Stave snare drum

[Seth Dolcourt]

Hello,

I'm a new to the 'Creek, but not a woodworking newbie. My journey has taken me to making stave drums, and attached, is a recently completed project.

The inspiration was a contest on a drum building forum, "salvage" was the theme. My drum was salvaged from off cuts and copper bits.

These are the raw ingredients. Cherry and maple, a sheet of 1/32" thick copper, and 1/4" copper rivets.
materials_1.jpg


Raw staves, and two bottles of chemical patina, to be seen later.
staves_patina.jpg

The 16 stave shell in the clamps, 14 1/8" outside diameter. 14 cherry, and two maple staves. Furnace duct clamps ganged together make for an excellent and inexpensive clamping solution.
in_the_clamps.jpg

The shell out of the clamps, ready for further machining.
released_from_clamps.jpg

[Seth Dolcourt]

Continuing onward....

I leave my staves ragged, it's just how I do it. Even were I to cut them the same length, there will still be very slight leveling issue to be corrected, so rather than stress about it, I clean it all up in one go.

edge_1.jpg


This is my Edge-O-Matic 6000. A glorified turn table. 6 caged billiard balls act as bearings, and the table moves very smoothly. Aluminum angle spans the rig, but the router doesn't move all that much, just enough to climb cut the outside and inside faces to eliminate splintering. There is some effort to use shims and a square to plumb the stave joints to the table, a squirt of hot glue "bolts" the shell down.
edge_2.jpg


When one side is done, I flip the shell, and edge the other side. I also trim the shell to its final height. Totally level edges, and co-planer to each other, too.
edge_done_1.jpg

[Seth Dolcourt]

How do ya turn a shell? A lathe, of course, but mine doesn't look like yours. Mine is shop made, and purpose built for drum turning. I use a router as the cutting tool, and hand crank the rotation. I spent about $100 total for this solution.

Opposing MDF disks squeeze the shell. A central axle pierces the disks. My job is to get the shell as centered as possible.
rigged_up_1.jpg


Here is the simple rig. The axle rests on precision bearings, and the outboard disk is a hand crank. The router rides in the aluminum angle. The axle supports are adjustable, enabling this jig to cut diameters from 10" to 26". Fine adjustments are done with brass shim under the track's contact with the stand. I have very fine control over correcting taper. Using a flexible sewing tape measure, I use circumference divided by pi to arrive at diameter. Drums are 1/8" undersized from nominal, so when I say a 14" drum, it really is 13 7/8".
rigged_up_2.jpg


And now the outside is done. Actual machine time is 10-15 minutes, but there is stoppage time to check that the cylinder is true.
outside_done.jpg

The inside is a little tricker, and the picture doesn't show all the detail of this separate jig. Suffice to say, the outside diameter is supported by the skateboard wheels, and the router runs inside, ensuring the out/in circles are concentric. The arms are adjustable, and with brass shim stock, I can ensure that the wall thickness is uniform on both edges of the drum shell.
inside_1.jpg


All done. Ready for sanding.
all_done.jpg

[Seth Dolcourt]

More to be posted later this evening, so no worries, you will see the end of this project!

Cheers,

Seth

[Roger Benton]

Nice. Can't wait for the rest of this thread!
Fellow drummer and woodworker here.
Been planning to finally get started on some snares for a while now,
so i'll be paying close attention to your methods.
I was thinking of doing a walnut drum,
but I remember playing a friends Brady snare a few years ago, stave construction with jarrah, a very hard, dense and heavy australian wood. The drum sounded outstanding, makes me wonder what an ipe drum would sound like.

Anyway, carry on! looking forward to the finished project.

[Brian Kent]

Another D & W here (Drummer and Woodworker). Those are very interesting solutions you have. Did you think of these?

Brian

[Mike Zilis]

+1 Drummer / Woodworker here.

I've made a few snares for my collection but I've never created the shell from scratch. So I guess I would say I'm more of a snare assembler than a snare builder.

Nice work. Can't wait to see the end result.

-Mike

[Brian Effinger]

More to be posted later this evening, so no worries, you will see the end of this project!

Cheers,

Seth

Welcome Seth! That is a really cool project, and some ingenious & amazing jigs. I can't wait to see more.

[Darrell Bottoms]

Another drummer as well. This topic grabbed my attention right off...to be honest, I often thought about making a drum, but never really any serious consideration...will be following with great interest!

[Mark Crenshaw]

This is a great thread. Thanks for posting. I've always been curious about this process. My woodworking focuses more on building guitars.

My drum kit looks like this...not sure there's any wood in it.



I'll be following this one...

Peace,
Mark

[Josh Rudolph]

Another drummer here anxiously watching this thread.

Great stuff so far!

Josh

[Ted Calver]

Seth,
Very glad you are sharing this build!!

[Seth Dolcourt]

Welcome Seth! That is a really cool project, and some ingenious & amazing jigs. I can't wait to see more.

Hi, Brian. For this project, the best is yet to come....

