Arky's DIY cymbal modification stuff

Arky. Splendid. Man after my own heart.

I use a saber saw with a metal blade on mine. Cuts through quite easily. Then, yeah, the filing of the edges takes time, but I get them round and smooth.

The thing I noticed is when you cut down a ride and the stress on the bow is so great the edges turn up and you get that wild, sharp chinese sound in the ring of the bell. One of my favorites has been a 12" B8Pro spash I cut down to a 10" then popped it inside out/ Bites like a junkyard dog.

So, you're the guy buying up all the cracked cymbals on ebay.

I've been making DIY mounts for ... man, 30 years. Home Depot and hardware stores. A drummer's best friend.
 
Arky. Splendid. Man after my own heart.

I use a saber saw with a metal blade on mine. Cuts through quite easily. Then, yeah, the filing of the edges takes time, but I get them round and smooth.
Interesting approach.
The thing I noticed is when you cut down a ride and the stress on the bow is so great the edges turn up and you get that wild, sharp chinese sound in the ring of the bell. One of my favorites has been a 12" B8Pro spash I cut down to a 10" then popped it inside out/ Bites like a junkyard dog.
The splashes I got out of those cracked cymbals tend to sound aggressive. I was thinking they're too aggressive for my taste but they could be used for stacks or might come handy at a later time when miked up or in a heavier context. So I might keep them. Or cut them down some more and make more bells.
I've been making DIY mounts for ... man, 30 years. Home Depot and hardware stores. A drummer's best friend.
I think I'm in for this in the future - e.g. a foot-operated cowbell (or framedrum) would be nice. Buying all that stuff is expensive and sometimes you need specific solutions that aren't readily available on the market. Plus, making one's own stuff is fun and a way to utilize leftover material or stuff that would be useless otherwise and bound to get discarded.

I saw your DIY practice pad thread - nice work and you have impressive skills! It's obvious that you've been playing drums for a good while!

I haven't done any cymbal modification for a while now - there's so much stuff that has piled up, I should first use that and then see whether I still 'need' something different/even more. (I guess the answer would be 'no'. But then there's the fun factor, haha.)
 
Thank you for the kind words. Been playing for around 50 years, now. Sheesh, I'm getting old.

What do you do with the pieces left over? I've made really nice sounding wind chimes from some.

I also made a 'ribbon crasher' from some Sound Formula pieces, which works great. I want to make some bigger ones, too. I just take a hack saw to the cymbal pieces, saw a little, bend and snap them, and file the edges smooth. I stack them, in opposite directions, on a DIY mount.
 
What do you do with the pieces left over? I've made really nice sounding wind chimes from some.

I also made a 'ribbon crasher' from some Sound Formula pieces, which works great. I want to make some bigger ones, too. I just take a hack saw to the cymbal pieces, saw a little, bend and snap them, and file the edges smooth. I stack them, in opposite directions, on a DIY mount.
I was lucky to sell about half of it off ebay. Still have some leftover stuff. I cut a lot of those into dozens of 'mini bell' size chunks as I was going to experiment with hand hammering but haven't done anything yet. As those are 'grouped' into similar sizes they could be arranged into oversized tambourines.

At one time I was interested in getting a ribbon crasher but somehow forgot about it - thanks for reminding me. I guess there's enough material left to make something similar. Those things shouldn't be too hard to make, there's not too much to it.

Do you have some pictures of your DIY stuff? That might serve as inspiration.
 
I received a PM with some questions.
I was wondering if you had a video or any progress pictures on how you are able to get those cuts. Do you use a jig with your dremel?
No, I never had a jig. Which would be quite nice for that kind of work though. What I've been doing - and actually, this is consuming more time than the cutting itself - is marking the diameter prior to cutting. I've been doing this pretty old-fashioned - using a ruler, measuring from the center point (which because of the center hole doesn't really exist so you need a good eye and the shape might not come out perfectly round anyway) and marking the to-be-cut outlines. Any irregularities from less-than-perfect cutting would have to be optimized during the sanding stage.

Usually a dremel would be a small tool as compared to a disc cutter that I've been using. I did use a dremel but only for cutting/sanding the holes on o-zone style cymbals, I didn't use a dremel for cutting the bells.

My 'technique' is being in a kneeled (and somewhat awkward) position and do the cutting while stabilizing the cymbal with my left foot. Thus, the area that I'm cutting would be hovering a few cm's above the ground which is enough for operating the disk cutter. I would cut for about 15-20 cm or so (depending on the cymbal size), then release the pressure with my right foot, rotate the cymbal accordingly to the next to-be-cut area/sector, then repeat the work. Usually it would take just a few 'rotations' to cut a cymbal. That is, if it's a thin cymbal. On thicker cymbals I would first cut an 'orientation' groove, not going through the full cymbal thickness but making sure that I'm following the marked outlines as close as I could, then repeat that process/rotate the cymbal and continue cutting that initial groove for a full rotation. I would then repeat the process but cut a deeper groove. On the thicker cymbals, a 2nd and possibly a final 3rd round of processing would be necessary.

