Reading this thread is certainly a feel-good way to start the day! Your drum is beautiful, Glenn. Kudos to Secret Santa for his or her generosity and spirit.

-Jeff

Jeff and Jeff thank you. Having this drum complete is a wonderful thing. Those clamshell parts are super hard to find. The ones I have now were only the 2nd auction I saw over the last year not including a rolling bomber wood version. And they normally go quick. I still need to work on the snare wire height a bit. I don't quite have the correct thickness in shim washers. I don't have those little snare wire dowels that came on them back in the day. So I need to make something similar thickness wise and will still allow the snare ends to float a bit with some wiggle room. I'll use a couple little pieces of metal tubing and flair one end maybe, we'll see. And then review overall end to end parallel. And adjust the bodys if needed. Right now I'm about 80% there. I just wanted to be sure the hardware I used was ok. As it is I did have to switch a few things around so it will be trouble free. This will just allow the snares to fall off the head completely when the throw is off. And also good even snare contact for tuning when on the head.

I'm happy Santa likes the drum too. :)

Once I get some time I need to get back to work on the 15" floor tom. I got a nice wood hoop from Bill to use on the bottom. I plan to strip and paint that black on Sat. Few more parts after that and it should be done. Getting there!

Just a quick update. Plans have changed on the 15" a bit. So stay tuned. I've been pretty busy so not much time to work on these lately. However there'll be a new twist on these soon. I'm pretty excited. Once I have everything in hand here I'll take some pics of the new changes. Some will like it and some won't I'm sure. flower It won't be quite the traditional RK kit everyone's used to seeing. But it'll fit my playing style better and more in line what I'm used to playing. Till then..........

Peace~!

Go for it Glenn! What ever you do is fine with me.

Jeff the 15" is going to be a mounted tom now. I found something else for a floor tom. I need to gather up some parts to finish everything. Just need to figure things out and test fit some other parts (all slingerland though) to if it'll work. It'll have more of a modern feel but can be put back as it was with little effort. Well that's the plan anyway. :)

So now yo will have a 13 and 15" mounted toms or is the other a 14", cant remember. You already have a 16 ft dont you?

Yes I have 13" and 15" mounted toms and a 16" floor tom. I'm adding another floor tom hopefully. That deal is in the works. I'm going to mount both toms on a stand and angle the bass to the right. Like if it was a double bass kit. This will get the 13" tom off the bass and give me back the 2nd tom I've been missing. Being they are all orphans I can take some libertys. They'll be my Franken Kings LOL. If it was a primo original kit it would stay as is.

PS yes got both your EM's and will reply when I get home tonight. Gotta run~!

Quick update today. First I'm sorry this thread is all over the place content wise. My mind is a scary place to be. Cooked Egg I figure I'd keep it all in one thread instead of multiples. So my mess is all in one spot.

I was going to make the 15" snare shell a floor tom but it's going to be a mounted tom with my 13". I plan to use a 70's Set-o-matic tom holder since the bolt pattern is the same as the diamond plate. The 13 and 15 on the SOM will be mounted on a stand. I took 1 SOM mout off my 60's kit and test fit it on the 13" RK shell. Perfect fit. Now I remember someone said you'd need to drill a hole in the shell for the mount arm. Well sorta true but not really. You can just butt it inside and leave it out a smidge. I have 1.250" arm depth with the SOM mount on the shell. I'm going to place a small piece of thin rubber inside the tom arm hole as a bumper to protect the shell. Plenty of meat left and a nice sturdy mount fit wise. This way the 13" can be converted back to the diamond plate and consolette without any hassle. And no extra holes~!

I also have a 20" x 16" radio king floor tom shell on the way with 2 20" NOB single flange hoops. This will be my 2nd floor tom now. Final kit specs are 22 bass 13-15 mounted toms and 16-20 floor toms. There's more in the works but until everything is here I'll leave it as is. So for now the RK's are on a short hiatus. Seeing how they are all orphans I can take some liberty's with them. The 15 needs some holes filled and small pieces of wrap glued over them. Some of the holes are oblong from multiple floor mounts. So somewhat a challenge to fill. Not sure what I'll do there yet. I know it's best to drill them to the largest size and plug. But that'll be some big azz plugs over 1/2" round. I may fill them as is and cut odd shaped pieces of wrap to fill them in. We'll see.

Here's a pic of the SOM mount on the RK shell. I'll take lots of pics along the way on the conversion incase anyone else travels the same path in the future.

Great thinking on the mount plan ther Glenn! I say, that will be one killer kit. I like the 2 up 2 down config (even though the toms are stand mounted). Never had a 20" ft, are they hard to tune?

Thanks Jeff. I hope they'll be pretty cool when done. My old 70's Slingerland kit I had years ago had a 20" floor tom. It was pretty boomy. So I hope this one will sound good too. :) The 2 up 2 down setup will get me back in the pocket again playing wise. I've played the 2 up way so long the 1 up kinda messed me up. Not that I was ever a very good player but hopefully I'll suck less with the 2nd mounted tom again.