Further work on my two current snare drum projects…
SNARE#2 – Keruing & White Oak, w Holes! 13”x?”
The above photos show snare #2, getting rounded on the inner and outer surfaces.
Initially I pencilled in two lines: a thinner one; and then a second one, giving a finished shell thickness closer to 1/2”. I went with the thicker option.
Today, Flo’, our car, was in for some serious repairs (mostly brake related). So I got a whole day at home, to work on these two drums.
The biggest thing I did with snare #2 was, using two rasps and numerous grades of sandpaper, smooth out and make thinner the inner face of the shell.
I also ran through numerous grits, from 40 to 120 (so far), on the outer surface. Sadly both the outer and inner surfaces still have visible striation marks, from my Monday misadventures on the lathe at Shedders & Fixers.
I finally came up with a simple rig for holding the shell whilst working on the inner surface. It involves a Black & Decker Workmate, a ratchet-strap, and sundry other bits’n’pieces. It works pretty well; holding the shell still, and allowing me to work with both hands.
SNARE#2 – Rosewood & White Oak, 12”x?”
Snare #1, meanwhile, which I’d butchered on the lathe, on a previous Shedders & Fixers visit, got cut in three. A crack in one of the staves also appeared. So I glued that up.
The idea was – and indeed still is – to compensate for the ‘over-turning’, so to speak, that resulted when Clem did the bulk of the exterior face. The net result of that had been that the diameter of the drum shrank (especially after my remedying of the slightly off kilter ‘bowl’ profile), making the drum too small.
To grow or enlarge the diameter, I cut the shell into three six-stave segments. More butchery… as my cuts were pretty appalling! Some facet sanding, intended to neaten up the butchery, didn’t go perfectly, either.
But the basic idea – adding ‘splines’ ‘twixt the three segments, to restore the desired diameter – does still seem to offer some potential for rescuing this otherwise butchered drum.
As the ruler in the final two pics of the second gallery, above, attests… I’m back to the desired 11 & 3/4” overall diameter.
Having already tried and failed with one attempted glue up of the ‘splined’ drum, I decided to glue a spline to each of the three segments. On my first go the splines were slightly too small. So on this next attempt, they are oversized, and need reducing.
The next step is to glue the three segment+spline sections together. I just ardently hope it yields a usable result!?