Really, once you've done it a few times, it will be rather easy, automatized, fun to do and pretty quick. A jig would be a great thing for bigger cymbals, saving more material but also getting a steady diameter and thus, the perfect rounded shape. Actually, I might make something like that, at least for making the marking process much easier and more precise.

Progress pics or even a video is a great idea! No, I haven't any except for the pics that I've been sharing in this thread. It's a bit complicated to do this on your own, I think I'll ask a friend to help me and document the individual steps. I like to do those things in one go and also spare my neighbours the noise - or at least minimize it - because the cutting is done outside (you don't have to of course), having a better lighting situation.

Actually I bought 40 Stagg cymbal felts for my bells at the weekend - not enough for all the bells I have when using 2 of them per bell but enough to have some fun with them. I did make some cymbal felts on my own by cutting some material that I found but that stuff is only a few mm's thick - it doesn't really work as intended. I could stack several of those thin ones but it just doesn't look and feel like some proper felts so ultimately, I decided to buy some.

Still have those half a dozen DIY splashes that tend to sound too harsh/aggressive for my taste, I should sell those.
 
Yay. Answers! What I had in mind was a jig that would be a piece of adjustable steelwork that I would add to the bolt on the center hole. This was my take on how to cut the cymbal.
10372316_10152185202791298_9028962744326883943_n.jpg


The black marker was a failed attempt to mark out my cutting path. The remaining stock I'm thinking of either making into brass guitar picks or selling as brass in my scrap.
 
Just wanted to chime in & say this is most inspirational Arky. A lot of love gone into those bells. Love it. Any chance of a video/audio file?
Andy - yes, there's those sample sounds from the first 10 bells I made, pretty early in the thread. It's been awhile. I should really create some new audio files or at least make a video and demonstrate a good deal of the existing bell collection.

It's all Gavin's fault! The moment I saw his appearance on the David Letterman show I fell in love with them, I had to have a few chimes of my own. Or 40+, haha.

weaponepsilon - your jig looks fine. I should do something similar. But I think it would be more of a help for marking the outlines than doing the cutting. As explained, I have a pretty 'sophisticated' method of cutting. It's turned into a habit and works for me. As for the outlines - if I need a specific/new diameter I would use a ruler and do a lot of individual markings and ultimately connect them with a marker. For smaller diameters I would simply look for an existing chime that I've made and simply use that one as a template. No they aren't perfectly round but pretty good for my crude processing.
 
Super inspiring, actually. I have a 19" TRX crash that I just bought used and found a lathing crack in it after a month, so I think I'm going to attempt O-zoning it with a Dremel and these. Definitely going to double check my angles on it, but luckily the crack is in the perfect place to do this and I could actually use it after as well. Any tips?
 
Super inspiring, actually. I have a 19" TRX crash that I just bought used and found a lathing crack in it after a month, so I think I'm going to attempt O-zoning it with a Dremel and these. Definitely going to double check my angles on it, but luckily the crack is in the perfect place to do this and I could actually use it after as well. Any tips?
To save material on the cut off wheels (which will get some wear anyway), I cut in straight lines when working on the holes - like in the pic. With more thickness, the wheels will have some serious wear and get reduced in size quickly. That's why I tried cutting in straight lines and it worked out. I would use dremel sanding bits afterwards to rework the outlines of the holes. It's still quite some work.

David Floegel did some ozone style modding recently and he used a far quicker solution - round drill bits. But you'd have to have a drill bit with the proper diameter. Ah, Porter, you're already familliar with that project as you replied in the thread... Here's the link:
http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116625
 

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I thought I'd go ahead and chime back in after a few months of research and experimentation. I am currently looking at building a cymbal lathe like i have seen here. I have all the parts and an electric motor from a drill press.


Also I have been trying different methods of cutting since my drummer lost his cymbal bag after a gig and I had to acquire stock to help him replace his brass. To chop down cymbals, Tin snips work great on thinner cymbals, the secret being cutting them in small wedges about three guitar picks long to make into guitar picks. I have several guitarists that swear by my picks. The BEST Ozoning tool I've found is to use a "knockout punch" by Greenlee which is a small cutter that screws into a pre drilled hole and cuts out a 1 or 2 inch hole depending on what you bought. I am also going to test cutting the Bell-less abominations into 1/3s and roll them into a cowbell shape for....well you figure it out. I'll get my mad scientist on and post anything that comes of it that wasn't confiscated by local law enforcement.

Hope this helps out the mod collective.
 
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