Great job, man! The snare is beautiful and sounds great. I’ve been thinking about building a snare for several years now. Your video has inspired me to actually do it. Thanks again!
Nik, you really have a thing of beauty right there. Very nice build.I'm sorry that you had to re-do the finish so many times, but your end result in fantastic. Sounds really nice too. I love how you planned out the build, very very nice.
Excellent point to check the holes against the actual lug. I’m a professional trim carpenter and when I’m attaching cabinet handles I always do that EVERY SINGLE TIME before drilling.
Nice looking. You never once mentioned anything about a snare bed. I just finished another snare drum build myself. A 6.5X14” copper shell from WorldMax with black nickel hoops, tension rods & tube lugs from DFD, and a black nickel SB1 throw-off & butt plate from INDe! I also put on PureSound 20 strand Blasters, and REMO Ambassador Hazy & Coated heads!! My next build will be a 15 ply maple shell from Keller!!
Sounds like a cool build Johnny! Are you happy with the sound? For the record, the shell had snare beds already shaped in, and I just had to make sure I orientated the snare throw-off correctly.
@@nikgdrums , I’ve used the drum a couple times at rehearsal. Next Saturday I’ll use the drum at a gig! So far I love the tone! My first copper snare drum! After the 15 ply maple build, I think I’ll do a bronze shell. Thanks for sharing your video’s!! Cheers!!
Nice job with the description of how to build this drum. I have a few tips if you don't mind. I painted high end cars and custom bikes for 30+ years. Try getting some DA sandpaper for sanding out the dirt nibs and imperfections. I would start with 800 and then go 1200, 1500, and finally 2000. You can go 3000 if you would like. Dry sanding with the DA is the That will make polishing a bit easier. Next, polishing with an orbital or DA (Dual Action) sander takes forever. You would be better of with a sander that spins like a grinder with no extra motion. You'll want something in the 1200-1750 RPM range. Grinders usually spin in the 3500 RPM range which will melt that finish right off, so RPMs is critical!! This will work much quicker. Always make sure the rotation of the pad is spinning "Off of the edge" and not into the edge, or you'll burn the edge and quite possible rip it from your hands and fling it across the room!! Also make sure you put you hair up so it doesn't get wound up in the polisher at 1750 RPMs. Saw that once and it was a bloody mess, and I don't mean "bloody" in the european sense of the word! LOL If you go to 2000-3000 grit when sanding, you won't need a "heavy cut" type of compound. It shouldn't have and grit to it. 3M products are the most common. Any bodyshop supply store will have all of these items in stock. You're drum looks and sounds amazing, as well as your playing!! Just built my first snare as well. It's a 6.5" Stave shell that I made from Sepele (Mahogany). I'll be making a lot ,more of them now!! Enjoy and thanks again for the video!!
Thanks for the tips mate! I do appreciate it and I like the idea of building a bit of a knowledge base here for people trying the same stuff. I must say finding knowledge on the internet for polishing was really difficult. The content I did find was American and being in Australia I couldn't find equivalent compounds, and the ones here didn't seem to have grit ratings on them. The store staff weren't super knowledgeable either. So it's valuable having input from a pro here, wish I knew this before I started! Your knowledge on the orbital sander certainly lines up too, I wasn't getting anywhere so quickly shifted to hand polishing which was more effective. Sounds like a cool project, are you making videos on your builds?
Looks awesome. Wasn’t sure about the shells from there. I bought so much stuff from DFD just wasn’t sure about the shells looks fantastic. Specially all done did a good job . I had the same issue with Polly. I didn’t care for it. Left Brush strokes and ran easy.
Thanks Jonathan - would recommend the shell, I think my finished product speaks for itself! What finish did you end up using? I would highly recommend cutting and polishing the poly to end up with that glass like finish.
