front playing surface and the back of your cajon. How To Build A Cajon Stage 2. Now what we are going to do is cut the back, front and the fixings for the internal snare . To make the back we want to cut some 6mm ply to fit the cajon . Then we need to make the sound hole. I do this with a whole cutter but you could use a jig saw if you like. The sound hole is usually set towards the bottom of the cajon . When you have cut the hole finish the cut with a half round file and sandpaper. Now lets cut out the playing surface of the cajon. Here I am using a 2mm beach ply. This type of playing surface is going to make the cajon very easy to play it will also produce a wide variety of sounds . Thicker wood can be used but the heavier playing surfaces will make the cajon less responsive and heavier to play. I have experimented with a number of different fronts . The 2mm ply is the best I have found. We now need to cut some parts for to construct and hold the snare. The snare is going to be positioned towards the right hand top of the cajon and it is going to be half of a 14inch 20 strand drum snare. So first we are going to cut three bits of wood which is 1.5cm x 3cm. We need two