Another thing I forgot to mention. Put a piece of wax paper over the area to be clamped inside and outside shell. This will prevent your protective wood piece from getting glued to the shell. Use a c clamp or maybe a bar clamp. You can clamp it much tighter with either of these. I have done this repair a few times and it worked perfectly. I have a thread of restoring my Black Panthers with 2 such repairs. The operation is explained in detail with pics .http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=11641

Thanks for the quick reply and advice. I've attached a pic of the damaged area, (all of the hardware is still in place - I haven't dis-assembled it yet).

I've never attempted any repair such as this before, the damaged ply seems to be relatively thin, hence both 'fragile' and 'workable' depending on how moist it becomes. I'm guessing that the bubbled areas will become somewhat pliable or workable to local finger pressure when they are ready for clamping with a suitable jig/mold.

Also, I'm understanding that I inject the adhesive with a syringe during this 're'-molding' phase while the ply is moistened? If so is there a specific glue that is water friendly? Or perhaps I clamp the area until it is dry and re-formed in a flattened state and then inject glue and re-clamp??

Thanks

Kris

Kris,

That looks like a pretty large area you have to repair. It would be nice if you had piece of an old drum shell that you could use as a form to clamp to the inner shell. You might find a toy bass drum to use, but if would be better if it had a 22" diameter. Glue it when the wood is moist in my opinion.

Use a good wood glue like Titebond.

Do what poppy said. Use a water based wood glue. (I use Elmer`s)

Awesome - thanks. My first mission will be to find a good 22" diameter jig for the clamping step, I love a good challenge (one of my other avocations is sport flying, and having constructed an experimental airframe I'm not a stranger to 'daunting' challenges). I may even end up fabbing a custom fitted clamping jig using fiberglass/composite materials, if so, I'll post some pics... D' Drummer

Kris

Fantastic Job!

Nice save on that bass drum. I find it fun to take on those types of repairs.