Please, let me know what you all think. I have a thick skin, so if you want to comment, please do. I will keep these up for a while, then take them down and leave a link to my youboob page. I truly hope this gives those of you that have no experience some understanding of what it takes to do this type of repair. Feel free to contact me with questions, or to have a custom vid set up for you. If I have a shell that will make the situation work, I will be glad to do it for you. Or, I can do the repairs for you. I work relatively cheaply considering what I do. Others that do these types of repairs charge obscene amounts by the hour with a minimum charge.

I think it is pretty freekin cool to see how you did that repair and if i have some work i will send it to you do you fill holes? :)

I think it's great! I'm a relative newbie to vintage drums and restorations, and seeing any hands-on instructions on ANY aspect of vintage drum repair is a huge help. Even if I'm not looking for guidance with something like repairing separating shell plies right at the moment, your video no doubt has already saved me some heartache and trouble on something I'll be dealing with in the future.

Absolutely - please keep 'em coming.

Thanks.

Scott

Looks good. We want to see the finished drum! A vid of repairing a seperated re-ring would be good (helpful to me, anyway, as I have one I have no idea how to get back together!)

That actually is the same thing I am repairing in this video. I should have called it like it is, repairing the re-ring is the same exact process. Get a good quality epoxy. WOOD GLUE WILL NOT HOLD VERY LONG. YOU HAVE TO CLEAN THE OLD RESIDUE OFF FIRST, AND IF YOU CAN'T DO THAT, IT WILL NOT HOLD, PERIOD, NO MATTER WHAT ANYONE TELLS YOU, IT WILL COME APART IN A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME. THE ONLY WAY TO CLEAN OLD HORSEHIDE GLUE IS TO USE WARM VINEGAR AND LET IT SOFTEN THE OLD GLUE, THEN REMOVE IT....big pain in the rear quarter. That is why I use Epoxy. It holds, no matter if the old glue is still there or not, (HOWEVER I DO SUGGEST SANDING AS MUCH AWAY AS POSSIBLE, TO GET RID OF "RIDGES") and unless the ring is completely out, you will not get the old stuff out of there enough to get a good grip. I have many years of restoring old wooden things under my belt, and the only way to get new wood glue to hold is to get the old out first, and that is extremely difficult to do. Make sure you use good clamps, any that will hold pressure for 30 minutes will work, if you use epoxy. Using wood glue you will have to put the drum up for at least 12 hours to cure, and if the wood has re-shaped itself from sitting like that for 6 months or more, it will be a big deal to get it to conform back to the original shape. That is one of the best reasons for using epoxy, it will hold the wood back almost no matter what, where the glue, unless really well adhered, will not hold up to that pressure. If you have woodwork that you have glued over and over again, and it keeps coming apart no matter how much glue you use, this is why. It was never properly cleaned (that dining table chair that the leg or back keeps coming apart???) in the first place.

Great advice Jon..

Don't forget that alcohol will crystallize the old hide glue, making it easier to break its bond and sand away....

My Mom once told me not to use alcohol because of it's inherent value of water displacement, rather that it bonds to water and evapotates it. It tends to dry old old wood even more and faster than age has done already. It does work well on the glue, however keeping it away from the wood is a key, and since that is basically all we have to work with, be very careful when using it.

In order to do this one correctly, and get that ring back in place and the drum in round, you may need to use a larger wood clamp that will spread across the circumference of the shell and slowly close it until the edges are able to mmatch up. Then glue away, clamp those edges down with several smaller clamps, C-clamps, screw clamps, handle clamps, whatever you have that will hold it tight for a couple of hours. In this instance, you will need to leave the clamps in place for at least 3-4 hours, and overnight if possible, then slowly let the large clamp off holding the drum in round. This should get the end result you desire.

Something like this is inexpensive, and should be in every drum restoration tool kit. The 18" one is 8bucks at Harbor Freight Tools, and similarly priced at Mal-Mart, if your store happens to have them.

I found your video very helpful. Thanks