Nice. Can't wait for the rest of this thread!
Fellow drummer and woodworker here.
Been planning to finally get started on some snares for a while now,
so i'll be paying close attention to your methods.
I was thinking of doing a walnut drum,
but I remember playing a friends Brady snare a few years ago, stave construction with jarrah, a very hard, dense and heavy australian wood. The drum sounded outstanding, makes me wonder what an ipe drum would sound like.

Anyway, carry on! looking forward to the finished project.

Hi, Roger,

I was asked recently by a customer of mine to make an ipe drum, but I've demurred. A fellow woodworker described ipe as being tough on tools, and somewhat difficult to work. I'd druther not have a learning curve with ipe, so I suggested he take his ipe stash and make a nice deck.

Another D & W here (Drummer and Woodworker). Those are very interesting solutions you have. Did you think of these?

Brian

Hi, Brian,

Yes, I did come up with these variants, though like most things, they are based on some inspirations.

The edging jig was based on ideas about turret lathes, and the use of billiard balls as bearings was stolen from a Home Machinest type web article about a guy who used glass marbles to make a small turn table.

The outside turning jig is the second generation of my jig, upgrading some ideas from my first. Mostly, the jig is a shop-made response to not wanting to lay down $2-3K for a lathe with suitable capacity. Drum shells are relatively light, but do require quite a bit of swing.

The inside jig is mostly my creation. It works, but it's unrefined, and needs some engineering attention.

If you Google "stave drum without a lathe", you'll see a search result for a drum building forum that I participate in heavily. The author of "stave drum without a lathe" is now over 60,000 views, and has inspired many people to try their own. Dunno the rules regarding naming other forums, so I'll be a little circumspect until I know for sure.

+1 Drummer / Woodworker here.

I've made a few snares for my collection but I've never created the shell from scratch. So I guess I would say I'm more of a snare assembler than a snare builder.

Nice work. Can't wait to see the end result.

-Mike

Hi, Mike, very shortly, I'll have the whole story posted!

Another drummer as well. This topic grabbed my attention right off...to be honest, I often thought about making a drum, but never really any serious consideration...will be following with great interest!

Hi, Darrell,

It's very rewarding to build your own. Not terribly difficult, but building stave or segment drums requires a degree of woodworking that focuses on small increments. Getting 32 or 40 bevels to fit perfectly takes time and patience.

This is a great thread. Thanks for posting. I've always been curious about this process. My woodworking focuses more on building guitars.

My drum kit looks like this...not sure there's any wood in it.



I'll be following this one...

Peace,
Mark

Hi, Mark,

I've seen your guitar building thread, and I'm very, very impressed by your detail and skill. It's fabulous to watch it come together. Now, you need to add some acoustic drums to your collection!

Another drummer here anxiously watching this thread.

Great stuff so far!

Josh

Hi, Josh,

Pleasure to meet you. Stay tuned...!

[Seth Dolcourt]

I'm back from my evening errands, here we go....

After some sanding, this is the basic shell. 14" nominal, 6.5" tall, and 3/8" wall thickness. Sanded up, it looks pretty good.
motleyh.jpg


What's with the X marks the spot?
Xmarks.jpg


Now, cutting huge holes in a perfectly good shell is grounds for arrest in most counties! A Dremel and a gold carbide wheel did the deed. The cutouts are rough at this point. Have I lost my mind?
big_holes.jpg


The holes have been cleaned up with a Microplane rasp and a wide chisel. Double ended lugs are installed. I've cut the bearing edges, double 45 degree, and sanded over the peak. Unseen, the snare beds have been cut, too. I cut them by hand, though I have a jig for this step, too.
lug_drilling_done.jpg


This will be the only time to play it, in this state. The sound was rough and wild, and really, really, really loud, like make-your-neighbors-angry kind of loud. The drum remained articulate, and the snare wires were very sensitive. The ash rack tom is mine, too. 12" diameter x 9" deep.
recording_studio.jpg

[Seth Dolcourt]

So, where am I going with this? Here's a hint.

From the parts bin, I had this length of copper sheet, there was some wacky idea about making kinetic sculpture for a fountain. Never happened, so it's been kicking around the shop. The big holes in the drum shell are about to get filled. I cut out a rough panel, sanded it with 100 grit for some chemical patina to get a foothold.
panel_sanded.jpg


www.artchemicals.com is my source for this chemical patina, this is Sculpt Nouveau brand patina. The light colored bottle is cupric nitrate, the darker blue is almost like a paint.
patina_bottles.jpg


Cupric nitrate is applied hot. The heat gun applies the therms, an acid brush daubs on dollops of cupric nitrate, and the fan blows acid steam away from me as the cupric nitrate boils 'n bubbles, then sets. There are any number of ways to paint on the patina, you just gotta experiment. Brush on, sponge on, spray on, etc.
panel_process.jpg


The results of a couple of panels. Spray several coats of Permalac on the panel to seal the patina.
panel_done.jpg