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Tag Archive - drum building supplies

11 Ways to Achieve Your Personal Drumming Goals in 2012

December 30, 2011 in Drum Tips, Drummer resources, Drums, General Updates with 31 Comments

I recently had a chance to talk with Ed Francis aka “The Drummer on the Round Rock” to ask him to share some of his drumming wisdom with the community here at Makedrums. Ed shared some really incredible insights on attaining your goals as a drummer, but don’t be fooled! These tips can help you achieve goals in all areas of your life – not just drumming!

MD: Could you share specific examples – some “drum nuggets” of wisdom – that you have held on to, and have seen as instrumental in helping you achieve your personal drumming goals?

Francis: Humility is always a good place to start. When I first began playing [the drums] I knew that I didn’t know it all and I wanted to learn as much as I could about drumming. And I continue to remind myself of that way of thinking – that I still don’t know it all. Continue Reading....

Ludwig Drum Company: Innovation That Paved The Way For All Custom Drum Builders

October 24, 2011 in Drums History with 1 Comment

In 1909, the brothers Ludwig, William and Theobaldner, were the founders of what is now the Ludwig-Musser Company, which is owned by Steinway Musical Instruments. Ludwig Musser is a leading producer of drums and other percussion instruments.
Ludwig’s initial product was an improved pedal for bass drums that could beat faster than competing products. The brothers developed the pedal in a south-side Chicago barn they rented. Following up on their initial success, they next engineered:

a timpani with hydraulic action
the spring mechanism that is the forerunner to today’s Balanced Action Pedal Timpani
more drums (and banjos), such as brass snare drums and wooden drums

Drum Building Tools for the Advanced Drum Builder

March 23, 2011 in Drum Building 101, Drum Building Resources, Drums with 4 Comments

Here is the 2nd part to the “Drum Building Tools” series. In this post I briefly discuss some of the drum building tools and supplies that you might want to get your hands on if you plan on building drums more often than just once. Again if you only want to build a snare, or even a full kit, but you don’t want to invest in buying tools, refer to this blog post to learn about building drums with only a screwdriver.

Advanced Drum Building Supplies and Tools

Tools I own and use for cutting bearing edges:

A Router
Router Bits
A Router Table
-You can buy router tables from most hardware stores, but I recommend building your own table so you can easily route drums that are larger in diameter than standard router tables allow. (I have router table building plans in the eBook)

A “Truing” Sanding Table
-There are many ways of going about making a truing table, which I explain in the eBook. The basic idea of using a truing table is to allow you to start, and make sure that your edge remains perfectly tru all the way around the bearing edge, in other words start with a flat and level edge, and make sure the bearing edge doesn’t have dips or curves. Continue Reading....

Drum Building Tools for the Beginning Drum Builder

March 3, 2011 in Drum Building 101, Drums with 1 Comment

It seems like I’ve gotten more emails than usual from people interested in building custom drums that just want to know what tools they will need to start building drums. To answer this question I will be writing a 2 part blog post. The first post will list and discuss the bare essentials for building custom drums, and the second post will list and discuss in more depth some of the drum building tools that you’ll need to have if you plan on building drums long term.

Here is the bare minimum that you will need to build your first drum:

A Screwdriver

…That’s it. The only tool you need to build your first drum is a screwdriver. You may think I have fallen off of my rocker, but the very first drum set that I ever built was acomplished using only a screwdriver! Continue Reading....

That’s one very large floor tom…

August 25, 2010 in Drums, General Updates, Reader's Drum Pictures with 3 Comments

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:

Black Sparkle Custom Drum Set

June 18, 2010 in Drums, General Updates, Reader's Drum Pictures with 0 Comments

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.

How to Wrap a Drum Shell Part 2

March 24, 2010 in Drum Building 101, Drum Building Tutorials, Drums, General Updates with 1 Comment

This is the 2nd and last post on how to wrap your drum shells! Enjoy! Check out the first post here. Another important blog post to view along with this post is “How to Keep your Wrap Seams From Coming Up“.

After you have made sure there is not sanding dust on the wrap or on the shell you can apply your contact cement. If you have already drilled your holes for hardware you may want to tape the inside up so that no contact cement can run on the inside of the shell. Use a paint brush or roller brush to apply the contact cement to the shell, the back of the wrap, and the overlap! You’ll need to apply 2 coats to achieve maximum adhesion, and you can do them one right after the other. Leave no space uncovered or else you’ll have some bubbles in your wrap. Make sure you really get the overlap good! Consult the directions on your contact cement to get the best results.

Most contact cement needs about 15-30 minutes of drying time BEFORE you try to put the wrap on the shell. When the glue dries on all surfaces you may proceed. – Attention! – The glue must be dry for you to have a permanent bond, it sounds counter intuitive, but trust me, if you try to stick things together with contact cement when the cement is not completely dry, it will become un-bonded over time.

How to Wrap a Drum Shell Part 1

January 5, 2010 in Drum Building 101, Drum Building Tutorials, Drums, General Updates with 4 Comments

Using a wrap to finish your drum is a great way to get an outstanding finish in very little time. If you are wrapping multiple drums you should find out if your wrap supplier has specific configurations already cut to size for your drums, if not you’ll need to calculate how much wrap you will actually need to buy to be able to cover all your drums. If you are unsure of how to do this, just ask your supplier to help you figure it out. First you will need to cut your wrap to size. An easy way to do this is to wrap it around your drum shell and mark the edge of the shell all the way around. This shows how to wrap a bass drum. If your wrapping a smaller shell follow the directions below as follows, but you’ll just end up with one seam

(Some wrap manufacturers don’t make wrap to go all the way around large drums, so you’ll end up having to use 2 pieces for larger drums – mark your cut line around the top of the shell)

(What your 2^nd piece of wrap for larger drums will look like, this will go on the bottom of a 22” kick)

You may use a sharp pair of scissors to cut the wrap. Sparkles are a little easier to cut than glass glitter wraps. Plan on sharpening your scissors frequently if you need to cut a lot of wrap. After you cut your wrap to the length of your shell, you’ll need to cut it down to the diameter of your shell. An easy way to do this is to use a flexible measuring tape (for sewing) to measure all the way around the shell and add an extra inch for overlap. Now lay the wrap down flat and measure out that distance and use a straight edge to mark your next cut. Continue Reading....