Hey nice work. If you want to make life easier for yourself in the future, I'd suggest you go to your local Harbor Freight and pick up a couple of foam cutting/polishing pads. They're only about $8 a pop. I picked up a couple of the 6" pads for use on a 5" random orbit sander. I use them all the time on the guitars that I build, and you can get from 2000 grit to a nice, high gloss, glassy finish in seconds! That extra half inch of pad overhanging the sander's 5" pad is really useful for getting into the cutaways on guitars without bumping the more rigid pad of the sander into the finish. I even keep an old one around for polishing my brilliant finish cymbals! If you do use it for cymbals, don't plan on using it for anything else again, it will turn that pad into a black mess!
Thanks for the tip. I didn't have much luck with the microfibre pad I had. Have you compared both foam and microfibre and find one is more effective? There didn't seem to be too much info on the net about it.
The drum looked and sounded great at the end! i’d love to try doing something like that myself. Respect for not being discouraged and taking as much time is it to to get the finish looking right. I’m curious what made you want to go with a poly finish as opposed to like a brush or spray lacquer?
No particular reason, poly is probably just a little easier to work with. Also doesn't yellow over time like lacquer, although that's not so much an issue with a dark finish.
Nice job! This is more of a "finish and assemble" build (done well), but I'll bet you have the skill set to someday build a shell...that would be an actual "from start to finish" build.
Great job on getting that to look the way it does. It looks beautiful! I'm looking to do my own snare drum build and would love to use this technique. So without doing the corrective steps in the middle, first you would stain the shell, then what was the actual final step you used to polish it that worked? After you sanded you went to the polishing by hand. Sanding isn't necessary if you're not correcting dust marks and things of that nature, correct? So what I'm guessing, stain is step 1, polish with multi coats is step 2? Then drilling and mounting the hardware? Again, nice job on this drum!!!
Thanks mate! so the steps would be: 1. Stain 2. Apply 5 coats of oil based polyurethane, with a light sanding in between coats (600 grit) 3. Sand the final coat with wet and dry going from 600 -> 1200 -> 2000, 4. Use a car polish with an equivalent grit of 3000 or above with a cotton cloth. Someone else commented a foam buffing disc would work (my mistake was using a microfibre disc which didn't work I'd say it still necessary to sand between coats just to e=remove any imperfections and so the new coat of poly adheres to the previous coat
Did you create a snare bed? I’m in the process of converting a 10” Tom to a snare and was concerned about snare beds. Some videos say it’s absolutely necessary and others say otherwise.
Good point. It is fine for the edges to have stain/finish so long as it is applied evenly. I did check them before assembling the drum. If it was uneven I'd recommend a quick true up just to flatten it out.
Hey mate, for tension rod length, you take the height of the shell (6.5") minus the length of the lugs (say 4.5") divided by 2. (6.5-4.5) /2= 1". This is how much space there is either side of the lug to the top/bottom of the shell. I then usually add half an inch so you have enough thread on the tension rod, so I would use 1.5" tension rods.
If you want to get a true black on wood, try leather dye. Idk why, but most wood stain seems to have black pigments suspended in the solution, where black leather dye is BLACK. Try it, it works!
I would use wipe on poly no streaking. Also i would do all my markings and drilling first before staining and poly. Otherwise you gotta deal with scratching your beautiful finish . ✌️
Bro, I think that you would have gotten a better result if you used an air brush. Just my opinion, you still have a beautiful snare drum and sounds great. I really love that finish. Great job brother
Thanks Mike - you're right. My shed is however so dusty that regardless of the finishing application method I would have had dust specs, so cut and polish still required.
I'm wanting to make a snare drum out of 2 plys of Brazilian Rosewood and center ply of Sitka Spruce. However, the price for just the wood alone would be a fortune. So... I guess my idea will stay in dream mode.😢
@@nikgdrums also.... try 2 part clear apoxy resin....the type with a fast cure time, that will center objects , withing the containers that they are cast in.....[ vibrate and heat to remove bubbles].
Very cool. Looks and sounds fantastic. I've been wanting to restain my old Grestch Kit but I've been terrified of ruining the finish. I've never stained anything before. But maybe I can do this although I'm not sure how far I'd have to strip back the old finish and how to go about doing that.
Maybe try first on a cheap kit to build your confidence! I'd suggest a random orbital sander like I used should be fine to strip it back. You will need to strip it back all the way to the raw timber if you want a completely fresh look!
