How to Make Custom Drums

I just completed work on a 20″ floor tom and I couldn’t be more happy with the results. It’s huge, it’s beautiful, and it sounds like a cannon going off (or at least what I think a cannon sounds like, because I have actually never heard a cannon going off.)

This was a fun build for me. This was the first time I had ever had wood burning done on a drum, and also the first time that I used Ego’s rounded claw that actually attaches to the bass drum hoop. (I’ll be adding a “How to Install Attachable Bass Drum Hoop Claws” section in the book soon!) You may wonder why I used bass drum hoops as opposed to flanged hoops…well if you can find me a pair of 20″ 8 hole black chrome hoops I would love to know where they are. I searched everywhere for them, but no one carries or makes them.

Here are some pictures from the building process.

I wish I could say that I had burned that design onto the drum, but I’m pretty sure no one wants me to mess up their drum shell with my drawing/burning skills.

I know, I need to sweep my shop floor. There is sawdust from cutting 3″ inlay strips into 7 drums, and bearing edges on 3 drums.

I really like the look of these attachable drum claws, however there are some installation tips that need to be addressed if you have never worked with them before. All of the tips I picked up on from using these hoop claws will be added in the the “How to Make Custom Drums” bonus section in the next week or so.

These counter sunk screws are barely noticeable from far away, and they are flush with the inside of the bass drum hoops.

Not a very good quality photo (camera phone), but this is the finished product with my badge attached.

I have been extremely busy the past month, and have slacked on keeping my readers up to date in the drum building community. For that I apologize and I will try to do a better job! I have lots going on in the shop these days so I should have plenty to talk about on here. I am in the process of building a studio kit that will be very much like this floor tom, except it instead of the black pearl inlay it will have aged white pearl inlay, and instead of black chrome all around it will be just chrome hardware. It will have tube lugs and hoop claws. 10″, 12″, 14″, 16″ and 20″ kick. Here is a picture of my progress so far:

I had a post in April talking a little about this kit, but I wanted to update you on the finished product. This is a very classic sized kit: 14×22, 8×13, and 16×16.

I learned a lot from building this kit. Just a few things I learned from this build:

• “Nonflammable” contact cement is a product that I will avoid at all costs from now on.
• I love the “Gel” form of contact cement because it is much easier to work with. No runs = no mess!
• Video taping yourself building drums is harder than I thought.
• I realized I like notching the overlap near the bearing edge for wrapped drums, but it also is harder than it seems.
• I love chrome tube lugs. They bring class to any drum.
• I made a new document to include in the Ebook – it is a checklist for ordering drum supplies, because even I forget to order supplies every now and then.

I recently received and email from someone that was about to start building their very 1st custom drum set. He asked me how I decide on the finish and hardware of a particular drum or drum set that I’m building. This question has always been tough for me because I don’t always feel creative. I do however have a couple of places I like to go for inspiration.

I think that by seeing some amazing drums that have already been created, it can spark the creativity in my brain to think outside the box of just doing a normal looking wrap or a normal looking stain. When I go to a drum store I always look at all of the little details of the drums even down to the bearing edge or where they put the seam of the wrap.

…but let’s face it… most music stores that have drums don’t usually have the most amazing drums on display. This is where the internet comes in.

Some of my favorite custom drum builders are as follows:

SJC Custom Drums – These guys have inspired me for years. Really cool website, but more importantly some of the coolest, most innovative drums I’ve ever seen. I especially like their “Butcher” Hoops.

C&C Custom Drums – Beautiful drums with a classic look.

San Francisco Drum Company – Another very classy drum company. I love their hardware and vintage style drums.

So there is one of my little secrets, when I’m trying to decide on a finish or find a certain look that stands out among other drums, I usually check out those sites for inspiration. There are tons of custom drum builders on the web that post pictures of their drums so I would encourage you to start checking them out!

Where do you look for ideas and inspiration when building drums?

