Hi there,

Personally I don't believe that those masonite-shell will produce a 'singing tone' lateron (my experience with very thin shells and flexible wood).

Some experts even pray to lacquer the inside of shells to optimise the sound - but these drums here represent just the opposite: multi-layer paper-like material with a dull and embossed surface ...

Anyway - it's a project from which you'll learn the utmost in restoration.

It's more than a challenge to bring those drums back to life. Best of luck for it!

Ralf

Yes, it's true, Ralf.

But hope and patience sometimes really can change things for the better... :)

Let's wait for results of this upcoming lengthy work.

George.

Welcome to the forum. ----You know, I think I had a set of the very same drums that you play, at one time. It was about the year 2000 and I had a young friend ,who wanted to take up the drums. They were about 400.00 at Steve's Music in Toronto----made in Taiwan with thick Poplar plywood shells. They did her for a while. I eventually sold them for 550.00 with some mediocre cymbals.

Regarding the Doinas(?). The badge looks like it might have been spelled fr(i)(?)tow-----if it was done with a pen stroke as it is supposed to look ,the i(is the dot possibly broken off the top?) and the t are formed from the same penstroke,with the lower tow finishing the name.---just a thought to investigate. I had a Romanian Viticulturist work for me in 1992. He was on some idiotic training program put forward by the Canadian Gov't to help the poor unfortunate Romanians learn modern farming techniques. This guy had a Masters in diseases of the vine and he started out his tenure here driving a ****spreader on a bogus Organic farm run by two stinking rich German barons who spent all their time reading sports car magazines. He escaped and came to me where we had a good time harvesting grapes,apples,currants, plums and pears and talking.I don't think he learned that much about farming in Canada. He did say, that in Romania(this was just at the end of communism) there were only 2 or 3 choices of products, often very similar ,with minor differences----so your drums may be Doinas but with minor differences and a different name.

I would be very carefull with the masonite. As previously mentioned it does degrade when damp and loses its rigidity and strength. They have used very small washers on the inside of the shells. I would try unscrewing every part from the shells. Some will probably come freely and some will be stubborn. Once you can back the screws off a little try to get a bit of penetrating oil(wd 40 is pretty much the same) onto the threads and let them sit a bit.Try not to soak the masonite with oil. You need to get all the lugs and hardware off and increase the size of the backing washers in order to spread the load on the shells. If some of the screws strip or shear you can drill and retap for a larger screw.-----unless that masonite is very thick ,it will be very vulnerable to cracking and pulling ,once head tension talkes place.

Welcome to this great forum, sir! I certainly am no expert at anything but, those rims look quite "stressed". I don't think that once you polish them up and remove the rust that there will be much left. Re-chroming is very expensive. I'm not sure how the purists will feel but, have you considered powder coating? A lot less costly but, not really authentic. Sorta like re-wrapping, if need be. Under some circumstances, necessary. Some might just suggest new rims. Let the experts weigh in. Anyway, I'm glad that you're here!

Brian

Hello everyone!

Indeed, the rust kind of ruined the hoops, at least the floor tom one. Chrome plating is way too expensive for me, same is powder coating, but i`m thinking about electroplating the metal parts with nickel, that should look pretty neat and is pretty easy to do.

Yesterday I removed all the metal parts from the shell, except one floor tom leg mount wich wouldn`t unscrew.I left that for some other time, when i would use something to un-jam the screws. One of the lugs is damaged, but it works fine. Take note that these lugs have absolutely no internal mechanisms (spring, washers, tension rods). The screw is being screwed directly IN the lug!. Weird system, isn`t it?

The shell is in good shape, no cracks or any damage, a bit flattened where the lugs were screwed but it keeps an overall round shape.

I tried to dry-fit my old snare head on the shell and guess what? it doesn`t fit!! As far as I remember that head is a bit oval, but it doesn`t even reach the outer edges of the shell!. I would check a good head and compare it to the remains of the head I found on the drum .

Calfskin - Nice story. That would explain the odd hardware. What remains a mystery for me is the badge. I`ll analise the glue marks on the wrap to see if I can find out the remaining letters.

I`ll keep you updated guys.Thanks for your kind replies.Bowing

In reguards to the head not fitting, you have the hoop with no t-rods on top of the floor tom, how come it don`t slide down to the top of the lugs ?? Is there something else holding it up ??

I have what I think is a Lefima 14" floor tom and it has the same system. In it's case the lugs are brass but I suspect yours to be a white metal of some sort. Was there a white powder clinging to the screws when you removed them? When you get around to reattaching the lugs etc.-----all of the stresses due to corrosion and unthreading will come in to play. Find out what the threads are----they are likely metric but some of the East German stuff isn't, so maybe this will have standard machine threads as well. It will help immensely if you run a bottoming tap(wide, not tapered end) into the lugs etc. to clean up the threads,after thoroughly cleaning out the holes. Some potential stripping of the threads can be avoided in this way. White metal is very soft and strips easily.

Have you measured the shells? They may be modelled after the sizes used in Germany,East Germany,Holland, Hungary up into the 60's. There are many different sizes, being somewhat specific to the maker. Heads are available for these sizes, especially from Germany. Stabil and Altenburger(former East Germany) have them. You could always do calf as well----lapping is not that difficult.

Oddball - Nothing else is holding it up. The upper part of the hoop is bent inwards and that part rests on the shell.It`s weird, i know.

calfskin - I don`t have any exact measurements of the shells, just rough estimates. I`ll measure them some time soon. I wish I could fit standard drum shells, I don`t really know how to get custom drumheads (plus I think they cost a lot) and lapping scares me. Anyway, it`s a long way `till fitting heads on the drums.

The lugs have metrical threads (regular threads) and they run very smoothly, so I guess some proper lubrication is all they need. The lugs are made from some white metal. The "coating" on it is pretty thin and has a tendency to peel off. It sands out pretty easily, and the difference is substantial, as you can see.

[IMG]http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/927/dscn1626g.jpg[/IMG]

Edit: Lugs have a slightly simmilar design to the ones HERE

The badge on the kit in your link is made of the same material and looks fabricated the same method too !!

The sanded lug looks aluminum and the other white metal on it looks like aluminum oxide !! (Normal ageing for aluminum)

Can I get a close-up of the FT hoop,...I`m stumped on this design !!