12 x 6 walnut stave, with inlay

[Seth Dolcourt]

Hi, Creekers,

While I get the finishing schedule for the 13 x 5.5 stave drum figured out, I'll swing you attention to a 12" diameter x 6" tall walnut stave shell. 16 staves, and about 1/2" thick.

There is no "normal" for a stave drum thickness, but many builders like 3/8" as a starting point. Similarly, 14" diameter snares are "normal", with 13" diameter snares as the second "normal". 12" and 10" snare drums have nicknames like firecracker and popcorn snares, owing the sound is much higher pitched and popping-like.

Many of my shells are 3/8", but with this project, I'm exploring the thicker shell, and the smaller diameter.


I'll start the story here, with the raw shell already turned and sanded. (One day, I'll start a drum story at the very beginning...!)

150378


I used 5-6 coats of Waterlox sealer, and 3-4 coats of Zinsser's spray shellac. Because I plan to use General Finishes water borne acrylic, the shellac acts as a barrier coat.

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And the inside is sprayed. The inside was actually sprayed first, but for the sake of the story to talk about Waterlox and the shellac, the outside provided a much better view.

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[Seth Dolcourt]

There are no specific instructions to inlay banding into a drum shell. General woodworking knowledge is crucial here to figure out the best way. My jig is as simple as it gets.


Two stands, and one fence. The Bosch Colt palm router is screwed to the back of the fence. The fence, it should be noted, is a spare stave from a cherry 18" tall kick drum. Noting goes to waste! The left side knob covers an oversized hole in the MDF stand, thought the thru hole in the cherry is 3/8". The oversized back hole allows height adjustment to the fence. The right side knob is just a 3/8" thru hole in both the cherry and MDF. It acts as a pivot.

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A view from the back.

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The fine adjust knob is within easy reach. One of the issues with mounting routers and such is getting the adjusting parts where the fingers can reach them.

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Two strips of UHMW tape are above and below the router bit. Hopefully, this promotes a slippery interface between the fence and the drum shell, and reduces scratching. The cherry block is a test of the depth of cut to match the inlay thickness, and having that fine adjustment knob within reach made this task suuuper easy to accomplish.

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The layout for the inlay. I want a 3/4" gap between the inlay bands, which themselves are 1/4" wide.

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[Seth Dolcourt]

Let's make some sawdust!


This is the shell, after the first round. It was easy to route, the tough part was keeping the apex of the shell touching the router bit. I might want a secondary fence perpendicular to the first fence to guide the shell.....eh, that's getting complicated. I'll just free hand it.

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Second round done. Right on the money. Had I used a down cut spiral bit, I probably wouldn't have the fuzz at the edge of the channel. I just used a conventional 2 flute straight bit. Next time, I'll get a down cut spiral. No worries, the top coat is being sanded again anyways to eliminate the orange peel left by the sprayed shellac. Not seen in this step is gently moving the jig fence down by a tad, which widened the channel. The inlay was a smidge proud of 1/4" wide, so I needed to fatten the width of the channel.

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And...done! I dry fit the inlay, which fit perfectly. There were some spots that needed a kiss of sandpaper, but otherwise, on the money.

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Speaking of money, I'll have to spend another $17 at Woodcraft. 36" long bands don't go completely around a 11.875" shell. I know, I know - pi x diameter would tell me what I need, and I can get 48" long banding mail order. Woodcraft is 10 minutes from my work, so convenience is king. I'll source differently next time.

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Anyway, thanks for looking. More updates on this drum as they happen. I have custom lugs on order, which will take 6-8 weeks, so if I'm lucky, by July 4 holiday, I'll have this guy buttoned up.

Cheers,

Seth

[Seth Dolcourt]

Ever booger something up? Yeah, me too. But first - props. Sauers and Company sent me some inlay from their warehouse that matched the 17/64" width of the original batch I bought at Woodcraft; the other batch from Woodcraft was too narrow. Kudos to the exemplary customer service of Jeff Sauers! Sauers and Company exceeded all my expectations, and they deserve the special mention.

The following two pictures shows my error - a heck of a thing to do. The inlay has a joint where two smaller pieces come together, and sharp eyes will see the double black lines, indicating the connection. I had seen them, and had all the intentions of cutting them out, but forgot. I remembered after the inlay was glued in. So, in some areas, the inlay exactly lines up between the two rows, and in other places, the pattern has shifted.

Also, I used Titebond's Trim and Molding glue. Man, does that glue dry fast. And wow, is it ever thick. Couple the wetted inlay swelling juuust a little bit, and the too-tight fit of the inlay in the channel, and whaddya got?

Disaster. The inlay just wouldn't sit down in some areas.

So I pulled out the inlay, scraped all the glue off, scraped the sides of the inlay to thin the width just a bit, then glued the whole kit back together using Titebond 3. Much better results. Kind of.

