I couldn't wait for a 14" three ply floor tom to come around, so I bought a 24" cocktail from Roundbadgedude, it had everything I needed. I knew that butting the shells together would destroy the sound and would be a weak joint. So I staggered the ply cuts, like an old hat box, but with three plies, resulting in a true 3 ply drum, though not original, but would be a joint as good as an original shell, and for the money, it satisfies me. Lots of these drums had double sheets for the plies anyhow.

more pics of process. And I made sure the outer seam lined up from top to bottom. After these pics were taken, I redid the sanding on the inside so it doesn't look as sloppy. This first pic was fixing the inside overlap, it happened to have no glue at that spot from the factory and lifted up a bit.

Rik, great work on the 14" conversion. That's a cool idea and worked nicely!