wildbill
Platinum Member
This thread about working on beginner sets came up while I was doing a project:
so if Liam sees it, he can see what's involved in it for me.
I play 18 and 20" bass drums, but wanted to get another inexpensive 22 with 10 lugs to work on.
Vintage stuff is good, but while I paid too much for this set, it was still less than what I see those type bass drums go for.
Anyways - here goes - it'll be a lengthy thread.
The set I got had a 22x18" BD drum, so the first thing I wanted to do was cut it down to 22x14.
I used a table saw for that, but it could also be done by hand:
I wanted to clear all the holes, so it ended up at 22x13.75
After you make the cut, you've got a somewhat ragged edge that needs to be squared up.
Rotating the drums in both directions on a flat surface covered with sandpaper will do the trick:
New holes had to be drilled for the lugs - I didn't take pics of that, but just used a carpenter square.
If you do it, mark it off before you make the cut. You can use the existing holes to ensure that the
new ones are lined up straight with the old.
After you've got a true, flat edge, you can put a bearing edge on it. A router and table are needed for that.
On the bass drum, I did a full round over on the batter side, and rounded the outside of the reso side
while leaving the inner 45. Did the same round/45 on the top and bottom of the toms - 9 cuts total.
I used a 1/4" round over for the bit:
The wood inside was typical for lower price sets. I've found it to be a bit soft and porous and have had good
experiences with using wood hardener, so I gave it a coat of that - raw and hardened:
It didn't darken up as much as normal, so I decided to layer a couple coats of stain over that:
During the drying times, I cleaned up the hardware with chrome cleaner, gave it a coat of wax,
and lubed up all threads/inserts - no pics of that.
The set was blue transparent stain, but I didn't care for that and planned on painting it.
It was in good shape, so I didn't have to go through the major pain of stripping it,
and was able to just sand/wet sand it down a bit and give it a coat of primer:
Pic limit reached - to be continued:
Beginner Drum Set Restoration
Has anyone here found profit in buying cheap drum sets, fixing them up and then selling them. If so could you please share how you do this.
www.drummerworld.com
I play 18 and 20" bass drums, but wanted to get another inexpensive 22 with 10 lugs to work on.
Vintage stuff is good, but while I paid too much for this set, it was still less than what I see those type bass drums go for.
Anyways - here goes - it'll be a lengthy thread.
The set I got had a 22x18" BD drum, so the first thing I wanted to do was cut it down to 22x14.
I used a table saw for that, but it could also be done by hand:
I wanted to clear all the holes, so it ended up at 22x13.75
After you make the cut, you've got a somewhat ragged edge that needs to be squared up.
Rotating the drums in both directions on a flat surface covered with sandpaper will do the trick:
New holes had to be drilled for the lugs - I didn't take pics of that, but just used a carpenter square.
If you do it, mark it off before you make the cut. You can use the existing holes to ensure that the
new ones are lined up straight with the old.
After you've got a true, flat edge, you can put a bearing edge on it. A router and table are needed for that.
On the bass drum, I did a full round over on the batter side, and rounded the outside of the reso side
while leaving the inner 45. Did the same round/45 on the top and bottom of the toms - 9 cuts total.
I used a 1/4" round over for the bit:
The wood inside was typical for lower price sets. I've found it to be a bit soft and porous and have had good
experiences with using wood hardener, so I gave it a coat of that - raw and hardened:
It didn't darken up as much as normal, so I decided to layer a couple coats of stain over that:
During the drying times, I cleaned up the hardware with chrome cleaner, gave it a coat of wax,
and lubed up all threads/inserts - no pics of that.
The set was blue transparent stain, but I didn't care for that and planned on painting it.
It was in good shape, so I didn't have to go through the major pain of stripping it,
and was able to just sand/wet sand it down a bit and give it a coat of primer:
Pic limit reached - to be continued:
Last edited: