I am almost finished with this project of converting a 15 inch diameter by 12 inch deep Ludwig & Ludwig marching snare drum. From the stamps on the inside of the drum I think it is from 1941. It is maple and not mahogany like my other old drums and maple does not take the stain as well but I think it came out okay.

It was a real pain to get all of the paint off of this drum. It had two coats, the top was blue and the under coat was white. I used an environmentally friendly paint remover and it was more like just moving the paint around. I finally got it all off with some sanding.

I used a few coats of red mahogany stain on the shell followed by 5 coats of clear poly. I finished the hoops with 4 coats of clear poly. The hoops were in pretty rough shape and the poly has helped that.

I am attaching a few more posts so I can get all of the pictures up of the project. I am waiting for my clear ambassador head for the resonant side. I have a Fyberskin Ambassador head for the batter side.

For the floor tom mounts, I found some Leedy & Ludwig mounts on eBay some time ago and I had some extra floor tom legs laying around.

The next project to complete my 3 piece set is a 13 inch diameter by 9 inch deep rack tom. I found it on eBay and it is from 1965 so not as old as my other drums and it has a very thin and somewhat damaged mahogany veneer that I hope to be able to repair. I'll be asking for some advice on that soon in a new thread. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy the photos.