The other day I was carousing the Wal-Mart of music stores (Guitar Center) for some inspiration and ideas for a new kit I’m about to start building and happened upon a drum set that advertised 100% maple shells. The thing that struck me funny is that the drum set was only $599 for a complete drum set with mounting hardware (kick drum, 3 toms, and a snare drum). I just couldn’t believe my eyes, this set looked great, and for that price I was beginning to wonder how in the world I would be able to compete with a great looking drum with “100% maple drum shells” that could be purchased for less than half of what it takes me to actually build a similar drum set…

After I sat down and played on them I examined the shell, the hardware and the actual construction of the drum itself.  There were a couple of very noticeable differences in the drums that I make and in the drums that were in front of me.

I might talk about some of the other differences in other posts, the first thing I noticed after turning over the snare drum and looking at the bearing edge was that there was no interior finishing done to the drum or bearing edge, and honestly the inside of the shell looked like any other cheap beginner drum set shell. It definitely didn’t look like the Keller maple shells that I use and recommend for building custom drums. I know that there must have been some corners cut to make this drum set so cheap so I asked one of the sales associates how these 100% maple shell kits could sell for $599. He explained that most of the cheaper “all maple kits” only have 2-3 actual full sheet plies of maple, and they usually have a couple layers of ground up maple plies that are just kind of filler in the middle of the drum. That way they can still get away with calling it “all” or “100%” maple shells, but in reality the shell will not play, feel or resonate like a true “all maple ply shell”.  Interesting.

The point of this information is not to stop anyone from buying those drums, but I think that you should be educated about what your actually buying when you opt for buying a cheaper drum set. Cheaper drum sets are great for beginners. I owned a Percussion Plus drum set for the first 6 years I was a drummer. I eventually moved up to a Yamaha Stage Custom drum set and played on that for another 4 years. Both drum sets served the purpose of helping me get better at drums, and eventually I needed a professional level drum set for the amount and quality of gigs I was playing. When that time came I was fortunate enough to have already learned a little bit about building drums and decided to take the plunge and make my 1st custom drum set…and if I keep writing I may get a little sentimental, so I leave you with a picture of the drum set that started it all…

If you want to learn more about building your own custom drum set you can get started by signing up for the free drum building tutorials sent to your email. I’m happy to share this information with you and hope that you will be inspired to build your own custom drum!

As always, please feel free to share any questions or comments you have by leaving a comment below!

1. Drum Key Drill Bit – Buy Now! – This tool is a must for any custom drum builder who is used to using only a drum key to assemble or disassemble their drum sets. This makes putting heads on and taking off heads about 10 times faster. I have built many drums before I finally found one of these and I can honestly say this may be my favorite drum building tool discovery in the past 5 years. (I know they have been available for longer than that, but I never knew I needed one so badly!)

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2.Right Angle Drill – Buy Now! – This also makes assembling drums extremely fast. However when your screwing in any of your hardware screws (lugs, bass drum spurs, tom mounting hardware) you’ll need to use a low force setting on the drill so it doesn’t strip your screws. The reason I recommend a right angle drill is to be able to get inside those smaller diameter shells like 12″ and smaller. With a traditional drill you won’t be able to fit it inside the shell to screw the lugs screws in!

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3. J-Roller – Buy Now! – If you are going to apply a wrap to a drum, this tool will help you get any unwanted air bubbles out from in between the shell and the wrap. This really is a must for applying wrap correctly.

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4. Combo Square – Buy Now! – Ah the combo square, probably my most used drum making tool. I use this to mark the layout for all of the hardware that goes on to each drum. I also use it to mark stripe layout for paint, and for wrap. I don’t know that I could build a drum without one of these.

These are some of the tools that you’ll need to build a custom drum, to learn how to use some of them you can sign up for the free drum building tutorials sent to your email! If you want to learn how to use all of these drum building tools and learn the art of drum building consider buying “How to Make Custom Drums 2.0″

I’m always look for new blog topics, if you have any questions or ideas for blog topics I encourage you to leave a comment below!

