No one's wagering on the shims..

I can see the slide and the rail have a lot, no, too much play in them. It's so much you can see it.

If you take the slide and wiggle it and there's easy play, like I see in yours,..the slide will back down with gravity away from the rail when you throw it or play it. Either the slide is opened,or the rail has worn from being used dry when there's play in it.

I knocked of the tiniest amount of my rail corners with a knife stone because my slide was sticking and skipping. Didn't have to close the slide or anything and it's fine.

Tap and or die the threads if they turn out to be the problem.

The birth marks near the seam is from the drum sander stopping and going back over the seam. A naked I will not see sanding differences but the finish will show it.

Dang i missed these emails! Sorry for the late reply.

Drum Doug cool Duco WFLs! It makes sense now. I cant believe I didnt realize sooner that the white “14” meant shell diameter.

Oddball thanks for the schoolin my guy! So in regards to the wedge, you said you think it was done at the factory? Or do you think it was done by the previous owner? The guy I bought it from (through Ebay) was not a drummer. He didnt even have a drum key to show me the interior or edges. He said he inherited the drum. It was a risk but I got a stupid good deal and the drum turned out to be in great shape.

Im trying to piece together an origin story to explain our friend “the wedge” (or idk what to call it. JDA says shim?) Maybe the guy who was making the drum that day needed to improvise and did whatever he needed to do to get the drum out the door. But if the wedge was done at the factory, then its interesting to think that whoever did quality assurance was just ok with that extra bit of wood in there. Didnt the WFL catalogue claim Ludwig himself supervised every drum or something??

But if the wedge was done after the fact, then I would think the re-ring would be compromised and distorted by now. But the ring looks fine as far as i can tell....

If yall could give this drum and “the wedge” a memoir how would it go? :)

I don't recall seeing any " space". Looking "up" at a reinforcement ring; there is "no space" there for a 'shim" Is There?

Is there "space" all along the underside of that ring? What would happen if you pull the shim (is there 1 or 2?) Out?

Reminds me of sticking a "match pack" under a table leg (remember doing that?) when a table wobbled.

Might that ring been vibrating and someone stuck the proverbial matchpack " in this case a piece of wood shim" up/in there to stop noise?

I don't think it belongs there (lol)

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I would certainly show this to the guys over at DFO. And get their read on it.

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The last picture (5) looks like there is "no space" for the shim. So Maybe yeah a quick fix (for an open-space flaw) from the factory. It would be the first ever seen; unless the guys at DFO have seen it before..

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Or leave it and look at it this way : " You got extra wood" (!!

Yes, I think the shim was done at the factory. You would be surprised what get's by when production is running full capacity. Ludwig has ugly glue drips and lap lumps that get by. A white head would hide that shim. If you don't like it, simply score it even with a razor knife and snap it off.

Yes extra drum for the same price! The guy who paid an extra $8 bucks for chrome plating didnt know the freebie he was getting. Ya there is really no space between the shim and the shell. I dont wanna attempt to finesse the shim in fear that it is a pull tab and the world will implode.

I may create a DFO account. Only for the sake of seeing if anyone else has seen a shim stuck in the re-ring like this before. But you guys have helped me understand it a lot already.

I dont think ill trim the shim. I like the shim now. He reminds me that man is not infallible. An imperfect man made an imperfect drum. But there can be beauty in imperfection. The story is whats fun about these drums.

I would leave the shim as is...It`s been there all this time, it deserves to remain...

Cheers

If it does not go under the ring, the only other thing that makes sense is a piece to prevent clamp marks for gluing the seam. There appears to be leftover spacer at the bottom of the seam too. Is that what I see at the other end ?

At the opposite end from the bigger piece of shim, there is a little tiny small piece of shim. The camera doesnt really focus on that. But there is a remnant of shim that was in there. Also the side with the smaller shim is more glue-y. Its almost like they cut that side off mostly, but then just left the bigger shim be. So weird