How to Wrap a Drum Shell
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“.
Applying Contact Cement
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.
Dry Time For Contact Cement
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.
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Gluing The Wrap to The Shell
Lay your shell on a flat surface with your center mark facing you, then grab your wrap also with your center mark facing you, and ever so slightly scoot your wrap closer to the shell until you finally connect in the center, lining up the marks. This step is critical because once your wrap and shell touch, it will be permanent and there is no going back.
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Using the J-Roller To Create a Permanent Bond
Apply pressure from the center-out, slowly wrapping the wrap around the shell. Make sure that you wrap the correct edge of your seam down first; you want to cover up the sanded part of the wrap with the clean part. Before you stick the seam together, remove the piece of tape that masked the seam area or else you chance getting some tape stuck inside your seam! Now you need to apply some pressure all around the drum to get out any bubbles that might have formed! You can use a j-roller going from the center-out.
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This is the side that you want on the bottom of your seam!!!
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Drum Wrap Seam Overlap
Also take special care at rolling the seam to make sure it is good and tight. Sometimes when you apply a wrap you’ll end up spiraling the wrap which looks like this
You can use scissors to cut this flush with the edge of the shell, or what I’ve found to be the best at trimming down the wrap is a utility knife.
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