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I'm really keen to have a go at crafting my own drum. Not a djembe or ethnic instrument but standard hooped kit drum. I particularly like the idea of something along the lines of Outlaw Drums and would love to reproduce something akin to that.

Does anyone know any good woodturning / woodworking sites or resources that offer useful information on how I might attack the problem of creating a drum?

Phil.Wheeler
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  • NB: I GUESS THIS BOUNTY GOES A LITTLE BEYOND THE SCOPE OF THE ORIGINAL QUESTION. Valid answers to the OP's question need not fulfil the bounty requirements... – Bob Broadley Jul 07 '14 at 23:02
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    The [Musical Instrument Design & Construction](http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/65027/musical-instrument-design-and-construction) proposal on Area 51 would be suitable for this kind of question – scrowler Jul 10 '14 at 02:55

2 Answers2

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I am not a drummer and I'm not affiliated with these folks, so if you down-vote, please tell me why in the comments so that I can improve my answers to this forum.

Here's a site that tells you how to build drum shells either ply or stave. You'll have to have some woodworking chops however: http://pdgood.us/drumshed/buildmethods.html

  • A ply drum shell is the method most commonly used by the big drum companies. You build a mold (usually a female) that is to the size of the outside diameter. Order thin sheets of wood known as plies, glue them and place them inside the mold. Apply pressure. When dry, release the mold. Advanced builders will make their own plies from very thin sheets of laminate. The plies a beginner should build from will have several layers of laminate even though they are quite thin.

  • A stave drum shell is the method most commonly used by custom builders. Built similarly to a barrel, the wood pieces are vertical with bevelled edges arranged to form a circle. The staves are glued and clamped. When the glue is dry the outside and inside are lathed to achieve a smooth, round shell.

I assume you don't want to do metal working, so you can pick up the hardware parts in any of a number of places, including: http://www.drummaker.com/

It seems like your best bet may be to buy the following DVD. It concentrates on doing more with less and has some great reviews: http://guerrilladrummaking.com/

What sold me on the program was this:

If you are interested in purchasing GDM Digital, you must go through our FREE Training Series first, to make sure that GDM is the right fit for you. Once you're through the training, we will then provide you with information on how to purchase your GDM Digital account.

empty
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  • @JCPedroza, but the question asked specifically for links and resources...? Does the OP need to edit the question? – empty Jul 07 '14 at 22:25
  • Yeah I just noticed how poorly the question is formulated. It asks for resources, you gave one. Nothing to downvote here, undid it and deleted my comment. – NPN328 Jul 07 '14 at 22:26
  • I got confused by the bounty, which asks something different than the answer. The bounty is how the question should have been formulated in the first place, and it might be the thing you want to answer to. And yes, this question would greatly benefit for an edit imo. – NPN328 Jul 07 '14 at 22:31
  • This is a good answer and a great start, thanks. Will see what other suggestions come up before marking an answer as accepted. – Phil.Wheeler Jul 07 '14 at 22:34
  • +1 I'm liking this answer too! But, I'm gonna see what else comes in before awarding the bounty... – Bob Broadley Jul 07 '14 at 23:10
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    +1. I was about to reference the same website. I didn't found any other correct resources while googling and pdgood.us methods are pretty detailled even if there are not really tutorials. You need a certain experience in woodworking to understand these, and how a percussion instrument works. If you start your project Phil, you should create a website/blog in a tutorial way, it would be awesome ;) – JoeBilly Jul 08 '14 at 10:14
  • @JoeBilly Yeah, that's definitely on my radar. – Phil.Wheeler Jul 08 '14 at 22:22
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The Ghostnote online forum for drum builders is a great resource.
You can search for particular topics. Some of the tutorials can only be accessed if you have a paid membership ($20 a year), but I've found lots of good info without it.

The pdgood.us site mentioned is also good, but if you search Ghostnote for particular topics of interest you will likely get more detail. You can also post questions.

www.drumfactorydirect.com and www.drumfoundry.com are good sources of parts. There have been reports of problems with the drummaker.com site.

Shevliaskovic
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bhunt
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