I have a 10" LA Camco tom re-wrapped in silver glass glitter! I've seen quite a few 12" LA shells that has the inner ply running with vertical grain. My 10" tom has that same vertical grain inner ply.

Silver glass glitter is a nice choice, very classy.

I've been working on filling holes, and cleaning up and trueing edges. Here are a few pictures of some of the plugged holes, and one of the 10" that I am building after I cut the Camco style bearing edges on it. A few good steps in the right direction...

Here is one of 2 of the L.A. era rack toms that has no tom mounts but only one with a vertical grain inner ply. It appears Camco was utilizing vertical grain technology a long time ago. Howard Hughes and his R&D dept. discovered and developed the X shell technology in the 1920s (Airplane wings). It was the key to very thin and very light as well as super strong...So maybe Howard Hughes and George Way/Camco should be credited for using the X and Vertical Grain technologies 1st?

Here's one that I thought you guys might like to see.. at the request of slingalud, I took a little extra care in cleaning up the damage to the mount area on one of his bass drums. Since I am plugging all of the mount holes for him, I had been taking care to only adjust the plug size to the drum, and not cut away the shells to make anything fit. I want to retain as much as the original shell as possible.

On this bass drum, one of the previous owners had let the drill get a little out of control. I'm not sure what they were trying to accomplish, but they ended up putting drill bit marks all around the mount hole. I cut and made a shell plug fit the existing hole. I then cut a piece of maple veneer, and trimmed out enough shell to fit it. Just enough to cover the drill gone crazy holes.

Thanks, Ryan

I've got the first bunch of shells ready for Slingalud. Here are a few pictures for you all. All shells have been cleaned and refinished inside, and the exteriors wrapped in silver glass. All un-needed holes filled, and bearing edges have been trued. I can't wait to see them in action. I am getting him rolling with a 13-16-18-24 so he can get back to playing again.

If you suddenly find yourself with an extra 12" or 13" left over, just let me know. Searchin'....

Wow... Just wow.

Incredible craftsmanship,...

Once finished, that's gonna be an amazing kit !!!

The 1st 4 of 13 are completed and looking great. The tom mount holes are plugged (no extra holes), bearing edges trued on some, others didn't need it. The Silver Glass Glitter wrap was installed with 3M strips of material right before, and up to each edge of the seams (Gradual build up) so hopefully that will prevent any cracking 20 years from now at the seams or wrap overlap. Another one of Ryan's brilliant idea's. Will take pic's of the interiors and the tags when the whole kit is completed. Here is a better shot of the 14x24", 9x13" and 16x16" Oaklawns with the 16x18" L.A. era FT. The snare drum is a custom made 7x14" Concert Aristocrat, from a 10x14" 6ply Jasper shell in Hi-Gloss Piano Black Lacquer.

Fantastic! I am coveting.....