Refinishing a Rogers XP-8 lacquer set and this technique worked great for me. Check out LMII.com - extremely helpful site for lacquer type finishes! I'm using Seagrave's good 'ol Lawrence McFadden nitrocellulose formula. Also excellent tutorials.

Get a Makita (or equivalent) finishing sander and 80 and 120 grit drywall sanding screen. I set up a 6' 2x4 between a couple sawhorses and slide the 2x4 through the shell. Work your way from bearing edge to bearing edge in 4"-6" swaths rotating the shell around the 2x4. Start with the #80 and clean/change the screen OFTEN. Final pass with the 120 creates a great surface for a vinyl filler coat. Using a finishing sander keeps you from uneven spots and makes a hard job MUCH easier. Just be careful as you go that the sanded finish doesn't spaul in the screen and gouge the shell. Good Luck!

Some of the factory finshes can be very difficult to remove because they are so dang hard. Most of my projects have been removing wraps and replacing with veneer or like the last one, painting the shells. I have a very nice Festool sander that vacumes up the dust as you work and it will remove finish but aslo clogs the paper real qiuck. I think I would get some good stripper and get most of it off with that first then sand em up and spray again. I dont thhink there is an easy way to do it.

Hey, my wife just handed me your package with the spurs as I was typing this! Thank you!

Anyway Tom, sanding, changing paper all the time, dust in your face, or

owey-gooey, stinky mess of stripper and finish, but, you wont accidently sand through the veneer.

I have a guy that wants me to refinish a drum set for him and I was going to look into what would be the best stripper to use. Ill let you know what I find out.

JC

I found that Citri-strip works fairly well. Its a citrus based stripper as opposed to a chemical based one. A little more time consuming to work with, but not as harsh as those chemical fumes. The great thing about using citrisrip is that it takes the finish off a layer at a time, depending on how long you let it sit on the old finish. I'd go the stripper route rather than just going nuts with a sander. By all means sand the shells once the finish is stripped off and start again, but I wouldn't do the sanding route to get the entire existing finish off the shells. And don't use the drywall sanding screens as someone else recommended. Much to harsh of a grit, unless you like deep gouges in your drumshells......

I thank you gentlemen for the quick responses.We will see where this ends up...