How do you make a homemade floor tom?

Answer 1

You need a shell. A popular size is 16x16--16 inches in both depth and diameter. Make sure it's got bearing edges cut into it; they cut an angle on the inside and outside of the rims of the shell so just a very thin ring of wood touches the head. It takes a special machine to do this, and there aren't many of them around. Keller shells are very easy to get and work great, so get that kind.

Next, you need a vent grommet. This lets air out of the drum, and the drum won't work right without it.

You will need two hoops. These hold your heads on. You can get wood hoops or metal ones.

If you buy wood hoops, you need lugs, tension rods, lug screws, lug gaskets, tension rod washers and bass drum claws. If you get metal hoops, the hoop has ears for the tension rods to pull down on, so you won't need bass drum claws. 16-inch drums use eight lugs per head. There is a "double ended floor tom tube lug" that will work well, and won't require you to buy a separate set of lugs for batter and resonant heads. We'll use that lug in this lesson.

You will need two drumheads. If you choose Remo, a Diplomat for the bottom and an Ambassador for the top are great. You will wear out the top head from playing it, but the bottom head will last until you die as long as you don't put a hole in it. If you're using anything but an Ambassador on top, put an Ambassador on the bottom. The deal is, you want the bottom head (the resonant head) to be thinner than the top head (the batter head) but not a huge amount thinner, or it'll sound weird. Don't get Kevlar heads. Those are for drumlines. You crank the tension WAY, WAY up and really wail on the thing, and you get that nice crack that reaches to the top of the stands in any football stadium...but you need a specially built drum to handle the tension without collapsing.

These are optional, but I would REALLY recommend putting reinforcing rings in your drums. Get 1-inch rings.

Because this is a floor tom you will need legs and brackets, three of each. You'll need screws and gaskets for the brackets.

And finally, you need a finish for the drum. You can paint it, varnish it, take it to a vehicle wrap shop and have a tiger print put on it--anything you like. Let's stain and varnish this one, so you'll need some sandpaper--from 220 down to 320 grit--a sanding block, a can of stain in a color you like, a can of varnish and some brushes and rags.

Tools: drill, sheet of posterboard, extremely precise measuring tools--DO NOT use daddy's 40-year-old tape measure with the end loose or missing, but an 18" steel ruler from an office supply store will work great--pencils to mark the shell with, a big protractor, drill bits, a screwdriver, a carpenter's speed square, a punch and a hammer. If you get reinforcing rings, you'll also need Elmer's carpenter's glue, a cheap paintbrush for spreading glue and 16 spring clamps. You will also need a 1" round dowel about 2 feet long.

Quick note: Mark the shell LIGHTLY! You want to get the marks off before you finish the drum.

The very first thing you are going to do is draw a horizontal line exactly bisecting the shell. On this one, that's 8 inches from either edge. I would go in 8 inches from one edge, draw one line, turn the shell around, go in 8 inches from the other edge and draw a second line. If you are extremely lucky you've only got one line on your drumshell. If you have two, choose one line and draw about eight arrows pointing to it labeled "this one!" Call this the Reference Line.

Next, draw two more horizontal lines around your shell 131mm to either side of the Reference Line. The screwholes on your lugs are 232mm apart.

Write "top of drum" on one edge of the shell, and "bottom of drum" on the other edge. Label the lines you drew in the last step "top of lug" and "bottom of lug." Set the drum with one of the bearing edges on the table and measure from the tabletop to the Top of Lug line. Write down the measurement. Flip the shell over and measure from the tabletop to the Bottom of Lug line. Write down this measurement. Subtract 13 mm from each measurement, and call the first one "top of drum ring, the other "bottom of drum ring." Go inside the drum and make two more horizontal lines: one "top of drum ring" from the top, and one "bottom of drum ring" from the bottom. Like if the "top of drum ring" measurement is 60mm, you measure up from the table 60mm and put the line there.

Next, take the posterboard and draw a straight line right down the middle of it. It doesn't matter which direction. Draw a straight line across it at exactly a 90 degree angle, then two more lines 45 degrees offset from those lines. All four lines must cross exactly in the center. This is very, very critical that you get this right. Measure the diameter of your shell, preferably in millimeters, and divide by two. If your shell is exactly 16" in diameter, you'll measure 408mm, which in half is 204mm. There are eight lines radiating from the center point on the posterboard; measure 204mm from the center on each line and make a mark. Set the shell on the posterboard and make a mark where each line comes out from under the shell, then use the speed square to make a line running straight up the side of the shell. Use your ruler to extend the line all the way up. Think of the spaces between these lines as segments.

Draw one more horizontal line on the shell, 75mm from the bottom. Mark this line "feet." Make a mark on the shell halfway between any two vertical lines. Draw two more marks on the shell. You could get nitpicky and put them 120 degrees apart, but what I would do is go three segments to either side of the mark you just made, divide each of those segments into three subsegments, call the subsegment closest to the first mark the "front" segment and the next one the "middle," and make a mark where the front segment touches the middle segment. Make vertical lines at those marks. Measure 24mm above and below the feet line and make marks on the vertical lines

Finally, go to the Reference Line. Measure halfway between any two vertical lines, and put a mark on the Reference Line. Try not to put it in the same segment of the drum as a leg is. It doesn't look so hot.

At this time you have completely marked your drum, so let's look at what we have done. The Reference Line is the vertical middle of the drum. The "top of lug" and "bottom of lug" lines are where you'll put the lug holes. Where the vertical lines cross the top-of-lug and bottom-of-lug lines is where you're going to drill the holes. The marks around the feet line are where the leg brackets will go, and the mark on the reference line is where the vent grommet goes. You need to be precise because, with what the parts for a drum cost, you want it to sound great and only through precision can you get that.

Anyway, your parts will tell you what sizes of holes you need, so start drilling. Before you drill each hole, clamp the dowel to the inside of the drum aligned with the hole, use the punch to make a starter hole and drill first a small hole (1/8" is fine) then the final hole, both into the dowel. The dowel will keep the wood from tearing out when the drill bit goes through.

When all the holes are done, sand the shell with 220 grit paper, in the direction of the wood grain, to get the marks off, then the 320 grit paper to make it super smooth. Use a cloth moistened in paint thinner to get the dust off, or maybe a tack cloth.

Next get one of your reinforcing rings and brush it lightly on the outside with glue. Put it into the shell so it's just at the bottom edge of the inside bearing edge. Apply eight clamps, turn the shell over and put in the other ring. Go away for at least a day.

Now apply a coat of oil based stain to the shell and let it dry for a day. Do this for two coats. Apply two or three coats of varnish to the shell, allowing to dry for a day between coats and let it dry for three days after the last coat.

Next, install all the hardware.

Put the bottom head on and tune it. The Remo Drumheads website tells you how.

Finally, put the top head on and tune that. Make sure it sounds like a part of your drumset when you're done tuning it.