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A card scraper is the right tool to level the inlay to the shell. Of course, I'm also scraping away that lovely Zinsser shellac. But, also, the glue stains and glue blobs and glue gunk. So I'm back at square one, really.

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All finished with scraping. Time to sand.

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Here is the shell with a new coat of tung oil. The inlay pops, just like I knew it would. It's a costly mistake, but I'll have to route away the inlay and do it all over again. Grrrr!

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[Gene Howe]

Good looking, for sure.
Not being a drum guy, I nevertheless appreciate your work and the photo shoot.
Excellent.

[Seth Dolcourt]

The story picks up after a woodworking defeat - inlay = 1, Seth = 0. But...I don't take losing lightly, especially when it's a dead tree that beat me.


I set up the inlay jig again. Once more into the breach! This time, I'm using a 1/8" diameter down cut spiral bit, and not a 2 flute straight bit.

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Here is a close up of removing the inlay. It's a simple jig, but very accurate. I just keep moving the swing arm until I get exactly to the edge. One issue - I'm also cutting glue, which heats up when cut, and sticks like crazy to the bit, so periodically, I have to unplug the machine and scrape off glue blobs with a toothpick.

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I had though about removing only the sections where the inlay pattern was shifted, but I figured that a shortcut would have poor results. So, here I am cutting out ALL the inlay.

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A few shifts of the swing arm, and all the original inlay is gone.

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Here I go, dry fitting the new inlay. Same design, I like it. This time - smarter! I used the card scraper, seen on the left, to gently shave the inlay to fit the channel, and I'm not going for a super tight fit. If the inlay bound, I shaved. I wanted the inlay to fall into the channel, with the lightest of resistance.

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Really, take your time with inlay. What I'm noticing about Sauers brand of inlay is the two strips of inlay are usually mirrored pairs. So look for distinguishing traits to help ensure that the pattern exactly lines up between the top and bottom rows. Here, marked with the green tape, is a pattern break; looks like the inlay assembler used a mahogany piece instead of the expected maple piece. I used this as my watermark to orientate the inlay strips to each other.

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Now appearing at the main stage at Clamp-a-palooza - walnut!

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A 36" long inlay strip winds up shorter than 36", usually because you may have to snip the ends to terminate the strip at a point where the next piece can re-join the pattern. Here, the green arrows indicate where I had to re-connect the pattern. Generally, not too shabby. You may notice that the pattern breaks at the right arrow - no choice. Unless you're using a solid colored inlay, any pattern will have one portion that just doesn't match up. A clever person would mount the strainer right there.

I used a 24 tooth Japanese pull saw to cut the inlay, and angled the cut to make a miniature scarf joint. I can get better, but that comes with practice. To level the inlay to the surface of the shell, I'm using a thin card scraper.

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[Seth Dolcourt]

Last two pictures.

@#$%&! I found 3 sections that needed repair, all due to lack of glue adhesion. This section, for whatever reason, did not sit down in the channel during glue up, so it was sitting proud the whole time. A sharp chisel cut out the offending section. I squared up the inlay, and cut a new section to fill in. Really and truly, it's better to find the problems before the top coat. These problems really made the day go longer.

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The second coat of tung oil. For all the drama, I'm liking the re-do. It's just a matter of experience. Thanks for looking!

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[Seth Dolcourt]

Good looking, for sure.
Not being a drum guy, I nevertheless appreciate your work and the photo shoot.
Excellent.

Thank you for the kind words, Gene. I like it when people share their woodworking stories, so I'm adding my experiences, too.

[Ted Calver]

I wonder if the inlay glue up problem comes from your clamping method. Have you thought of using surgical tubing in this situation instead of individual clamps and tape ? It would give uniform pressure over the entire strip. Maybe even a band clamp.

[Gene Howe]

Seth,
Thank YOU!
Very well done shoot and I really appreciate the inlay tutorial pics and your comments.
And thanks for the tip about your supplier, too.

[Seth Dolcourt]

I wonder if the inlay glue up problem comes from your clamping method. Have you thought of using surgical tubing in this situation instead of individual clamps and tape ? It would give uniform pressure over the entire strip. Maybe even a band clamp.

Hi, Ted,

Thanks for the suggestions, good input. I like the tubing approach for the non-marring properties. I noticed that the tip of the inlay needed a good pinching to keep it well stuck to the shell; seems there is enough tension to the inlay, wrapped it around a 12" diameter cylinder, that the tip will lift if you're just using good ole tape to keep it stuck down.

When doing a train track inlay, it's critical that the patterns line up. I'd hate for the inlay to shift under clamping from a band clamp; that would be just my luck. I wonder if an approach would be to tack down one tip using CA glue, wait a minute, then put wood glue the channel and finally tube clamp or band clamp. That should guarantee that the inlay doesn't shift.

