Kudos to you for taking the initiative to restore these beauties rather than stripping the usable hardware and selling it for parts. It's coming along great. Keep us posted on the progress with more pics. We Rogers fans will be watching.

Mike

Josh

Great and innovative approach!

Would love to see some before and after pics of the lug repairs. Never thought of packing them that way to make them more robust and usable again. Not sure what your using to remove the rust but there are a lot of great threads about cleaning up rusty parts.

I am like you, besides the hunt for the drums, the satisfaction from the refurbishment really makes this a fun hobby. . . And of course playing them in the end ! I have been working on an early 1900 CG Conn snare for 4-weeks and am getting close to reassembling the drum to share with the forum. And of course I agree with Mike, thanks for not ripping it apart to sell off as parts.

Thanks again for sharing.

Michael's

Mike and Michael, thanks for the acknowledgments. I have never owned Rogers drums before, but I can see what all the fuss is about! The shells are perfectly round, and these are from 1958. And the hardware? Fuhgeddaboutit. Solid as a rock!

But let me make sure you all know that I didn’t come up with the idea of the steel reinforced putty. TommyP posted his procedure for that back in ‘09, I think. Then Glenn reposted some stuff at my request. I am just apprenticing at the feet of the masters.

I’ll post some photos for the bass drum resto, which I hope to start tomorrow.

I restored a 59 Eagle badge blue sparkle set a while ago myself. Labor of love for sure. Reenforcing the B&B lugs at this point is pretty accepted policy, and should not hurt the value too much. Finding a full set of uncracked lugs took me over a year, so only the most pristine collector will be bothered. Most will be very happy to find a playable Eagle badge set and not have to worry about the lugs issues.

If not already started, post some pictures of the mount hole problem before you do any repairs. Someone may have a good idea to help with that issue. Mine had the original tom mount, so I did not have to deal with that.

Good luck on the restoration. Keep those pictures coming please. Mine has moved on down the road, and other Rogers projects have replaced this one.

Amos, thank you so much for posting that photo. That helped explain some of the holes in my bass drum. The badge on mine is where the dual tom mount is on yours. But mine has the hole configuration for a tom mount there - sort of. It has a larger hole in the center, somewhat near the resonant side of the drum, flanked by two smaller holes. It does not have four holes, though. It’s missing the holes on the short sides of the mount (nearest the drum heads).

Josh your doing really good time wise. Took me some 3 years to do mine. And I still need a few hoops and original t rods. Good find on the carriage bolts. The only chrome plated ones I found had writing on the head not smooth like originals. Same length, thread pitch etc.. though. I think your right on the resale aspect of B&B lug kits. Beavertails are the sought after bunch. I just liked the look of the B&B lugs. With the new Rogers Dyna-sonic and parts about to unfold I hope that may be a good option for solid lugs. We'll see. Excellent job your doing! That jig for the lug is genius. That alone would have saved me a ton of headaches. So it's cool to see the extra little things everyone does in restorations. So many great ideas and fixes have been shared here over the years. What length are your B&B lugs? The longer ones or the shorty's like the snare size? If longer I may have a few good spares. Keep going! :D

I affirm amosguy's opinion even more strongly regarding the value of reinforced B&B lugged kits. Unless you have the special early prototype lugs, ALL b&b's will eventually crack, it's just a matter of time. You are increasing the value of your kit by reinforcing the lugs. Frankly, as a collector, I would much rather purchase a less-expensive kit with cracked lugs than pay a premium for pristine lugs that I know will eventually break if played and tensioned. I've done the repairs on two kits now, and am actively seeking out more (especially the flat top b&b's).

Now with the availability of the new reasonably priced repro b&b's, all this thinking will go out the window, as it will certainly be more time and cost-effective to simply purchase the repros. I hope they eventually will include flat tops (aka coffin) but I doubt there is a big enough market.

Guys, thanks for the encouragement! I got pretty lucky in that most of what I need is present. The major exception is the 12” tom; it’s the only drum with the smaller lugs, and only 5 were present. Of those 5, two of them had one end completely blown out and gone. Since I wanted to have just a 13-16-22 set-up anyway, I am simply not restoring the 12.

The carriage bolts I found were stainless, not chrome, but they seem to exactly match the originals and had a smooth top (no letter code like the ones at Home Depot).

John, you mentioned “reasonably priced” reproductions. Are you referring to the ones that are $30 a pop? That would be $1440 in my case. Some companies only make the snare double-ended lug, but maybe you found something I haven’t seen??

As for the jig I made: it has really helped me because I can work the putty around while not having to chase the darn thing around the shop. I don’t plan on reinforcing these lugs for a living, so once I’m done with this set, anyone else who wants to use it sure can have it. As for my time progress, it sure helps to be retired. Not to rub it in, just sayin.’

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/manufacturer/Rogers_Drums

So the new snare double-sided lugs are running around $11 each. Under restoration I have a 60/61 black and gold duco Mayfair kit with 8 perfect snare lugs that I've never tensioned or strengthened. I plan to remove these lugs and replace them with the new die cast b&b's, then I can tension the snare to my heart's content. I'll save the originals for when a tom needs one.

Hopefully this new venture will also make single sided variants. It can't be that much harder to tweak the mold.

Look at the price of the clock face strainer and snare bridge! There goes the vintage parts market! It's about time I say.