i could have bought the most expencive LP already. But u're right, i cant wait to play it:)
Cheers
Mario