Hmm...

Cheers,

Seth

[Seth Dolcourt]

Hi,

I spent the weekend putting 6-7 coats of General Finishes gloss acrylic on top of cured Waterlox tung sealer. Sanded with 400 grit in between coats to rid the finish of dust nibs and tiny drips.

The Waterlox was for color, the acrylic was for transparency. While most people might be concerned with water over oil, I don't see that as a problem here - the acrylic stuck like crazy.

Thought I'd start with 600 grit, I don't think I need to sand too aggressively to level it out, and there's no orange peel at all. Can anyone advise if I should just put a couple more coats on it now? My only concern is getting too thick of a finish and having it crack.

Cheers,

Seth

[Seth Dolcourt]

Hi, Creekers,

For those of you following this thread, I bet you wondered why I fell of the face of the earth. Well, I was waiting, waiting, waiting for the custom lug maker to deliver my lugs.

In the mean time, terrible news. I gacked a promising finish. Rich and meaty looking, I used some poly acrylic as a top coat, and suffered a cloudy result.

Yeah, I could have sanded the shell all the way back to zero, but I think sometimes you have to cut your losses. With any luck, this drum will be played in dark music halls and never appear on a video, so.....Ugly Betty. It is what it is.

Sonically, a different story. Wait....I'm getting ahead of myself.

I don't pull punches, when I gack something, I show it. I can analyze what went wrong until the cows come home, but I ain't gonna. I'll just try again.

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I've talked a lot about snare beds. Here is the jig I built to do the job. It takes 5 seconds to cut a snare bed with this jig. The heart of the jig is that aluminum template at the front - hardware store 1" wide x 1/4" thick aluminum bar. Using 1/4" thick poplar, I cut a fair 6" long x 1/8" deep, then used a template bit to cut the aluminum. Yep, you can cut aluminum with a carbide router bit. The cut was a touch rough, but sand paper curled around a thin scraper helped smooth it in no time. The blue channel is Kreg brand extruded channel, and two blocks of alder will be employed as side supports.

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Here is the shell, in the jig. Normally, everything would be all loose and not aligned.

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A very flat board aligns the shell to the template. Push the guide blocks against the shell to stabilize it, and tighten the screws to lock the blocks in place.

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This is my version of a clamp. A long cherry bar is the clamp's pressure bar, the block of wood provides elevation, and the bolt screws into a threaded insert in the MDF. Twist the wing nut to tighten the pressure bar.

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The jig, ready to go. The router bit's pilot bearing rides against the aluminum pattern.

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5 seconds later, it was done. That's it. That's most of the work to make a snare bed, which is a slight depression in the bearing edge. Rotate the shell 180 degrees, and do the whole thing again.

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I could leave the snare bed just as it is, but since the shell is already gacked, why not monkey around a bit? Here, I will use the 45 degree chamfer bit I used earlier to make the bearing edge, and by raising it and running it only between the two pieces of tape, I'll relieve the bed to match the bearing edge. Not required, but nice to do.

156734

[Seth Dolcourt]

We go forward.

This is the final snare bed. I sanded the bevel with 320, but there is no requirement for that.

156735


This is my drilling station. I just relieved the edges of a maple board, and I'll hang the drum from this board, clamping the shell to it. All it is is a back-up board to prevent blow out when I drill.

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It's boring to lay out the holes. Just pretend I gave a scintillating lecture on laying out for lugs, but here is the picture that would go with those one thousand words.

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Everyone, meet 'strainer'. This particular device is from Drum Foundry, model RCK. The bail will arc to the right, and the entire body will drop about 1/2" inch. This is the mechanism that de-tensions the snare wires, turning them "off" - the wires actually sag below the bottom head, so they don't touch the bottom head. The knurled knob is a fine-adjustment mechanism, which controls the the tension of the snare wires. Too loose, they buzz like crazy. Too tight, the snare wires sound choked. The strainer is mounted where I made one of the snare beds.

Why turn off the snares? Eh, it just gives the drum a different sound. Think timbale.

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A couple lugs installed. These are the custom lugs I was waiting for. They are made by Allstar Drums. These are called step tube lugs, and they are 3.5", overall length. The "feet" are 3/4" diameter, and there is a 5 mm threaded hole on the back. The hole pattern center to center is 2.5", and the hole are 1.75" from the drum's edges.

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All lugs installed, and the drum head and hoop are installed, too. The drum head is usually clear plastic, but this drum head is coated with a layer that has a bit of tooth to it. The coating makes the sound "warmer", and if you're using jazz brushes instead of sticks, the brushes have a surface to rub against. An uncoated drum head does not sound great with jazz brushes. A drum head is about 7 mil thick. They can be thinner or thicker, but 7 mil is "standard".

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Flipped on its back, I mount the butt, that chunk of bended metal. Yes, it's called a butt, and it's directly across from the strainer. Now you can see how these two objects relate to the snare beds.

