I'm doing my best to learn all I can about drum re-construction on my own. After coming across quite a few trashed shells, I realised that I would eventually need to figure out how to remove reinforcing rings and drop shell size. The perfect proof-of-concept project fell into my lap yesterday in the form of a nearly-destroyed 1950's WFL marching snare. The drum has a chewed up reso edge, huge holes in it, and a heinous spray paint job of red and black triangles. I bought a clothing steamer at Goodwill for $5, then ran the hose under the drum with the nozzle facing up into the drum itself. Using a metal pizza tray and a glass cutting board for weight, I covered the top of the shell to help build up the humidity.
Here's the shell being steamed. One re-ring is already out and on the floor. I gave it about 40 minutes on a medium temperature. By the time I checked back, the glue (and a bit of finish) was running down the drum onto the tiles. The re-ring came off with a little love from a thin chisel and a butter knife. A bit of the mahogany chipped off with the re-ring, but that didn't matter as I was cutting the shell down anyway.
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Here's the shell after cutting, re-gluing the rering, re-edging, re-cutting the snare beds, and staining. To re-glue the re-ring, I took about 20 plastic wood clamps and used Titebond III, allowing the ring to set up over the course of a night and a morning. The paint was lacquered on pretty thick, but came off pretty easily with a bit of heat and a chisel. I used Minwax mahogany stain applied with a foam brush after giving everything a nice 220 grit cleaning sand.
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And here's the drum! The build was simple, only 4 holes for the throw and butt. I opted to keep the claws, wood hoops, and no-lug design. In fact, I added 2 additional sets of claws to make it an 8 lug instead of a 6. I'm not going to finish or nicen up the wood any more... I think it looks sweet all shabby-chic!
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The completed snare on my Pearl NC Deluxe. This is a highly tuneable, woody sounding drum. I really cranked the tension up and both the batter and reso head took nicely to the pressure. To remember where to tension each of the claw/rod combos during head changes, I just marked dots on the batter hoop with a permenant marker and my DrumFoundry mat.
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