Hi Nik. Im a drummer and a woodworker. I do tons of lathe work and have wanted to build a snare for a long time. I am wondering what sound I would get turning one out of solid wood instead of building up 5 or 6 ply. Any thoughts on this?
Hi Ray, wow I'm sure you could put your talents to use on drum building. I think you'd have an excellent product, go for it. Another option is a stave construction. You'd save a bit of lathe time using this method, and still end up with a similar style shell.
Очень низко звучат обертона барабана,или ты так настроил его низко,или твой микрофон не пропускает высокие частоты,мне не понравилось! Малый Барабан должен звучать феерично, чётко,что бы были слышны все обертона,от высоких средних,и низких частот,вишня не то дерево из которого можно делать Snare Drums!!!)))
I like that you use metric units so most ppl in the world will understand what you were doing
Only bc I live in Australia!
@@nikgdrums well at least you live in a normal place lol
Sadly those Americunts refuse to make the upgrade to metric units
Wowwwww! Now I have to build one. Thanks man for all that knowledge
Snare sounds fabulous.
amazing polishing!!
Great job, man! The snare is beautiful and sounds great. I’ve been thinking about building a snare for several years now. Your video has inspired me to actually do it. Thanks again!
Thanks so much. Good luck on your build!
I love the part where he admits he's a drum addict XD Love that aussie wit
Nik, you really have a thing of beauty right there. Very nice build.I'm sorry that you had to re-do the finish so many times, but your end result in fantastic. Sounds really nice too. I love how you planned out the build, very very nice.
Thanks Steve! Eh it's part of the journey - and a lesson learned for next time!
Beautiful looking drum
Thank to share this video! ❤ Fantastic job! Greetings from Italy 🇮🇹
Splendid build! It is pretty sounding. Congratulations.
Wow… just such a stellar job. Bravo!
Great job dude.... epic
Excellent point to check the holes against the actual lug. I’m a professional trim carpenter and when I’m attaching cabinet handles I always do that EVERY SINGLE TIME before drilling.
Absolutely!... as my high school design teacher always said "measure twice, cut once"
Gorgeous build.
Great work man! Really took some dedication to put gloss finish, but the result is awesome!
Gorgeous finish dude!!
Nice looking. You never once mentioned anything about a snare bed. I just finished another snare drum build myself. A 6.5X14” copper shell from WorldMax with black nickel hoops, tension rods & tube lugs from DFD, and a black nickel SB1 throw-off & butt plate from INDe! I also put on PureSound 20 strand Blasters, and REMO Ambassador Hazy & Coated heads!! My next build will be a 15 ply maple shell from Keller!!
Sounds like a cool build Johnny! Are you happy with the sound? For the record, the shell had snare beds already shaped in, and I just had to make sure I orientated the snare throw-off correctly.
@@nikgdrums , I’ve used the drum a couple times at rehearsal. Next Saturday I’ll use the drum at a gig! So far I love the tone! My first copper snare drum! After the 15 ply maple build, I think I’ll do a bronze shell. Thanks for sharing your video’s!! Cheers!!
@@JohnnyQ714 Nice, nothing like breaking it in at the first gig. Goodluck on your future builds
Nicely done!!
Dude, niiiiiice job and a great sound! 👍🏾
Thanks so much!
Nice job with the description of how to build this drum. I have a few tips if you don't mind. I painted high end cars and custom bikes for 30+ years. Try getting some DA sandpaper for sanding out the dirt nibs and imperfections. I would start with 800 and then go 1200, 1500, and finally 2000. You can go 3000 if you would like. Dry sanding with the DA is the That will make polishing a bit easier. Next, polishing with an orbital or DA (Dual Action) sander takes forever. You would be better of with a sander that spins like a grinder with no extra motion. You'll want something in the 1200-1750 RPM range. Grinders usually spin in the 3500 RPM range which will melt that finish right off, so RPMs is critical!! This will work much quicker. Always make sure the rotation of the pad is spinning "Off of the edge" and not into the edge, or you'll burn the edge and quite possible rip it from your hands and fling it across the room!! Also make sure you put you hair up so it doesn't get wound up in the polisher at 1750 RPMs. Saw that once and it was a bloody mess, and I don't mean "bloody" in the european sense of the word! LOL If you go to 2000-3000 grit when sanding, you won't need a "heavy cut" type of compound. It shouldn't have and grit to it. 3M products are the most common. Any bodyshop supply store will have all of these items in stock. You're drum looks and sounds amazing, as well as your playing!! Just built my first snare as well. It's a 6.5" Stave shell that I made from Sepele (Mahogany). I'll be making a lot ,more of them now!! Enjoy and thanks again for the video!!
