Whew.... the shock has warn off... I had the ratchet too... the wierd thing is that they waited 3 days to show the symptoms... AAAAAAHH
Anyway, I'm not going to be drilling them... with the Weld-on stuff, there's no need if you get a good bond.
The new rule of Vistas is... just snug enough that the lug doesn't wiggle.. and use some blue threadlocker so the screw can't back out.
Good news is, I didn't play them... and I caught it before the shells could get stressed out with it.
98% of all the damage is under the lugs.. where you can't see it.. so I'm going to Weld-On 4 all the spots, and finish my restore with my head held up. I lost a ton of sleep that 1st night... I love drums too much. I didn't play for a few weeks during the restore.. and then after the shock I was too sad.
My church called me and asked me to play in a week, so I figured I'd best not let my chops go to waste.. I sat down at the Classic Maples and played a little... I felt better.
The bottom line is... Cracking CAN BE FIXED.. and done correctly, you'll be OK. Weld-On is THE stuff to get for the problem I have... It acually chemically rebonds the separation.. so although it may show a little, it's not going to break there again unless I re-break it.. and it more than likely will break somewhere else.
In woodworking and acrylics, a well bonded seam is SUPER STRONG... the matereal will fail around the joint, but not at the joint. so I will be very careful and tedious to get the hairlines bonded before they become fault lines.
I don't intend to drill these at all... Drilling is a way to stop a big fault line from traveling.. but I would make the tiniest hole possible... one that could be used as an injection site for weld-on or a similar bonding agent. In my case, the cracks aren't clear through the shell.. they are the equivalent of a windshield chip. they arent all the way through..... Get it now... or pay for it with a fault line later.
I have been thinking about it too. Even if I ended up with a fault line... it can be fixed... and what wouldn't look cooler than putting a big cut decal on the drum... like the kind they use on car windshields... I use those on clear bass heads NOW! Add some flames or something to detract attention from the flaw... and it would still look great... and play great.
These are after all MY drums... so I need to make them my own.