I often use "Spirit vinegar" to clean rusted parts.

See a few examples halfway down on this page:

http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=11758&highlight=vinegar&page=2

/Johan M

I always clean threads by running a tap or die in or over them. That's the best way because then you remove any burring or unwanted buildup and they thread nice and smoothly. Taps and dies come in various grades. Machinists and the like would of course use really expensive adjustable ones but there are basic H.S.S. ones available for very little money------ 4 or 5 $ a piece. Here, you can buy entire sets ,made in China S.A.E. or Metric for 10 or 15 $------then if you end up with a damaged thread, you can drill and retap to a larger screw. Are these sorts of kits not available in Romania? Its a wise investment, if you are going to be fixing drumkits!

Regarding the plastic. I would want to see samples of existing heads that use this plastic before I would invest in it. Many plastics would stretch and dent pretty easily.I would want to actually play a drum(s) with it on.You may have to figure out a way of attaching the plastic to the fleshhoops with a combination of glue and some sort of fastener, like tacks or staples. It would all be quite experimental.------- Calf heads are perfectly sensible -----since every drummer up until about 1960 used them and many continued after. Yes, they break---- and when I play hard and I know there is that possibility, I use mylar snare batter,rack tom batter but everything else can be calf. I always put an extra calf patch, glued on with crazy glue on the batter side of the bass drum and sometimes on the floor tom, depending on the sound I am looking for. Calf usually only breaks for me when the atmosphere becomes quickly humid and the hitting is hard but so can plastic-----and calf doesn't stretch like plastic and become untunable. It only needs to be replaced when it breaks.

Calf heads are expensive here too but here is what I have done to reduce that cost. Almost everywhere in the world has slaughterhouses. Here, there are numerous gigantic multilevelled meatpackers but there are also many small ones, that do only 3 or 4 animals a day.I get skins from one of those.The skins are salted and saved in a pile, for a pickup by a person who sells them to a leather tanner. I select a few of these skins every now and then , buy them and take them to the tanner myself and have them done as a special kind of rawhide, instead of leather. I then have entire animal skins to cut heads out of. Perhaps, you could arrange for the same kind of thing in Romania. I would guess, that there are far more leather tanners in Romania than here where it is very environmentally regulated. From what I recall, Romania has a famous reputation for leather.-----I have to drive 200 km. to get my skins done.

I`m stil in a dlilemma regarding what i should use for the heads... calf is hard to get, plastic is hard to work with, but I could get some help, my teacher offered to help me with that.I`m still unsure wether I should buy the plastic. I`m very low on money and this drumset is not really a priority to me, but still i want to see it in a play-able state...

Here`s another one for you:

I took the remaining calfskin off the floor tom head that came with it (not much left, actually) and it seems that the flesh hoop is broken in one spot and it is far away from being round. That makes it unusable , at least for me...

What can I do now? Get another hoop? Don`t think I can find something that fits. Make one? Well.. how? man, this proves to be harder than i tought...

Also, i`ve shown these drums to my teacher and he confirmed that they are Romanian, he doesn`t know the model, but he assumes they are early Doinas (late 60`s - early 70`s). He said he played on a couple of those and that they are garbage.

I think, any drum can be made to sound at least decent.---certainly those Doinas in the video sounded pretty good. I think that was lip-synced but at some time they recorded it , likely on those very same instruments.

A lot of old fleshhoops and drums are out of round. I've got an old Trixon Speedfire calf head that is so warped it looks like a giant potato chip.

What will actually happen when you put those drums together, is the hoop will act as a stabilizer and if tuned and adjusted slowly and when the weather is a little damp, the hoop will gently pull everything back into line. The head can be squished into the hoop and then the drum squished into the hoop. They have to be pretty bad , for this not to work.

These aren't your working kit ,so you have time to work away at them. Have'nt you heard the expression " Rome wasn't built in a day". Well it holds for Doinas to.

Hi Irod.

I would can to teach you how to make handmade drumheads by yourself but it will take much time to draw sketches for better explanation.

In brief --

1/ take a 8 mm thickness veneer sheet and draw a circles for inner and outer dia for future rim (equidistance - 7 mm).

2/ Cut by saw the inner dia, go around it by sandpaper and then cover it with epoxy resin. Wait for 24 h.

3/ Cut by saw the outer dia, go around it by sandpaper and then also cover it with epoxy resin. Wait for 24 h.

4/ Put your new rim on the plastic sheet (from old bigger drumhead) and draw the outer circle. Also you can use the "Mylar" drafting film - project type for batter heads and detail's type for bottom.

5/ Draw the end circle equidistantly -- plus 45 - 50 mm

6/ Cut on edge circle by scissors.

7/ Cut by scissors a fringe shaped like a daisy petals -- from edge circle to outer rim line.

8/ Put your rim on your skin billet and applicate a glue on one of petals (easy available Henkel-Moment is good). Then roll the petal around the rim strongly by fingers and fix it by clothespin.

Don't care your fingers and don't use the gloves.

9/ Repeat an operation 8 on each petals around the rim.

10/ Wait for completely curing.

Well, even I'm tired... I hope now you can move to success. :)

George.

Hello and Happy New Year,

I`ve managed to bring the floor tom at my place. I`ve finished sanding 6 of the lugs (the ones that will hold the hoop) and the necessary screws and washers for them, and also 6 tension rods. I have measured the inner diameter of the hoop, it`s 6,5 mm.

I got a little problem, though. The screws that hold one of the floor tom leg holders are jammed. I tried soaking them with Coke, but they are still jammed. Any other idea what i can do about it?

Pictures will soon follow.

Hello,

I managed to de-rust the screws and i soaked the holder and the screws in vinegar, like i did with the other leg holders. I must say, it is a great cleaning method! I have discovered that, strangely, all the metal parts (rim, floor tom leg mounts) are chrome over copper over steel!! I have never seen such thing! On one of the leg holders it peeled off exposing the rust beneath the copper layer. I assume this is a technical trick, making it easier for the crome to fix on the part.

Here are some pictures with the almost-cleaned parts and the stick-saver hoop someone asked about. Mold cleaning is next !

[IMG]http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/7557/dscn1666kd.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/4139/dscn1668u.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/7236/dscn1669.jpg[/IMG]

You know, the pictures make these drums seem a lot better than the descriptions do! Chrome over copper over steel is a not uncommon chroming method and you are correct in your assumptions that the copper acts as a bonding layer. Triple chrome plating is copper /nickel/chrome and most of the really good chroming was by that method.There is some chrome right over copper. The chrome layer is actually , incredibly thin usually, with the nickel being the actual plate and the thin chroming just modifying the hue to make it more blue. The nickel is slightly yellow.

I really like those lugs.

I'm not sure what you are measuring on the hoop----the depth of the skirt or lower flange? If so ,and your shell is 360mm, then the overall width is somewhere over 375mm (the I.D. of the extreme diameter of the inside of the skirt). Give me that measurement and I may have something for you.

I just made this, to eliminate any confusion. It is a sketch of the hoop`s side view. I am assuming you were asking me about the "blue thing". That would be 2x 6,5 mm + 364mm (the shell o.d) = 376,8 mm.

[IMG]http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/5779/schita.jpg[/IMG]