Thanks for the tips mate! I do appreciate it and I like the idea of building a bit of a knowledge base here for people trying the same stuff. I must say finding knowledge on the internet for polishing was really difficult. The content I did find was American and being in Australia I couldn't find equivalent compounds, and the ones here didn't seem to have grit ratings on them. The store staff weren't super knowledgeable either. So it's valuable having input from a pro here, wish I knew this before I started! Your knowledge on the orbital sander certainly lines up too, I wasn't getting anywhere so quickly shifted to hand polishing which was more effective. Sounds like a cool project, are you making videos on your builds?
Looks awesome. Wasn’t sure about the shells from there. I bought so much stuff from DFD just wasn’t sure about the shells looks fantastic. Specially all done did a good job . I had the same issue with Polly. I didn’t care for it. Left Brush strokes and ran easy.
Thanks Jonathan - would recommend the shell, I think my finished product speaks for itself! What finish did you end up using? I would highly recommend cutting and polishing the poly to end up with that glass like finish.
Hey nice work. If you want to make life easier for yourself in the future, I'd suggest you go to your local Harbor Freight and pick up a couple of foam cutting/polishing pads. They're only about $8 a pop. I picked up a couple of the 6" pads for use on a 5" random orbit sander. I use them all the time on the guitars that I build, and you can get from 2000 grit to a nice, high gloss, glassy finish in seconds! That extra half inch of pad overhanging the sander's 5" pad is really useful for getting into the cutaways on guitars without bumping the more rigid pad of the sander into the finish. I even keep an old one around for polishing my brilliant finish cymbals! If you do use it for cymbals, don't plan on using it for anything else again, it will turn that pad into a black mess!
Thanks for the tip. I didn't have much luck with the microfibre pad I had. Have you compared both foam and microfibre and find one is more effective? There didn't seem to be too much info on the net about it.
Great job dude! Really enjoyed the video
The drum looked and sounded great at the end! i’d love to try doing something like that myself. Respect for not being discouraged and taking as much time is it to to get the finish looking right. I’m curious what made you want to go with a poly finish as opposed to like a brush or spray lacquer?
No particular reason, poly is probably just a little easier to work with. Also doesn't yellow over time like lacquer, although that's not so much an issue with a dark finish.
Yeah that’s a good point. Thanks for sharing this.
Nice job! This is more of a "finish and assemble" build (done well), but I'll bet you have the skill set to someday build a shell...that would be an actual "from start to finish" build.
Very well explained mate, well done. Mind if I copy?
Of course not! Exactly what this video is intended for
Great job on getting that to look the way it does. It looks beautiful! I'm looking to do my own snare drum build and would love to use this technique. So without doing the corrective steps in the middle, first you would stain the shell, then what was the actual final step you used to polish it that worked? After you sanded you went to the polishing by hand. Sanding isn't necessary if you're not correcting dust marks and things of that nature, correct? So what I'm guessing, stain is step 1, polish with multi coats is step 2? Then drilling and mounting the hardware? Again, nice job on this drum!!!
Thanks mate! so the steps would be:
1. Stain
2. Apply 5 coats of oil based polyurethane, with a light sanding in between coats (600 grit)
3. Sand the final coat with wet and dry going from 600 -> 1200 -> 2000,
4. Use a car polish with an equivalent grit of 3000 or above with a cotton cloth. Someone else commented a foam buffing disc would work (my mistake was using a microfibre disc which didn't work
I'd say it still necessary to sand between coats just to e=remove any imperfections and so the new coat of poly adheres to the previous coat
Thank you so much for that! I can't wait to give this a go myself.
