Drum Building Tools

I have been a customer of Drum Foundry for about 7 years, and every interaction I have ever had with the people at Drum Foundry has been extremely pleasant. As far as I know, they are the only company that actually creates and innovates drum building tools specifically for the at home/garage custom drum builder. These products are used by beginning drum builders and professional drum builders all over the world. They also make some really great lugs, hoops, and Snare Throw Strainers among other things. These are a few items that I already own, or that I would love to have in my drum shop.

1. Makedrums.com Layout Mat – ($5)

This tool make it extremely easy to mark your shells for drilling holes for hardware. The Makedrums.com layout mat can help you calculate a number of things; including lug spacing, air vent placement, strainer / butt layout and bass drum spur placement.  6, 8, and 10 lug configurations are available on the mat, with shell diameters ranging from 6″ to 26″.

2. Snare Bed Cutting Jig ($379.00) –

This handy little tool allows you cut your snare beds with extreme precision and accuracy.

3. Extra/Different Snare Bed Templates ($34.99) –

Drum Foundry offers 3 templates for cutting snare beds. Each template gives your snare drum a new sound.

4. Drum Foundry Wrap Trimmer ($119) –

I have been eyeballing this handy little tool for a few weeks. I might have to finally give in and buy it! If you have ever built a drum that you end up wrapping, you may notice that wrapping your drum all the way to the edge can cause your drum to sometimes* have issues with the drum head fit, and resonance. This tool cuts away a small portion of your wrap so that the drum head only makes contact with the shell and not the wrap.

5. T-Jig For Toms and Bass Drums ($59.99) –

This is a great tool specifically made for drum builders that allows you to easily mark tom and bass drum layout. Use this in conjunction with the layout mat and be drilling your holes in no time!

Please respond by answering these questions:

What is the most helpful tool that you use when making drums? Do any of you own and use these tools? Do you own any other drum tools that I should include in this post?