turning wood into a snare drum shell

randy1 · Post by **randy1** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 2:30 pm

Hi, I would like to turn a piece of wood into a perfect acoustic snare drum shell. On shop smith's video I've seen a kind of lathe duplicator, which gently slides through the surface of the wood, without using a free hand-held tool. The shell needs to be 14" diameter x 5" deep (empty inside - 3/4" thick). Any information greatly received. Randy.

charlese · Post by **charlese** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 9:12 pm

Hi Randy! Welcome to the Forum! I'm kinda surprised you haven't had several suggestions by now, but here goes at least one idea:

First of all a question. Is the 14" diameter the inside diam. or outside?

You could turn a 14" cylinder on the lathe very easily, but how would you get the center of the cylinder removed. I cannot think of a way to do this, unless you turn two cylinders of 2 1/2" long and saw the centers with a scroll saw. You can then sand the insides with a drum sander and join the two cylinders to make a 5" one.

That, however is not my favored method. I would cut 16 pieces of 3/4 wood 3" long and 5" wide. Then trim a 11.5 degree angle on each end. Assemble these with glue and a band clamp. This will give you a 16 sided polygon that is a bit smaller than 14" inside diameter. Now all you have to do is sand the outside to a circle.

Once a circle is made on the outside diameter, I would cover it with veneer of your choice.

I relay know nothing of drum making, but this may give you a start.

The sketch shows the angle for one segment to be 23 degrees. That is an error in my programming. It is really 22.5 degrees.

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a1gutterman · Post by **a1gutterman** » Wed Oct 01, 2008 1:04 am

Randy,

randy1 wrote:Hi, I would like to turn a piece of wood into a perfect acoustic snare drum shell. On shop smith's video I've seen a kind of lathe duplicator, which gently slides through the surface of the wood, without using a free hand-held tool. The shell needs to be 14" diameter x 5" deep (empty inside - 3/4" thick). Any information greatly received. Randy.

I know nothing about drum construction. Your dimensions of 5" deep, 14" diameter, with a 3/4" thick wall must be what you need, so how to come up with that? Your comment about the lathe duplicator and the hand held tool makes me think that you think using a hand held lathe chisel won't get you the results you are looking for. FYI, the lathe duplicator, is still a hand held tool. It is just a blade mounted to a device that allows you to follow a pattern. This device does sit on a table, but you move it around with your hands. What you are calling a "free" hand held tool, really isn't all that free: It is resting on a Tool Rest for stability, just like the lathe duplicator uses the table for stability.

What you really need is a RingMaster with the capacity to cut 14" diameter, 5" thick rings. Oh, well.

I have done very little turning, so probably knot the best source of info., but I do have an idea: Start with a block that is 6"-7" thick that you have rounded on the band saw, or some other method, to roughly a little larger then 14" in diameter. Attach your block to a face plate, and at the outside edge of it, turn it down to 11", you can then turn it around and stick the 11" diameter part into a set of Jumbo jaws (SS#520484 or #520494), which can be used on a Stronghold, Oneway or Talon chuck. With it mounted in the Jumbo Jaws, you could turn the outside to 14", hollow all of the inside out to your desired (3/4") wall thickness for a depth of 5", or whatever depth that you wanted. Now you have a bowl that has a 14" outside diameter, is at least 5" deep on the inside with a wall that is 3/4" thick. After doing any sanding that you want to do while it is still on the lathe, the next step would be to cut the "bottom" of the bowl off; doable with a large bandsaw (not the SS one), and an appropriate jig to hold it. With the right jigs and support, you could also use the table saw, a sabre saw or a table mounted router to cut the bottom off. Sand it to perfection and it is ready for a finish.

If any experienced turners out there see flaws in this course of action, please do knot hesitate to point them out. I am certainly no expert when it comes to turning, it just seems like a possible way to accomplish what Randy wants.

After I typed all that, I realized that Randy could probably do the whole thing from a face plate.

Didn't I already say that I am no lathe expert?:D

efmaron · Post by **efmaron** » Wed Oct 01, 2008 2:56 pm

Chuck,
If your sketch was done with Delta Cad, when dimensioning set the dimension to three decimal places instead of two and the angle will not round off to the next highest degree and will show 22.5

charlese · Post by **charlese** » Wed Oct 01, 2008 10:32 pm

Thanks Eric! I'll remember that! Yep, it was with Delta Cad. Lost the program when I lost my hard drive. This was from a downloaded free trial version. Had to go with what I remembered from my last use of 6 to 8 months ago. All of the settings were set up a long time ago and I had forgotten just how I got them. Really didn't want to take the time to re-set with fractions and inches until I get the program back. Only took 15 minutes to draw this up. Just wanted to show what I was talking about. (at least the idea)

Evidently, I didn't register the program, so the folks at Delta Cad had asked me to find my credit card records of it's purchase. No big deal - I'd rather spend another $39.95 than go through all of those records. Lesson Learned!!

.

efmaron · Post by **efmaron** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 8:05 pm

Chuck, When you get the program back in your computer, go to office depot and get a Kingston data traveler 2GB or equivalent, and copy the program on it, then if any things happens you have a back up. I bought 2 and I store all my drawings on it. I have computers in our house office and in the shop which is an stand along building some distance from the house, anyway, I plug the flash stick in the USB port and I have all my drawings right there and can make any changes that I may need no matter which computer I am at.

charlese · Post by **charlese** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 12:29 am

Really Cool, Eric!

Thanks!