Fantastic work
Looks and sounds great!
Nice job.
Did you create a snare bed? I’m in the process of converting a 10” Tom to a snare and was concerned about snare beds. Some videos say it’s absolutely necessary and others say otherwise.
what about all the stain and glop on the bearing edges?
Good point. It is fine for the edges to have stain/finish so long as it is applied evenly. I did check them before assembling the drum. If it was uneven I'd recommend a quick true up just to flatten it out.
How did you determine the tension rod length you needed? I’m interested in doing my own build
Hey mate, for tension rod length, you take the height of the shell (6.5") minus the length of the lugs (say 4.5") divided by 2. (6.5-4.5) /2= 1". This is how much space there is either side of the lug to the top/bottom of the shell. I then usually add half an inch so you have enough thread on the tension rod, so I would use 1.5" tension rods.
Did dfd do the snare beds? I didnt hear when they were done.
Yep they did
If you want to get a true black on wood, try leather dye. Idk why, but most wood stain seems to have black pigments suspended in the solution, where black leather dye is BLACK. Try it, it works!
Yes it kind of turned out more brown :D Will keep in mind for future projects
What was the budget for this? How much is necessary?
Probably added up to 650AUD. About 400 for the hardware, 150 for the shell, and 100 for skins, poly, brush etc.
You failed to mention anything about the snare bed?
You never addressed making snare beds on the shell, did you find it not necessary?
Oh yep - they were already pre-carved in by drumfactorydirect. I just had to make sure put the throw off on the right way!
I would use wipe on poly no streaking. Also i would do all my markings and drilling first before staining and poly. Otherwise you gotta deal with scratching your beautiful finish . ✌️
Wipe on is certainly an option. Little bit more time intensive is the trade off, to build up a thick coat.
Bro, I think that you would have gotten a better result if you used an air brush. Just my opinion, you still have a beautiful snare drum and sounds great. I really love that finish. Great job brother
Thanks Mike - you're right. My shed is however so dusty that regardless of the finishing application method I would have had dust specs, so cut and polish still required.
I really want to build a set of these but I also love my cheap little electronic set up for what I do. So torn
If noise and neighbours are an issue, definitely go electric.
Sounds great
I'm wanting to make a snare drum out of 2 plys of Brazilian Rosewood and center ply of Sitka Spruce. However, the price for just the wood alone would be a fortune. So... I guess my idea will stay in dream mode.😢
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Maybe next time you'll spray instead of that prehistoric method. Finally turned out ok though.
bubbles.... use a small torch to get rid of those...[dont burn nuthin].
That's a good tip. There were also dust imperfections too, so sanding was necessary.
@@nikgdrums also.... try 2 part clear apoxy resin....the type with a fast cure time, that will center objects , withing the containers that they are cast in.....[ vibrate and heat to remove bubbles].
nice fat sound
Very cool. Looks and sounds fantastic. I've been wanting to restain my old Grestch Kit but I've been terrified of ruining the finish. I've never stained anything before. But maybe I can do this although I'm not sure how far I'd have to strip back the old finish and how to go about doing that.
Maybe try first on a cheap kit to build your confidence! I'd suggest a random orbital sander like I used should be fine to strip it back. You will need to strip it back all the way to the raw timber if you want a completely fresh look!
Hi Nik. Im a drummer and a woodworker. I do tons of lathe work and have wanted to build a snare for a long time. I am wondering what sound I would get turning one out of solid wood instead of building up 5 or 6 ply. Any thoughts on this?
Hi Ray, wow I'm sure you could put your talents to use on drum building. I think you'd have an excellent product, go for it. Another option is a stave construction. You'd save a bit of lathe time using this method, and still end up with a similar style shell.
Spray finish sir...
Очень низко звучат обертона барабана,или ты так настроил его низко,или твой микрофон не пропускает высокие частоты,мне не понравилось! Малый Барабан должен звучать феерично, чётко,что бы были слышны все обертона,от высоких средних,и низких частот,вишня не то дерево из которого можно делать Snare Drums!!!)))