It's a great hobby. Just do it. Get a flexible, accurate six inch ruler, my most used tool for precise placement of parts. A calculator, drill n bits, file, table saw, router.

I've done a couple of these. One 8x12 the other 9x13. It's not that hard and the results are great. The 8x12 is surprisingly good. Bright and responsive, the 9x13 kind of sounds like a field drum.

I did mine with a couple of 60s MIJ shells. The trickiest part is cutting the snare bed. I found a mathematical algorithm:

(r = radius, w = width of bed, h = depth of bed)

r = (w2 + 4h2) / (8h)

This gives you the radius of the circle you have to draw. You can then either cut a piece of string to that exact length and use it like a compass to draw the arc, or you can use a graphics program like Photoshop to draw one. The latter is my preferred method. I just print out the arc, cut out whatever width of it I want, and then tape it to the drum, with the top of the paper exactly aligned with the very edge of the bearing edge.

Then you take a rasp and simply rasp it down to the arc. Finish off with sandpaper for a smooth finish. It's easy!

I put the formula in a spreadsheet so that I can easily make arcs of different sizes depending on the variables I input to the spreadsheet. Works like a charm.

Here is one of the Tom to Snare projects I did earlier this year:

http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=38762

thats a nice build!!

any tips on what hardware to use or what hardware to avoid?

strainers?

thanks!

Well, I'm working with MIJs right now so I use whatever I can get my hands on. I've only done a couple of these, both using vintage MIJ throwoffs. For the strainers I use standard basic strainers. I do like the MIJ throwoffs because many of them tend to work on a pretty wide arc. That lends itself to a more dramatic switch between on and off, some even can provide many degrees of tension within their arc. Kind of like the old Stratocaster pickup selectors could actually work in between settings.

on drum foundry you can buy a snare bed cutter, but it's a bit pricey if you're just gonna do one drum.