Hello to all. New member here and thought I'd post some picture of my newest kit. Long story short, I've always been the type to build my own things whenever I get the chance, so I built my own drum set from scratch.
In High School I had a cheap second hand old worn out Atom drum kit (fiber composite shells, yuck) that had warped shells and was just a piece. I began looking into buying a new kit but I wanted a decent one and couldn't justify purchasing a $2k+ kit at the time due to needing a car and other things. I worked at a lumber store at the time and the store was going out of business so all the lumber, hardwoods included, was on sale. I thought it'd be cool to build my own kit if I could, so I researched the stave method of building drums and decided I'd give it a try. I was watching the price of the hardwoods go down every week as we were selling out but I just bought my car and didn't have the $400 to spend on wood. After we closed the doors for good I came to work my last day to help clean up and they told me they had a surprise for me. They knew I was looking into build a kit and decided to save 30ft of 1X8" Mahogany to give to me as a thanks for working for them and staying till the end. I was super excited! I went home and figured what size of drums I could get out of the material and decided I'd begin the project my winter break from school.
It was my Junior year of high school. Winter break rolled around and I began constructing my first day off. I originally planned on spending a few months on the project but ended up getting it done in a week and a half lol. Looking back I wish I would have spent more time on it just to make it look nicer, but that's something I can go back and do when I feel the urge someday. I reused all the hardware I could off my old kit and threw away the warped shells. Due to the limited amount of wood given to me the shell sizes came out a oddly proportioned but they sound great anyways, so I have no complaints.
Shell sizes and materials are as follows:
Mahogany:
Bass drum - 18"x14"
Floor tom - 14"x8"
mounted tom - 10"x7"
White Oak:
Snare drum - "13x5.5"
Birdseye Cherry:
Popcorn snare drum - 10"x5.5"
Plan to build a "16x14" floor tom and a "12x7" tom to "finish" the kit eventually. So here are some pictures of my kit how it sits today.
Oak snare
Popcorn snare
14"x6.5" Mahogany and Maple alternating stave snare drum in progress
I can post a few pictures of the build process if anyone is interested in seeing them. Unfortunately I didn't get very good pictures of the build but I did get some that show the gist of it.
Let me know if any of you have any questions about it or the process. I'm not expert on building drums but I can try to answer your questions to the best of my abilities!
In High School I had a cheap second hand old worn out Atom drum kit (fiber composite shells, yuck) that had warped shells and was just a piece. I began looking into buying a new kit but I wanted a decent one and couldn't justify purchasing a $2k+ kit at the time due to needing a car and other things. I worked at a lumber store at the time and the store was going out of business so all the lumber, hardwoods included, was on sale. I thought it'd be cool to build my own kit if I could, so I researched the stave method of building drums and decided I'd give it a try. I was watching the price of the hardwoods go down every week as we were selling out but I just bought my car and didn't have the $400 to spend on wood. After we closed the doors for good I came to work my last day to help clean up and they told me they had a surprise for me. They knew I was looking into build a kit and decided to save 30ft of 1X8" Mahogany to give to me as a thanks for working for them and staying till the end. I was super excited! I went home and figured what size of drums I could get out of the material and decided I'd begin the project my winter break from school.
It was my Junior year of high school. Winter break rolled around and I began constructing my first day off. I originally planned on spending a few months on the project but ended up getting it done in a week and a half lol. Looking back I wish I would have spent more time on it just to make it look nicer, but that's something I can go back and do when I feel the urge someday. I reused all the hardware I could off my old kit and threw away the warped shells. Due to the limited amount of wood given to me the shell sizes came out a oddly proportioned but they sound great anyways, so I have no complaints.
Shell sizes and materials are as follows:
Mahogany:
Bass drum - 18"x14"
Floor tom - 14"x8"
mounted tom - 10"x7"
White Oak:
Snare drum - "13x5.5"
Birdseye Cherry:
Popcorn snare drum - 10"x5.5"
Plan to build a "16x14" floor tom and a "12x7" tom to "finish" the kit eventually. So here are some pictures of my kit how it sits today.
Oak snare
Popcorn snare
14"x6.5" Mahogany and Maple alternating stave snare drum in progress
I can post a few pictures of the build process if anyone is interested in seeing them. Unfortunately I didn't get very good pictures of the build but I did get some that show the gist of it.
Let me know if any of you have any questions about it or the process. I'm not expert on building drums but I can try to answer your questions to the best of my abilities!
