Part way through stripping the paint from the shell:

[IMG]http://www.mountainserver.net/drums/lud20sresto/lud20sresto1.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.mountainserver.net/drums/lud20sresto/lud20sresto2.jpg[/IMG]

And the lugs:

[IMG]http://www.mountainserver.net/drums/lud20sresto/lud20sresto3.jpg[/IMG]

mountainhick - It’s interesting that it is painted white. Traditional Jazz great Baby Dodds painted his white (including the hoops) but Dodds left the lugs unpainted. The Dodds snare was 8 lugs too, and I don’t think anyone who has the “so called” Dodds set has his favorite metal shelled snare. I’m not saying this is the Dodds’ snare but it is closer to his than the ones they display with their museum sets.

I’m thinking the previous owner might have favored Baby Dodds as an influence. He must have added the light socket and female two prong electrical plug (not sure the two prong plug was all that common way back, but there are many others here that know better than I), as they did way back, to keep the calfskin heads more stable when tuned. How cool!

White shell and hoops would make a nice Dodds tribute restoration!

Cool1

That looks like one cool project! Very nice indeed..

Lots of work but what a great old drum you have there. Those light bulbs in the drums back in the day must have made for some interesting stage presence as well as the head warming function.

Thought about what to do with this for quite a while and decided to sand off the nickel on the exterior, patch the hole cut for the electric socket, buff it, then patina it and re-assemble.

It took about 45 min and half a dozen 400 grit sanding disks to remove the nickel.

I have a slingerland chrome on brass shell that has badly damaged edges which I got with purchase of a kit a year or two ago which i used as a donor for the needed brass. I cut a piece to fit the hole in the Ludwig shell and a piece as a backing plate. Ground off and sand papered all the brass surfaces that needed to adhere together, applied some flux, clamped them all in place and silver soldered the mess together. Worked like a charm! Then I filed off the chorme still on the repair piece, filed it flush, sanded and started buffing. Buffing the whole shell with my meager bench grinder is taking quite a while, so i paused to show the work so far:

Here's the hole in the shell:

[img]http://www.mountainserver.net/drums/lud20sresto/lud20sresto04.jpg[/img]

The repair pieces cut from the slingerland shell:

[img]http://www.mountainserver.net/drums/lud20sresto/lud20sresto05.jpg[/img]

Filler piece in place, and you can see the surfaces sanded so flux/solder will adhere:

[img]http://www.mountainserver.net/drums/lud20sresto/lud20sresto06.jpg[/img]

Still clamped and soldered in place

[img]http://www.mountainserver.net/drums/lud20sresto/lud20sresto07.jpg[/img]

Super closeup of the repair after filing flush and mostly buffed out:

[img]http://www.mountainserver.net/drums/lud20sresto/lud20sresto08.jpg[/img]

And finally the view from the inside:

[img]http://www.mountainserver.net/drums/lud20sresto/lud20sresto09.jpg[/img]

You know...that didn't come out badly at all! Shouldn't be noticeable from a distance. Nice work! I'm not sure how that Ludwig drum is going to feel about having a Slingerland "skin graft", but it seems to have "healed" OK.

The shell prior to patina:

[IMG]http://www.mountainserver.net/drums/lud20sresto/lud20sresto10.jpg[/IMG]

The repair in context

[IMG]http://www.mountainserver.net/drums/lud20sresto/lud20sresto11.jpg[/IMG]

Really enjoying watching this project progress. Good work!

Yeah,no kidding..........nice job!

After seeing the latest pics of the completed shell, I say again...nice work. Can't wait to see it all put back together!