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Builder Blog:Anatomy of a Vintage Stave Shell

July 13, 2010
Day 6

Day 6

Final Assembly

Now that the lacquer has cured the shell is drilled for lugs, strainer, butt, vent and badge.

Here is the shell with all hardware attached awaiting hoops, heads and tension rods.

The finished drum ready to ship!

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July 9, 2010
Day 5

Day 5

Finishing

After a final sanding and general "once-over" the shell heads to the spray booth to get started on the finishing process.

Above the lacquer sanding-sealer is spray applied to both the interior and exterior.

After the sealer is applied the shell is left to dry for 15-20 minutes, sanded with 320 grit and a second coat is applied.

After two applications of sealer and another round of high grit sanding, the shell begins to get the final lacquer top coats.

In between the final two coats a waterslide decal with the drum's serial number will be placed inside the shell.

Here we see the finished shell ready for hardware. After the lacquer has completely cured it will be assembled and shipped to its owner.

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July 7, 2010
Day 4

Day 4

Edges and Beds

After we've established our square and true edges(see blog day #3) we now move to the router table to put our bearing edges on. We use a 45 degree chamfer bit to establish our inside edge and a roundover bit to do the exterior counter cut. Due to the nature of the staves end grain configuration this takes multiple passes to get a nice smooth chatter-free edge.

Next we mark the best spot on the shell for the snare beds and put the shell on our bed jig. This jig allows for precise repetitive shaping of our standard gentle sweeping snare bed.

Above we see the freshly cut beds. From here they will be sanded smooth and all sharp edges slightly eased.

From here the shell will get a final sanding before being sent to the spray booth to begin final finishing.

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June 23, 2010
Day 3

DAY 3

Re-ring ply cutting and installing

Now that the shell has been completely machined and sanded we will be cutting our shop-made 2-ply re-rings. We're using a 5/4 piece of Padauk that is roughly 60" long and 2 1/2" wide. This gives us plenty of material to resaw into the 4 ply slices we need. Above is a picture of the first ply being cut on the bandsaw.

Above you can see the nice straight consistent 3/32" slice coming off the bandsaw.

3 more to go!

Here we see the glue up of the re-rings. Glue, clamp, rinse and repeat.

Here's the shell with both rerings installed(below). We will now add the second ply and then clean up, size and sand the re-rings.

Close up detail of the installed re-ring and edge.

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June 22, 2010
Day 2

DAY 2

Now that the shell has been glued and clamped overnight it is ready for the machining process. It is chucked into our machine and rough shaped to a size slightly larger than the finished diameter.

Next the shell is hand sanded progressively through grits 60, 80, 100 & 120. This not only smooths out the shell's exterior readying it for finishing but also dials in the final exact diameter.

Now the shell is taken to the saw and both edges are squared up to the shell and the final finshed height is established.

Above you can see the freshly cut edges that have been squared at the saw and trued on a granite sanding table. Notice the interior still needs shaping.

The squared up shell is then placed into the machine and the interior is rough shaped to the proper thickness which in the case of the Vintage Stave shells is 1/4". It is then cleaned up with a spindle sander and then hand sanded up to 120.

Here we see the finished shell now ready for the re-rings to be inserted.

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June 21, 2010
Cutting, Glue-up and Machining

We are currently working on a Padauk 7"x14" Vintage Stave Shell snare for a very special new Heirloom Family member. On corresponding with the customer we decided to take the construction, finishing and assembly public by making a "Builder Blog" of the drum's progress from start to finish. So over the course of the next week or more we'll be updating the blog with pictures and some descriptions of the progress. Stay tuned and feel free to ask any questions that may crop up!

DAY 1

First, we start with a nice bright red straight-grained quartered piece of 4/4 Padauk(above). Due to the finished thickness of our Vintage Stave Shells (1/4") the plank is thickness planed to finish out at 5/8". This is about an 1/8" thinner than our standard shells start out at.

Next, the plank is ripped into the proper width for a 14" snare and the appropriate angle for the 20 piece shells we produce(above). The accuracy of both the angle and width of each piece are absolutely critical to the final dimensions of the drum. If either is even slightly off the shell will not work.

Finally, the pieces are carefully laid out for best grain and color matching and then glued together and band clamped to rest for the day(above).

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