[COLOR="DarkRed"] Sounds like a cool kit.

1) You have given yourself a tall order. the entire (?) interior of the shell has been spraypainted ? AND you wanna resurrect the date stamp. I dunno fif removing the paint and saving the stamp can be done, simultaneously, actually.

I usually fine-sand paint off. But I doubt you could keep the stamp intact. Yes, I believe that '61's would have just had natural mahog interiors.

2) If the original edges look OK, don't get 'em recut. If there are some small nicks, etc, fill them w/ filler and fine-sand the edges. It becomes a classic conundrum, because if the edges are recut, it will do all of what you mention (lessen the depth of the shell and reduce the collectability of the drum). Personally, I would leave the edges as factory, again unless there is a significant problem

3) Sounds great, well beyond the call.[/COLOR]

Jaye is right about the edges and the collectability but if you are going for sound then truing them up is the way to go. They have already been compromised with the interrior paint, which will be a real bear getting off mahogany being a soft porus wood. Just my two cents

The plys are very very thin on those three ply shells... so fine sanding means FINE sanding.

I would take one drum to a high end paint store.. not a "Home Depot" type place but a real paint store or maybe a good furniture restoration place and let them do a couple tests on the drum with different paint removing chemicals.

Find what seems to be doing the best job on loosening that paint. Once you find it.. plug all holes in the shell with dowels or something like that... then begin very carefully working off the paint.

A good citrus stripper was recommended to me on this forum.. sorry I can't remember the name.

Chemically remove what you can and then fine sand to finish... that's my two cents.

It's a big messy job... and getting half done looks worse than leaving them painted.

GOOD LUCK.. post some pics and keep us posted, I'm interested so see how your drums come out.

I have stripped several late 60's Slingerland toms lately - removed the wrap and brought the interior down to bare wood. I have noticed a few idiosynchrocies of the Slingy drums of that era.

Some have the "classic" chocolate milk interior paint and some have had white interior paint. I don't understand the timeline behind these treatments - they all looked "factory" to me.

I removed all of the interior paint with a gell style commercial paint stripper (from Home Depot) and have yet to encounter an authentic date stamp.

Each of these drume ultimately yields a "P" inspection stamp under the paint, but no date stamps (see pics).

I have also been a little bit alarmed by the variability of these shells from the 60's. Of the three drums I have rebuilt; one had a very nice shell with the plies intact, one had a fairly large section of ply missing (maybe someone else had "worked on" this drum, but I doubt it) and one showed obvious signs of sloppy drilling of the holes for the lug casings, strainer, etc . . (like a dull drill bit was punched through the shell from the outside, damaging the interior ply).

I would also concur that spending the money to get bearing edges cut would be a waste and would actually negatively impact the sound of the drum.

Bearing edges are important - but the original edges shouldn't be too far out of whack, nothing that can't be trued up with some wood filler and sand paper.

However, when you cut down the edges an eighth of an inch, that represents a quarter inch on the overall height of the drum. On a 8x12 tom, that represents a reduction of more than 3% of the drum height - which (I believe) is a bigger sacrifice than might be produced by small imperfections in a bearing edge.

Good luck with your project!

So, you fill the low spots with plastic wood? I have seen some slingy shells that were so bad you would need half a can of plastic wood to make them level.

Obviously, if these things were dragged along behind a truck or used as a blacksmiths anvil, the damage might require some serious work - re-cutting the edges or even replacing the reinforcing rings. There certainly is a point where you can't recover an edge by using a filler or build up material.

However, I just got finished building up the snare beds on a mid 60's Slingerland parade snare to turn this into a 10x14 tom. I used a wood epoxy stick (available at Home Depot) and it really turned out pretty nice. The density of the material is hard as a rock and I was able to shape it with a round file and several grades of sandpaper to wind up with a really good edge.

I had actually considered cutting off the bottom 1-1/2" of this shell (so I could use at least one of the original lug casing holes) and trying to glue in a new reinforcing ring.

What stopped me was the notion of winding up with a really nice refinished 8-1/2 x 14 tom and I had no idea what that was going to tune up to sound likie.

I guess the point of my earlier e-mail was that there is a trade-off between minor imperfections in a bearing edge and ultimately altering the dimensions of the drum that should be considered.

Either way- it sounds like a fun project.

[COLOR="DarkRed"]Agreed...certainly there's a point where filling/sanding isn't feasible any longer. If that's where the shell condition is at, then one would be wiser to just level and recut. But just from the authenticity point of view, leave it if you can without sacrificing playbility of the instrument.

Did Slingy ever paint shells in white ????? I though only chocolate beige ???[/COLOR]

[QUOTE]However, I just got building up the snare beds on a mid 60's Slingerland parade snare to turn this into a 10x14 tom. I used finished a wood epoxy stick (available at Home Depot) and it really turned out pretty nice. The density of the material is hard as a rock and I was able to shape it with a round file and several grades of sandpaper to wind up with a really good edge. [QUOTE]

What kind of prep did you do to the bed to get the epoxt to adhere?

I had never used this stuff before and heard about it from a friend on "drumforum.org" - so I thought I would give it a try. If it didn't work, I figured I could always cut this shell down, as previously mentioned.

Anyway - I took a rounded coarse file to the snare beds, just to rough them up a bit and the way the epoxy grabbed ahold was amazing. I wound up shaping this with another file and subsequently sanding it and it is firmly attached. I was honestly surpized at how well it worked.

The epoxy stick is kind of this big Tootsie Roll lookinig thing in a tube. It has an outer layer and a different core material. You just cut off whatever amount you need and then knead it to mix the two compounds. You get 15 minutes to set it in place and it hardens very quickly. I'm pretty impatient, as a rule, and I began filing and finishing this within a couple of hours.

I'll try to post some pictures . .