I repaired a bass drum shell

With the coronavirus epidemic these days, it has become difficult to go out. Now that we spend so much time at home, I think many people have time to maintain and organizing their musical instruments. I've always been out on my days off shopping and playing music as a hobby, so I had no time to mess around with my instruments at home. This time, I got to repair my broken bass drum while I had to stay at home due to the state of emergency. I’m going to show you a little bit of how I did it.

Broken shell
The broken shell is the reason why I couldn’t play this bass drum for while. It's a 7-ply shell, but as you can see in the picture, it's cracked and torn. It's a little difficult to see, but broken wooden pieces were pushed into the shell by the external impact, and the damaged parts have moved from their original places. First, use tweezers to remove the broken wooden pieces toget the shell back to the original thickness.

Glue the damaged parts
Next, I glued the cracked parts. I used a strong adhesive bond for this DIY project. Apply the bond by pouring it into the broken parts. I tried to fill in the damaged parts while mixing the broken wooden pieces. After gluing, I sandwiched it closed with clothespins so that the damaged parts would not expand.

Harden the bond
The note said it should take at least 5 days to harden the adhesive bond, but I left it for a week to be on the safe side.

File the cross section
Remove the excessive glue and shape it along the rim of the shell. I also used an electric file for the work. Do it carefully on especially the part where the drumhead touches, and file it until the cross section goes flat.

The picture on the right shows the drum with head stretched. It's a little hard to see, but the damaged parts are tightly attached to the head. I’m relieved that I could tune without any problem.

Another damaged part found It’s all done!! But not really… I noticed something else while working. Perhaps I’ve played this drum for a long time because the wood was partially cracked and jagged due to the tom holder detaching and reattaching. I also filed here.

This time I got it for sure! Finally, I set the drum and it’s all done.

How was it? When the pandemic calms down and I can play it in public, I hope this drum bangs like it used to. If you have any musical instruments that are lying at home, don’t miss this chance to try to fix them yourself.