Don't see that often... What is it like on the exterior? Post up a pic. If there is any shell movement there.. I'd mask the outside.. scrape a slight "V" channel along the length of the crack and then pump a liberal dose of superglue into the channel... When dry.. then use some epoxy.. But I have not had the experience so just my approach...

Cheers

John

Guessing also, that a small hole drilled & then filled at each end of that crack would possibly stop the crack from worsening ... ( sort of like a cymbal crack repair)..

Cheers

John

Thanks John,

The outside is fine with no distortion. There is very, very small shell movement only when pressure is applied. It is rather strong still. Like you said I'm thinking of preventing further crack movement. Thanks for your input!

That drum when together well with a layer of epoxy. Strong and tight.

Then I ended up with another shell that needed to be fixed. Much, much worse. 20" President phenolic bass drum. It is a match for some orphans that I have. A very nice person gave it to me at a very low price... considering the value of the hardware.

It had a 9" crack that went all the way to the bearing edge. It also had some chips in the bearing edge.

The first thing I did was to scrape out the frayed material along the crack, so the crack could be pushed back so the edges would be flush. To get outward pressure on the inside of the shell I hill-billyed up some push rods.

For glue I used some slow setting, low viscosity epoxy. I wanted it to be thin, so it would seep in and saturate any open fibers for a stronger hold. At some point things did not go 100% because the center of the crack relaxed a bit and did not stay in perfect round. The outside and bearing edge, however, look fine. The crack repair was sanded and given a coat with the low viscosity epoxy for more strength and a cleaner look. It feels quite solid.

The chips, larger crack opening and some worn holes where the spur hardware mount got filled with 5 min epoxy 'for plastic.' After all the shaping and sanding I smoothed a thin layer of 'super glue' on any exposed fibers or areas that looked like they should be soother than they were. It is not 100% yet. I want it to cure a bit longer an may go back and touch up the bearing edge some more. It was really rough. Plus the wrap is NOT wanting to go back on easily. Surprise.

One thing that I learned after the fact is that there is something called 'release film.' It is a plastic film that looks like "Saran Wrap" that does not stick to epoxy. Put it between your clamps, etc and the epoxy. The carbon fiber, kevlar people use it in their adventures.

Thanks for posting this repair. I was in Boise, ID for Christmas and guitar center had a president series that I bought. In cleaning it up, I learned the 13" Tom has a bad crack in similar to what your bass had. Now I have some ideas on a fix.

Those push rods you made are very clever. Well done!

Thank you! I'm sure I'm not the first.

I saw that they had some in the golden grain wrap, too. Did you get that kit? Standard 12, 13, 16, 22 if I remember right? It looked like it was in good shape.

I'm no expert, but I'll be happy to help if you have questions.