Flip her over.............

I agree with kevins, fiberglass the repair then flip her over. I have a fix in my head if I can describe it in words. on the inside of the shell around the damaged area, grind the shell down a little around the holes, maybe 1/4-1/2" or larger if you want, cut a piece of fiberglass the size of the hole and another piece the size of the ground out area. Tape over the hole on the outside of the shell. Place your hole size fiberglass in the hole, apply your resin, Then place the fiberglass cut to fit the ground out area, apply more resin. Let dry, then sand the inside on the repair and outside of the repair. it might be better to put a piece of a drum shell on the outside of the shell repair area with tape on it so the fiberglass wont stick to the piece of shell. The piece of shell will make the fiberglass fit the curve of the shell. If you just put the tape you will have to add some filler after it dries and sand it to match the drums contour. Does this make any sense to anyone lol. If you do flip her over, you will have to fill the holes for the spurs too. the you can have a solid shell on top.

an after thought, after the inner shell repair dries or hardens, you could grind out some of the outter shell and apply another fiberglass piece on the outside of the shell. You just might not have to flip it over if this works. Im pretty sure this can work. Fiberglass adheres to wood very well. Fiberglass is very easy to work with. There is fiberglass mat and fiberglass cloth. Fiberglass mat is thicker than the cloth. You might want to test the thickness to make sure you have your desired thickness. You may have to put 2 layers to achieve the perfect thickness. Make sure you cut all your pieces before you even start applying the resin. The resin comes with a hardener you mix to start the chemical reaction that hardens it.

I have another idea for this. This will require a piece of another shell with the same contour of the shell you are repairing. Cut a piece of the other shell much larger than the repair area. Screw this piece down over the damaged area. Adjust the shoe or bottom plate of the jigsaw to cut at a angle. Drill a hole just big enough for the jigsaw blade through the shell piece and the drum shell. Cut both the shell piece and the shell at the same time around the damaged area. The shell piece should fit perfectly into the hole you cut in the shell. Now get another piece of the shell larger than the new hole you just cut. Apply wood glue to the edge of both pieces and clamp the shell piece into the hole. Fill screw holes and other small holes with a good wood filler. "If you had the shell piece", and it would probably be better for the repair piece to be a ply or 2 thicker than the drum shell.

Fill it with kindling, lite it,...play Taps !!

Falling Do

I think Poppy is on to something.... with some hard work, I think this one is savable.

Please remember..... this is a very old, very big bass drum... not a lot of them left, and deserves at least an honest effort at restoration before being put down.

If it were mine, I could save it.

Somehow I don`t think the lable ...top...is correct, I can`t see Ludwig putting that seam face`n up on a showing face. This is prolly the bottom of the drum originally.

Talk`n him through this repair, with photo`s after each step,....is doable.

To have match`n 32" would be awsome, but he`d have to be patient !! We won`t cut nothing, and we`ll match the color closely before packing the filler.

Anything's possable if you really want it.

Guys, thanks for all the suggestions...

To clarify: There's been a lot of speculation about the origin of the holes. Here's the deal... This hole is neither the top or bottom of the drum. It's one of the sides. The other side has an identical hole, minus the pull-out/damage.

Now that I've acquired a second 32" drum (almost identical, except the newer one has a painted shell interior) I can see that these holes were factory drilled. Since this was a concert/orchestral bass drum, the holes were used for brackets to mount to a large bass drum carrier, which was most likely on wheels.

The brackets are the same type as used on the top of conventional, "drum set" bass drums. Hence the confusion over whether this was the "top" of the drum. The labels that somebody stuck on there probably didn't help.

My fault, I should've been more clear.

Anyway, here's a few pics of my "new" 32" drum. This one is practically identical, except that it wasn't wrapped in WMP, and the shell interior is painted white. Otherwise, it has the same mahogany shell with re-rings, has the same Imperial lugs, and it has the same holes for the the carrier mounts (which we've already established were the same mounts one would use for a tom holder). The big difference here is that the new shell isn't damaged, and the brackets are still attached to the drum.

Again, the brackets you're seeing are the sides of the drum. It's impossible to photograph the left and right sides of a 32" drum simultaneously. Perhaps if I removed a hoop and moved *really* far away you'd be able to see that there are in fact two brackets, opposite of each other.

[img]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4147/5196027142_b5db831ee8.jpg[/img]

[img]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4126/5196027138_6cbe2b4b04.jpg[/img]

[img]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4110/5196027134_8bcf741d9a.jpg[/img]

For reference, here's a pic of a modern concert/orchestral bass drum stand, that's similar in design:

http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/4/2/8/553428.jpg

Now that we've cleared that up... I agree that salvaging the drum will be difficult, but not impossible. However, the possibility of using the damaged shell in order to fill the holes on the "new" shell is interesting to me.

I will *not* be mounting toms or anything to a 32" bass drum. I'm currently playing a "1 up / two down" setup with a 36" (yes... THIRTY SIX) bass drum. The 36" was a marching drum. Originally I'd planned to use a 32, but the "old" 32 was damaged, and I got a really good deal on the 36. Plus the 36 is already silver sparkle, which matches the rest of my drums. Cool1

Anywaaaay.... I'd prefer a 32. And I do NOT want those brackets to stay on the sides.

I would like to explore the possibility of using the old 32 shell as material to fill the holes on the newer one. It's the same wood, already contoured to the same shape...

Plus, I've decided to build a new drum set, using the 32 as the foundation. It'll be all naturally-finished mahogany, so I won't be covering the pretty wood up.

Hmm....

Oh yeah, here's a shot of Me and the 36" ;)

[img]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4050/4585459810_b170de45f5_z.jpg[/img]