greetings

hello,

what a fascinating place this is, I just went down a 4 hour worm hole reading the threads of what you guys make & what you use.

i have lurked here sporadically over the years as Google has lead me to landing on threads with answers I had to engineering questions.

I'm no model engineer or engineer of any kind, woodworker by day hand making drums (musical) or restoring & repairing them for people.... but its a trade that has often needed me to do small amounts of metal working & this seems to be getting more & more frequent as I build/repurpose/modify more complicated machinery to do the very niche & specialist jobs that find me.

my father who had a background in engineering is often amazed how far i have got with no lathe, milling machine etc....

but I'm getting the itch, just having access to some small tooling would help make the odd replacement or custom part for many jobs i do, i have no more room for industrial type machines at work... but I'm thinking a small/mini Mill & Lathe could find a home in the mancave I'm starting this year & it might give me a new challenge to learn the processes.

until then i will keep the reading & exploring what you guys do, i might even as the odd question.

Hi welcome to the forum. There are loads of information and helpful people on here who can give ideas on how to solve problems etc. Perhaps you can give information as well.

David

Hello and welcome Mr. Drum Maker. I doubt that there are many other drum makers on here but as you seem to want to set up a small metal working facility that is of no consequence.

If you have any questions there will be people on here willing to give advice and help.

Brian

Welcome along, if you can post a picture of a typical part you would like to make. I am curious having never been the slightest bit musical.

Thanks for the warm welcome guys, its very much appreciated. Gareth

i have already been raiding that info for a while, the amount of times i have been searching for something & this forum pops up via Google is staggering, i felt i better join in, hopefully i can contribute in the future, though some of my current methods & workaround's may horrify the real engineers

I'd be staggered if there was even one Brian, we are a very rare breed, less than a hand full of us do it for a job in the UK, few hobby part timers, but we would not fill a minibus, i know most of the serious hobby & all the pro guys.

but yes, I'm here to learn more about metal working and seeing if i can get myself set up with a mini workshop, will treat it as a bolt on hobby to start with. i have a couple of excellent precision engineers who do my big drum stuff.

thanks Chris, I’m not sure there will be a typical part, or should i say, typical parts I can get, its the non typical parts that are an issue, pre 50’s and rock & roll which brought mass production to my industry, drums were very much made individually and not exact copies of the previous, and not built by grabbing components from an inventory, but making each one as they went along the job.
sometimes i can work around it modifying an existing part to fit, often i cant... but id get away with a lot more modifying if i had more metal working skills & tooling…. i have done a lot with woodworking pillar drills, a set of taps & various sanding machines. we are usually talking small brass parts in the cases, I will get some pics up to give you an idea, non of its complicated stuff my other need is more for making parts for the machinery i use or want to build , no one sells drum making tooling, my jigs are made in house but thats easy as a wood worker.

Most of my actual specific job machines are modified & repurposed from other machines... I buy machinery & parts like crazy. even if they look like they might be uses full for something & sit on the shelf for years... often the biggest issue is connecting all the things together, I need custom connectors, plates, spacers, even simple riser washers that I just can't quite get in the right height or diameter etc.

I spent the summer making a twin head horizontal pillar drill for drilling the holes in our shells, its made from machinery oddities old & new.
but was held up for months as i could not get a shaft connector to bring together a 14mm metric shaft to a 1" imperial shaft, the issue was all the ones i could find off the shelf were 2mm too big on the overall OD to fit in the space it needed to go.... i was cursing myself as i could not turn it down.... in the end i spent 3 days making a one off jig to turn it down on a disc sander... it worked, but it was the long way round.

then of course, there is the ability for me to prototype my own parts & one offs for my own drums as & when i get ideas.

I will make sure i throw some pics up to give you an idea

Gareth

Welcome!

If you come across a problem, someone on here will be able to advise.

With a lathe you will be able to make your own bespoke shaft couplings.

When you choose a lathe, if you haven't already got one, my suggestion would be one a little larger than you think. otherwise you will suffer the frustration of ma job that needs turning but is too big for the lathe. You can do small work on a big lathe, but not the other way round!.

Not that I am suggesting a 21" swing machine, but probably 7 to 10" possibly?. (Unlikely that you would want to turn drums from the solid! )

My guess is that eventually you will want to cut threads, both Left and Right hand. In the smaller sizes, you should be able to obtain Taps and Dies from folk such as Tracy Tools, or The tap and Die Company.

Having said that,the facility to screwcut will be invaluable, one day. So a lathe with a leadscrew, and changewheels, or even a Norton gearbox, will be essential.

HTH

Howard

Welcome Gareth,

Until the twentieth century (and actually well into it) a lot of parts you describe would have been made by hand, and a lot of brass turning was done freehand much like turning wood, so you are actually communing with the ancestors when you do hand work. It can definitely be quicker to do it by machine, though.

It might be worth clarifying Howard's lathe size suggestion - he is talking about 'swing', which is the diameter of work that can be turned, and is a common way of describing lathes in the US. In the UK it is more common to talk about 'centre height' which is the radius of work that can be turned. So a UK 3½" lathe is the same as a US 7" lathe, for example.

George B.

Welcome to the forum

H

Welcome Gareth. I hope you get all the machinery to fit in with your new man cave.

Steve.

thanks Howard, info noted on lathe sizes, its the same theory with wood working tools such as band saws, always get as big as you can.. i will be limited by space in the cave but also access to it which is down some stairs (its in my cellar) but i will get as big as i can dismantle & move in....

i certainly dont want to turn snare drums from solid stock myself , however one of my most popular drums is turned from Ali & is 14" diameter & 1" thick, i have a good friend who owns a precision engineering firm who does such stuff for me, as the silly ideas enter my head, we also do some sand cast cast bronze & turned snare drums which are 5mm thick.

re taps, threads & screw cutting, i do a lot of hand tapping/re-tapping & do have a tapping head for one of my pillar drills, however I'm limited with what i can fit under it, so id be keen to get set up to do this at some point as the baby steps get bigger.

G

George, i love that thinking... I make my wood shells mixing very modern & very traditional methods, but when it comes to period pieces i even re saw my own veneers from solid stock, to make sure i can match the older wood stock thickness & construction formats not available now.... "communing with the ancestors" is a glorious way of putting it.

more motes taken & things learned re the lathe size info, terms & differences i didn't know, thank you, i was actually been offered a 3 1/2" lathe before things went south with Covid this year, I'm hoping i can pick up with the guy about it soon, get over to see it & discuss with him.

G

thanks Harry.

thanks Steve, buying machinery & tooling has never been a problem for me... holding off buying too much is the issue.... so I'm sure i will acquire things quite easily once i know enough about what to buy...

i have a reasonable amount of space, at 4m x 4m.... but its down stairs in a cellar so i will be limited with what i can get down there, and anything i do buy i need to be able to dismantle enough to do that.... but i do enjoy a challenge

If you think getting things up or down stairs is a problem, not long ago, someone, in Germany I think, posted video of craning his model traction engine out of his basement. He did have the advantage of the steps being outside. But you wouldn't put your fingers between the wheels and the door frame as it was pushed to the bottom of the steps.

If it is any consolation, a mini lathe can be handled by one man (Just! I am 82! ) and two men can move a Myford Ml7 without dismantling anything. Unwieldy, but can be lifted ans carried.

If in ANY doubt, get help! Dropping a machine will damage you as well as the machine, physically and financially.

Don't dismantle unless absolutely imperative, in case you cannot realign things afterwards. My Mill/drill has never been quite the same after it was moved as two pieces!

Howard