The past few weeks I’ve been waiting to get supplies in to build a new custom drum set for a P.Ellis Drums artist. I recently started the build process in my wood/drum shop. Like I have said before every time I build a new drum or drum set I learn something that changes the way I think about drum building. This time has been no different. I ordered all of the supplies that I didn’t have on hand and when they got here I immediately began to unpack and count my supplies to make sure that they had sent me all of the right supplies, and to make sure they had sent the right amount. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve started working on a drum set and have been pretty much done with the finishing process, cutting the bearing edges and drilling the holes for hardware only to find that I’m missing 1 key piece of hardware that makes it to where I can’t ship the drums out to the owner. I have finished a drum set and had to wait for another 2 weeks to get 2 tube lugs that were supposed to be in my initial order but the supplier somehow miss counted….Lesson Learned: ALWAYS CHECK YOUR SHIPMENT OF SUPPLIES!

This is my first time working with this particular supplier on a full drum set order and I can honestly say this has been the best customer service experience I have ever had with a drum supply company.

I have been video taping all of my building sessions with the hope of being able to edit it down to something that will better show drum builders how to build a custom drum set. I do not know when this will be available, but I’ll keep you posted on Twitter and Facebook!

Another drum build and another lesson learned: Don’t use this product to wrap drums -

I figured in honor of  Earth Day I would try to use the Eco-Friendly contact cement… This was a bad idea. I “scarified” both surfaces and applied the contact cement to both surfaces (2 coats) and waited about 30 minutes as I would with any other contact cement and tried to stick the 2 pieces together….and there was a bond…but definitely not a strong bond. I left the drum over night to see if it would be any better when I came back. It was not. It’s not a good thing when I can actually peel the wrap off the drum with very little effort…So I just peeled off the wrap, removed the dried contact cement from the shell and the wrap (which was actually pretty easy…this eco-friendly stuff is known for it’s easy clean up). So after wrapping the drums and then deciding that I had to start over I wasted about 2 days. Not my idea of being productive. I did however go back to using the DAP weldwood contact cement that I have used in the past and had great results from…and this time I used the gel formula…which I found out that I love. I will use from now on. It doesn’t run, which means it is less messy, which means it doesn’t get it all over me or my workspace.

I leave you with a couple of shots from the past week:

I have never had any major incidents when building drums, however there are some important safety precautions to take into consideration. Working with sharp powerful tools should make this obvious, but the joy and excitement of working with those tools can make thoughts of safety drift far away.  With that in mind here are 5 tips I feel are crucial in any shop.

• Clean your shop – Removing unneeded materials and tools from your work space will help insure that you and your piece are easy to move around as needed.
• Pay Attention – Glancing at a TV or door/window or anything other than your cut invites contact with the blade.  ALWAYS finish the cut before looking away.
• Take your time – If you are in a hurry to get done making your custom drum then you need to take a look at why you are doing the work in the first place.  Enjoy the process; it’s not always the destination but the journey.
• Invest in yourself – YOU are the most important “piece” while working with wood so protect yourself as you would your project “piece”.  Wearing safety goggles, ear protection, dust masks, etc. should be the rule, not the exception.
• Use your head – Take some time before you start to plan out your cuts and “see” how they will unfold.

Every time I build a new custom drum or custom drum kit I learn something that can usually help me improve upon a similar drum set the next time around. Each new drum I build gets better and better and I find more efficient ways to do some of the drum building tasks. Most recently I completed this drum set:

The drum building tip I picked up from building this drum set has to do with the order of the steps that I apply the inlay strip and finishing process. For this drum set I:

1. Cut the inlay groove
2. Applied about 4 coats of black stain
3. Installed the inlay strip
4. Sealed and gave a high gloss finish

Now, from looking at pictures of the drums and even looking at the drums up close you would never be able to tell what I did wrong. (not really wrong…but I will do this differently on the next drum kit that has an inlay that I build)

Here is what the aged pearl wrap looks like up close:

Look great right? Well I used some very nice tung oil for the high gloss finish for this kit and tung oil (along with other finishing products such as lacquer) tends to yellow or  “amber out” over time. Since I installed the inlay strip before I finished the drum, the inlay with also be included in the “ambering out” that is already starting to happen to this kit. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact this amber color is often desired by many custom finishers. If you’ve ever seen a vintage guitar that has discolored over time you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about!

In conclusion the main lesson I learned from building this drum set was this: If you like the original color of whatever inlay strip you decide to use,  you should mask the area where your inlay strip will go, finish the entire drum, and install the inlay once your finish is complete to prevent your strip from “ambering out”!

