Mike,

I would love to see the mahogany kit if you get time to take a couple photos. I'm considering re-sizing a pair of 18" hoops to get this going. Patience is not one of my strong points!

I would be **extremely interested* to see how that works out. Theoretically it should be simple......heh.

Mitch

I will let you know how it turns out. Shouldn't be too big of a deal. I hope!

randy - You wrote: Shouldn't be too big of a deal

Wood bass drum hoops are -steam-bent- and loaded into molds until dry. If you can soften up the wood enough to bend it, you can use the bass drum shell as the template for size & shape. You can use lap joints on the ends.

Not an easy job to do by any stretch of the imagination. Needs special tools, ie; steam-box, mold, wood working power tools, etc.

I would attempt to build one from scratch using thin plies/strips of maple. Building up the hoops one ply at a time right on the bass drum shell. After dry, just pull the hoops off the shell and finish edges and surfaces by hand.

John

I read about this in another forum, [because of this thread] Interesting idea, kind of tempting to try.

I've cold-tested a broken 26" hoop, trying to pull it in to 20", which was a joke, but I think a wood hoop can maybe be pulled in an inch with no steam. The problem is making a nice long lap joint, and also, making a lap joint. Not to mention the question of how much material to remove.

Certainly if I see any online I'll link that here...

Mitch

I have my hoops! After some searching and finding nothing affordable I decided to order raw Keller 18"" hoops from http://www.aitwood.com/StoreFront.Asp?WoodType=MAPLE&CATID=20&WoodPLY=10&Section=HOOP10PLY&wDesc=10%20ply%20Musical%20Bass%20Hoops%20Maple and re-size them to 17" These are raw with no roundover, inlay channel or back chamfer so I had to do all that myself but saved a ton of money by doing so. The raw hoops are very nice and very affordable. For rejoining, I decided on a simple butt joint with two 3/16" x 1 1/4" dowels.

Cutting and resizing worked perfectly due to the hoops being under inward tension and basically re-sized themselves to very close to the right diameter after being cut. All that was need was to remove the extra length and rejoin.They turned out nice and round and very solid. I then routered the 1/2" inlay channels and applied the roundover to the front side. I have not chamfered the back side and I think I will leave it square for now as it seats on the narrow rim of standard heads nicely. I am working on two kits at the same time so I made 4 hoops total.These are both kits using 50s-60s orphan WFL and Ludwig shells. One kit is Club Date style and the other is Classic style.

I used Jammin Sams wrap this time but with full glue.

I should be finished with both kits soon and will post pictures when done.

Randy

Wow!! Now that's the way to make it happen. Great work. Can't wait to see these come together.

I never posted pics of my mahogany setup because i need a few odds and ends to get the completely like i want. Will do so when it happens though.

Mike

Thanks Mike! I can't wait to see yours as well.

Randy - Wow! That is outrageously good woodworking and the drums are coming out killer! -Really- nice work on these.

John

Inner-tension?! Amazing!

The hoops look perfect. That's real wood working. We don't need no stinking lap joints! And now you can move ahead with these very cool kits. Pretty exciting...

Are you painting the hoops black? Secretly I hope you stain/finish them because I like those little router burns if that's what they are...in fact I wondered if you did them on purpose, relic it up a bit...

Mitch