Last week I had the oil can banjo together but I wasn’t completely satisfied. I particular, the holes in the tail-piece were off-line, pulling the strings toward the bottom of the fretboard. Yesterday, I visited my local Goodwill and bought a selection of forks, and rebuilt the tailpiece.

This is much better. You can see in the photo that the positioning of the neck was a matter of some trial and error (the error demonstrated by the extra holes in the bottom of the can.  Notice there are two screws. I used a piece of 1X2 maple as a dowel stick and created two points of connection top and bottom. Going into the neck, I used two dowels, and through the tailpiece, I used two screws. This should give the instrument added stability. My next challenge is growing a couple fingernails so I have something to strike the strings with! All in good time.