Drum Sticks on Lathe

[Barry Lyndon]

Has anyone here made drum sticks? Is turning drums sticks an entry level project on a lathe? Or is it a bit more difficult generally? Anyone have any cool sticks they've turned that they're willing to show off?

[Tim Boger]

I've made Koa chop sticks and hair pins .... never tried drum sticks.

I can't imagine them being to difficult.

Tim

[Chris Burgess]

Cant imagine it would be too hard. Just make sure you are using a Hard Straight grain wood. Maybe Hickory or something like that, if it can handle an Ax it can handle a drum.

[Tim Thiebaut]

Hi Barry, I would think an entry level turner could do those. Its just a long spindle which is usualy the first thing people learn to turn. As Chris said Hickory would be the best bet, but I have also heard of Osage Orange being used, have fun with it.

I used to play, and even teach drums when I was younger...it paid for all of my diving & surfing equipment when I was a kid, now I would just scare the cats out of the immediate area!!

[Scott Lux]

Bamboo flooring scraps are apparently good for sticks too. I made a pair for a friend's kid. He loves them. Anything long and skinny (like drumsticks, hairsticks, etc.) gets a bit whippy. A steady-rest would have helped. Or at least a string rest.

[Jeff Fagen]

My son wanted to make some for wood tech at school,so we gave it a try.
What we found out is you can make a drum stick....but you can't make a second one exactly the same and they will sound different.
He made several sets from hickery and hard maple but did need a steady rest because of wobble and sniping.
He finished them by wetting them till the grain stood up then heated with a torch and burnished with an antler for a hard surface.Then used shellack while on the lathe.
We decided that using a steady and a duplicator attachment would still produce a flawed stick.
But if you're looking for an experience,go ahead and have fun.

[Tim Rinehart]

Interestingly enough, I was listening to NPR about 2 weeks ago (listen to nothing but NPR most of Saturday while in shop...otherwise, new country or old rock!) and an interview was held with Vic Firth, an accomplished percussionist who makes his own sticks and talked a little about what drove him to do it. He also makes peppermills I think he said. Not a long audio track, about 6 mins. http://splendidtable.publicradio.org...dtime=00:51:33

[Barry Lyndon]

Awesome, thanks for the info everyone! I'll give it a shot.

Interestingly enough, I was listening to NPR about 2 weeks ago (listen to nothing but NPR most of Saturday while in shop...otherwise, new country or old rock!) and an interview was held with Vic Firth, an accomplished percussionist who makes his own sticks and talked a little about what drove him to do it. He also makes peppermills I think he said. Not a long audio track, about 6 mins. http://splendidtable.publicradio.org...dtime=00:51:33

I actually just got one of Vic Firth's peppermills a couple weeks ago. It was Vic Firth, I had to

[Chris Fournier]

Very doable but as others have pointed out there will certainly be challenges ahead. There are many woods out there that make nice sticks but hickory would be a good starting place. Getting two sticks to be the same will require some custom cutters and a fixture or two - all of this shop made stuff of course! I made a series of sticks for a drummer that wanted to try out some of his ideas. Testing them out was fun.

[Curt Fuller]

I turned several sets of drum sticks for my son a while back. They were easy to turn just using one of his store bought sticks as a model. Wood is the key, hard maple or hickory.

[Clint Baxter]

Saw a neat episode on "How's It Made" where they showed how drumsticks were made. The actual turning wasn't near as involved as the process of selecting sticks to create a matched pair. IIRC there was some sophisticated weighing and they ended up with an actual tested doing the final matching. If one could find that episode it would give some additional insight into creating their own set.

Good Luck, Clint

[John K Jordan]

Has anyone here made drum sticks? Is turning drums sticks an entry level project on a lathe? Or is it a bit more difficult generally? Anyone have any cool sticks they've turned that they're willing to show off?

I've turned many spindle that length and that diameter and much thinner. The best advice I can give (besides selecting strong, straight-grained wood) is don't turn them between centers. The entire spindle will be stiffer and subject to less flexing if you hold one end firmly in a chuck and hold the other end with the live center. I turn all my spindles that way, not actually using a chuck but holding them with a morse taper which has the same effect but eliminates the chuck.

Blank with short morse taper jammed in headstock spindle:
B03_mounted_IMG_5020.jpg

Planing cuts with a sharp skew should do the whole thing except perhaps some detail at the tip. If not proficient with a skew, a spindle roughing gouge will work well.

You shouldn't get any flexing with a spindle that thick but if you do you can support it lightly right at the point of cutting with your left hand, moving the hand as you move the tool. This is perfectly safe. This is almost required when turning very thin spindles, say down to 1/8" or so. Some examples:

Left-to-right with skew, left hand support:
D01_thinning_IMG_5025.jpg D02_thinner_IMG_5030.jpg

Right-to-left and "overhand" support when getting thinner:
E01_reverse_IMG_5036.jpg E02_crossover_IMG_5031.jpg

This is what I was turning in those photos, a simple wand to show techniques:
G01_finished_wand_IMG_5047.jpg

Again, you probably won't need the left hand support for a drum stick from good wood but it doesn't hurt to know about it if you do.

If you have some, try dogwood - one of my favorites. Hard, heavy, and very tough wood.

JKJ