We thought you
might find it interesting to hear how your drums are made, there are
some great videos from the mainstream drum companies showing their
manufacturing processes, we don’t have such extravagant machines to
do our work and have to use good old fashion elbow grease along with
traditional techniques sometimes lost in modern technology.
It all starts with the drum shells, we
always stock Birch ply and Maple veneer, other more exotic materials
are ordered when required. The process of making a shell is slightly
different depending on whether its Birch ply or a Maple veneer.
Finnish Birch is available in ply form, each ply consisting
of 3 layers forming a 1.5mm thick piece of ply. Each piece of ply is
cut to the correct depth and length and inserted individually into
our drum moulds. We use a cold formed technique, applying no heat to
cure the shell, mainstream drum companies use a few different
methods of shell construction, largely involving heat to cure the
shells quickly to allow mass production. We cold cure our shells for
24 hours, a slower but more natural process.
We use steel, solid walled drum moulds,
designed to release the shell easily upon completion, the solid
walled element is incredibly important in shell manufacture, keeping
the shell 100% round.
When each ply is fitted into the mould, the
shells own pressure due to the tight seams butting against each
other applies enough pressure to form the shell, we do however, for
extra pressure insert purpose made airbags ( the sort used for
raising sunking ships!) into the mould.
When the shells
are complete they are sanded inside and out, the edges are cut
square and they’re cut to the size of the drum required.
Depending
on the drum diameter some shells are made in large tubes, allowing
us to make a number of shells at once, larger drums are made
individually due to the weight of the drum moulds.
Once we have all the shells at the correct
size we apply the finish, this may be a drum wrap which is applied
using contact adhesive, a stain or paint finish or just simple satin
oil.
With the finish
complete the outer shell is protected, to avoid damage to the
finish, we then mark out the shell for the chosen hardware.
We mark out and drill each shell by
hand, no automated machinery is used.
Once all the drilling is complete we cut the
bearing edges, these are done on a large router table. We cut a
large 45degree inner bearing edge and finish with a much smaller
outer cut. The edges are then initially machine sanded then hand
sanded through 3 different grits to create a glass smooth bearing
edge.
The bearing edges and the shell interior are
then finished in a satin oil and given one final fine sand.