I wondered about that 14" tom unless it was a concert tom.

Sounds like a cool lil / big snare drum. How did you get a 13" snare side rim if you thought it was a 14? I been debating about buying a router table and experiment with the edges. This sounds like a fun project, even if it wont be worth anything except for you and me.

You can sorta see them just in front of the arrows in this shot. They are in line with all the other holes.

I just took a large metal mixing bowl and used a clothing steam cleaner. I laid the already cut off section of the shell under the bowl and stuck the steamer under the edge. Steamed it for maybe 20 minutes. The glue softened and I carefully pried the reinforcement hoop off. It took a couple of steamings as the glue starts getting hard again as you are prying it off.

[IMG]http://www.iknowcss.com/jj/Blue%20Oyster%20Pearl%20053.1%20%28Medium%29.jpg[/IMG]

You can hardly see the old holes. That is very cool!! I have a old beat up to shell that size. Looks like a fun project!!

I just used a colored wood filler and then also used a stain to make it match as close as possible to the shell. I then used a tinted lacquer to blend the entire inside together.

Great info, Drumjinx. I picked up an ol' 3 ply concert tom drilled for small classic lugs on top, with the exact intention of making a school fest out of it. This thread is like a swift kick in the rear for me to finally get going on it! Didn't you do a thread on this kit a while back and told us how you obtained NOS OBP wrap!? Thanxfor reminding us again about it!Bowing

I did not start the thread...but I did talk a little about the NOS OBP I obtained and sold as well as posting some shots of the full kit.

Here is is.

http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=6932&page=2

I mentioned that I had planned on filling some gouges in the shell, but I'm worried that the damage to the outer ply may be too great and the wood filler may have an adverse effect on the shell's response. It looks like someone was peeling off the glued on wrap back in the day and took sone strips of the outer ply with it. There are 2 or 3 strips about 1 1/2 inches wide and about 6 inches long tapering to a point where the outer ply has been ripped off. I got a can of DAP plastic wood and was just planning on filling in the voids. Can anyone comment on using such a large amount of wood filler? Will it totally kill the shell? I guess the alternative would be to leave it alone and just have an extremely ugly shell!

I have a six-lug 6x12 snare that I just love. It was a custom job based on a six-ply Keller shell. I also had a 6x12 DW with eight lugs and a ten-ply Keller shell, and I ended up selling the DW. The six-lugger had a much warmer, fatter tone. Not sure if that was due to the lugs or the shell, but either way--with a small-diameter shell, six lugs should be fine. It might be a little harder to tune, but I wouldn't worry much. Enjoy!

wow jinx,that's some great work,and some serious love for drums to go that far to make a snare.ultra mega cool!

ok, finally got around to finishing this shell up. I hand filed the bearing edges after truing on a glass tabletop with 120 grit sandpaper. The bearing edges took a while, but it worked out well. I also cut the snare beds with a file and a drum sander attached to my drill. I patched missing portions of the mahogany outer ply with dap plastic wood, and flattened the scarf joint seam on the outside with epoxy putty. I also filled all of the lug holes. I ordered some quilted bubinga veneer online, and used Heatlock veneer adhesive to apply it. Unfortunately, I didnt realize quilted bubinga is one of only 2 species/grain patterns out of 60 that heatlock's website listed as problematic with their adhesive! Luckily, I was able to get through with only a little splitting which I patched up with some left over slivers of bubinga. Now I know to ALWAYS use veneer softener! I finished it with 12ish coats of formby's tung oil finish wet sanded in with progressively finer grits up to 1500. As for the hardware, Its far from period correct... I bought a PDP piccolo snare from a pawn shop and took all the hardware. To my surprise, the lugs fit(with a small amount of persuasion from a drill bit) in 2 of the 4 existing(yet patched) classic lug holes. The strainer that came off the PDP snare is actually very well built, and the action is WAY better than the p-85 on my supra so I dont feel bad about not going with ludwig hardware. then off to my local music store for tension rods. There was an issue with that though, their stock was either too long or too short, so I bought 12 of the long ones and cut about 3/4s of an inch off. Overall, I like how it sounds and i think it looks great. This shell was basically saved from the trash and I debating even keeping it at all.