I hope this helps some of you builders venturing into the world of inlay! If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them below. I would love to hear what you have to say!

Twitter users, I’m running a Twitter-only campaign in an effort to gain more followers, and to do so I am giving out random drum building supplies every week for the next 5 weeks! The drum building supplies the be given out are as follows:

• 14″ 10-hole Wood  snare drum hoops ($100 value)
• Sparkle and Glitter Wrap suitable for cutting inlay strips ($40 value)
• 3 copies of “How to Make Custom Drums” ($75 value – 1 per winner)

How to enter:

1. Click to tweet this message:Hey! Retweet this to WIN DRUM BUILDING SUPPLIES! Follow @makedrums for drum building tips! Details here: http://ow.ly/1vDUh

Contest Guidelines:

1. You can tweet as many times as you like, but only one entry will count per week/giveaway.
2. Make sure your tweets are public. If your tweets are private, I can’t see them, which means you can’t win.
3. You won’t know the winning prize for the week until the winner is announced.
4. Each week’s contest will run for 7 days at a time, starting from the moment this blog is published. Winners will generally be announced within a day of the ending time, via Twitter only, so be sure to follow @makedrums.

Good luck and happy tweeting!

The follow section is taken right from the pages of “How to Make Custom Drums”. Like what you see? Buy the full version and learn everything you need to know to be able to build your very own custom drum or drum set!

Making an Inlay Jig for your Router Table

Inlay’s can make your drums look pro and classy. This design is extremely easy to make and to use. Just cut a piece of laminated MDF to the size (width or length) of your existing router table then cut a 2×4 to the same size and screw the 2 together. (see picture) Make sure to counter sink your screws so they don’t get in the way.  All you need now are 2 clamps.

Cutting Inlay Grooves

1. Mark a straight line all the way across the router table that lines up exactly with the center of the router

2. For a centered inlay you need to take the length of the shell, divide by 2, and measure that distance away from the center line marked on your table. This picture is marked for a 1.5” bass drum hoop. Use clamps the secure the jig in place.

3. Find the straight router bit size that you want for your inlay strip. You can find many different sizes online or at your local home improvement store.

4. Use heavy leather gloves for this part; you don’t want to cut your finger off! First you’ll need to adjust the router so that your first pass doesn’t take away much wood. You’ll need to cut the inlay in very small increments and test fit your inlay after each pass. The idea is to make it as flush as possible. Using the jig as a fence, keep the bottom of the fence always hard against the hoop/shell as you CAREFULLY spin it around, always keeping pressure going towards the fence and towards the bit. The slightest movement in any other direction can yield poor results. (also, you don’t need your fence to be as tall as the one in the picture. It only matters that you keep the hoop against the bottom part of the fence.)

Cut Your Inlay Strips

1. To actually cut your inlay strip you need to measure the actual cut that you made in your shell, and then mark those measurements on the shell. Use a straight edge to transfer the mark down the wrap so you have you a straight line to cut.

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2. Cut the inlay out using a very sharp pair of scissors. This cut has to be very precise, so go slowly and cut exactly on the line. Once it’s cut out, test fit it all the way around the shell. If there are any spots where the strip is too large, mark it and use your scissors to ever so slightly trim it down until it fits.

3. When you’re ready to install the strip, use painters tape to mask off areas of the hoop you don’t want covered in glue. Use contact cement on both the hoop and the stip. Allow it to dry for the manufacturer’s suggested dry time, then firmly stick them together.

Installing Smaller Inlay Strips

I use the “scrapbook adhesives” brand of super high tack photo tape (I usually find it at hobby lobby) for installing smaller inlays. It has a very strong bond and is easy to work with. Apply it to the back of your inlay strip, peel off the strip of dividing wax paper and then install it in your inlay groove.

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This drum’s inlay is actually strips of scrap booking paper. There are some really interesting designs that you might find if you’re looking for alternate inlay designs. You might also consider using wallpaper to wrap a drum…

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This drum’s inlay came from my local woodcraft store. They offer many different designs and sizes of wooden inlay strips that are also installed using the double sided tape method.

This drum’s inlay is aged pearl wrap from Drum Supply House. I installed it using the double sided tape method also.