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The snare head goes on. Note it is not coated. It doesn't have to be, and there are no coated options. It is also thinner than the top head. This is about 3 mil.

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[Seth Dolcourt]

This is a close up of the butt. (Why, oh why, is it called a butt?) The hoop, you see, has a cut out, the purpose of which will be seen shortly.

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These are the snare wires. These particular wires are curly, which make a sizzling sound when they vibrate against the snare head (the top head is called a batter head, incidentally.) Time to mount them.

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The wires go here. Now you can see the relationship of the butt, strainer and snare beds. The snare head, when tightened, will actually pucker a bit as it conformed to the slight depression of the beds. That way, the metallic tabs to which the wires are soldered will bend very slightly and touch the head, too. Otherwise, the snare wires would buzz in a way that is not sonically pleasing.


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Yep. Ribbon. Supplied with the snare wire kit, they loop around the metal tab. You can use any grosgrain (pronounced grow-grain) ribbon sold at a fabric store, 5/8" wide works the best. In later pictures, I use replacement grosgrain ribbon - these were a bit too short. Now you see the reason for the cut outs in the hoop.


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The ribbon terminates....at the butt. Why didn't "they" just call it an anchor? A top plate pinches the ribbon to the body of the.....anchor. On the right is a drum key. The screws used on a drum have a square head, not a Philips cross nor a hex head. The drum key neatly fits on this square head, so tightening / loosening drum bolts is easy, as long as you have a drum key. It gets crazy-stupid when you don't have a drum key.

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Let's do the strainer side. This particular strainer has a slot to feed in the grosgrain ribbon. In the background are some other ribbon options, red white and blue is a patriotic crowd pleaser. Works for many countries, e.g. Great Britain, Australia, The Netherlands, etc.

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Then the pinch plate is put into place.

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The screws are tightened. The trick is to keep the wires centered on the drum head, so this can be a fussy process, pulling one ribbon or the other to get it right.

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[Seth Dolcourt]

Home stretch.


Ugly Betty, full body shot.

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Up close.

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Sonically, it's tight, tight, tight, with a bright pop. Man, it sounds great. This drum wants to be hit. Too bad the finish is gacked.

Thanks for looking! That's the end of this build. Please let me know of any questions, if there is anything not clear.

Cheers,

Seth

[Roger Benton]

Seth,

looks great, what is the difference in sound between this and a maple ply shell of similar size? I've been threatening to build a snare for a while now but haven't gotten to it, walnut stave was my first choice though.

[Seth Dolcourt]

Hi Roger,

Regrets, I have no good answer for you. It's my belief, given a blindfolded drummer and he having no prior knowledge of a sample of drums, would be no better at identifying the species or construction beyond that of mere guessing.

My son's drum teacher (not blindfolded) instantly said "whoa" when he played my 14 x 5.5 ash stave snare. He had no previous mental database of drum sounds matched to stave shells, so he was in the dark of how to quantify what he was hearing. "Revolutionary War drum" was his first remark. Darker, and woody. He likes 12" maple, ply, usually on the thinner side, and he'll crank the heads as much as he dares. Huge pop, bordering on gun shot crack.

I've since polluted his sensibilities with a 14 x 7 cherry (using a curly wire snare) and a 14 x 9 cherry field / concert drum (which uses a wire gut type snare), the modern version of that Revolutionary War drum he talked about 3 years ago. He geeked out on cross sticking the 14 x 7, finding three different placements of the stick across the head, yielding 3 distinct wood block type sounds. Dunno if he's ever spent that much time pulling sounds out of a ply shell.

The sound of a drum is so dependent on diameter, depth, wall thickness, head selection, tuning, the room it's played in, and are you the one playing, or the in the audience, listening. What wood it's made from becomes a piece of the puzzle, but not the biggest piece.

So....build what you like. And if you build one, may as well build two, since you already have the machine set up. Perhaps one each of maple and walnut, kind of a vanilla-chocolate drum sundae.

Cheers,

Seth

[Mark Duksta]

Hi Seth,

I really like that snare bed cutting jig. When it comes time I might have to "borrow" your design if you don't mind.

Mark

[Seth Dolcourt]

Absolutely! Help yourself. And if you improve it, kindly post.

One process I would not repeat again is using the 45 degree chamfer bit to counter cut the bed's inside edge after the bed is cut. A Microplane, spoke shave or rasp does a much better job. There is no requirement to making the bed's edge match the rest of the bearing edge, you can leave it as is, right off the router. But it's a crafter's touch most guys like to do, and it makes the customers happy to see the same, uninterrupted profile all around the shell.

'N fact, I've been using a Microplane to form the entire bed from start to finish. But the bed jig is fun to make, and sometimes, you just do it for the fun.

Cheers,

Seth