How to recover your drums...

I advise against the double sided tape method. There are two things that can go wrong with this method; the wrap can bubble and stretch from temperature and it can buzz from looseness. Usually only low end drums are taped by manufacturers.

Precision Drum’s instructions use the “over-cover/cut or file off the excess method”, which is a real pain if you are not use to cutting pvc wrap off the drum with a knife or razor blade or a router. The easier DIY method is to use a piece of wrap shorter than the drum’s height. It is not necessary for the laminate to reach the edge of the drum because the head and hoop will cover the gap. Many drum companies use the gap method these days, especially Gretsch. We usually specify a 1/4″ gap at top and bottom, so order your covering 8.5″ x 13″ for a 9 x 13 drum. Cutting flat laminateis not hard on a flat surface with scissors or shears. It is very hard once on the drum.

Materials:

• Shop shears/heavy duty scissors if not precut
• drill w/1/4” bit
• utility knife/box cutter with new blades
• 2 long bungee cords or BIG rubber bands
• 4 alligator clamps
• foam brush for glue
• 3m clear contact cement, WilsonArtH20 contact cement
• regular pencil and long t square to mark lug lines
• Grease pencil for marking on wrap

What we do here is roll it on a stationary Drumwrapper roller, a machine that we manufacture but our method works as well on a flat table or, even better, on a horizontal pole like a 2×4 clamped to a table or bench. A heavy duty cymbal boom stand will work if stable. You will be working with the drum on its side so it can roll.

Warning:

For new shells, mark your lug and strainer and tom bracket lines and drill your holes BEFORE your cover the drum. Remember to mark an extra line ½ “ past the lug line where your seam will be. This will be your underlying piece’s starting place, the first place you glue.

Measuring:

Multiply the diameter of your drum by pi (3.1416) and add an inch and a half for the overlap. Do not try to butt joint the ends. It doesn’t work. This stuff shrinks with time and expands in high heat. For width subtract a half inch from the height of your drum.

Example: for a 10 x 14 drum (ht/dia.) the wrap will be 9.5 inches wide (height minus ¼” for top gap and ¼ inch for bottom gap). The length of the wrap will be 45.5 inches (14 inches x 3.1416 = 44, rounded off, plus an inch and a half for the overlap.

Full sheets come in 24” by 54” pieces. This is enough length to cover a 16” diameter drum, but not an 18” drum. Two pieces will be required for 18’ and up, and the smaller piece will sit at the bottom of the bass drum and will be overlapped by the longer piece on both ends so you will need 3” of overlap total. Measure so that the ends/seams of your long and short pieces are on a lug line. Place the seam 1/16th inch past the lug’s edge on lowest side of the lug.

Cutting:

Don’t remove the protective layer on the color side of the wrap until almost the end of the process. Lay the material flat as soon as you get it. Do not store it rolled up, especially glitters and sparkles. If you are cutting the full 24” x 54” sheets mark your lines with dark pencil on the underside, score with your utility knife and cut with shears/heavy duty scissors. You can also cut all the way through with the utility knife. If cutting with scissors you will have to curl the laminate forward on the left side of the scissors to get it out of the way to allow for a straight cut.

Wrap the inside top and bottom of the shell with wide masking tape and/or paper to cover the lug holes from the inside to keep glue drippings off the inside.

Gluing:

My gluing method is:

1. Clamp in the middle
2. Glue the underlying end and apply
3. Glue the overlapping end and apply

This cuts out half the chance of error in misalignment as opposed to working from one end to the other. Don’t let a little misalignment of the ends up to 1/16″ worry you. This is common, since no shell is absolutely round or square.

1. Mock it up. Before gluing anything, lay the laminate on the table, glitter/color surface down and lay the drum on top of it or if working on a suspended pole, place the shell on the pole with the seam mark facing down and place the wrap over it. Wrap the laminate tightly around the drum and make sure that it is lining up easily, with no gaps, bubbles, or slack. If you have some large rubber bands or bungee cords they will help. Put cloth around the metal pieces of the bungee cord to keep it from marring the laminate. If the shell is out of round then you will have to consider over-covering and cutting away the excess, but this usually only happens with old and/or really cheap drums.
2. Make sure you consider that the seam and lug are at the “back” of the drum as it appears when set up with the rest of the drumset; badge in front, seam in back. You may want to mark which lug was the seam point for the old covering before taking it off. You may want to change seam points on some drums considering how they look in your regular set up. Label the underlapping seam as “under” on the back side. You will glue this half from the center out first.
3. Once you have everything lined up, place two clamps in the center of the material, one at the top and one at the bottom, directly opposite the seam where the two ends will overlap.
4. Mark across the laminate and onto the shell where your clamps go. This doesn’t have to be square to the shell or perfectly in the center; it’s just a reference line. You can use a grease pencil or felt tip pen across the protective layer for a better visual. This will be your middle line up reference.
5. If you haven’t done so, draw a pencil line or grease pencil line on the shell along the edge for the underlying piece, ½ ‘ past the lug line where you want the seam . This is your “end of glue” line for that piece. You’ll have the tendency, once you start gluing, to want to recheck these marks to make sure it’s lined up. It hasn’t slipped on us yet. Apply glue to half the drum shell up to your pencil line and half the material (underlying side first). Either clamp the wrap piece back or put some kind of prop, a small piece of wood or something, between the drum and the plastic to keep it from rolling back and adhering accidentally. Let the glue dry for 30 to 45 minutes or until dry and hard, then press the material on to the shell three or four inches at a time with a cloth and press out the slack. The water based glue will come up from the wood or the laminate by just rubbing it strongly with your fingers or a cloth so don’t worry too much about overage.
6. Take off the clamps and repeat the gluing process with the overlapping half. Once you get to the underlying piece, pull back the clear protective layer a couple of inches and apply glue to it, use masking tape to mark your glue line.
7. Remove the inside protective paper/tape. Put tape back over any holes that you do not want to be drilled. Mark the holes in the wrap that need to be drilled out by pushing a push pin through from the inside. Drill from the outside with a ¼” bit (or whatever is appropriate)

Separate instruction for using the Drumwrapper laminate press/ rolling machine. Follow the instructions above for cutting and measuring.

What makes the Drumwrapper more efficient is that you are able to insure exact alignment of the wrap on the shell and apply even firm pressure during the alignment and the gluing steps. Also you are able to work with the drum in the same position without moving it and the frame of the machine allows you to pin back the laminate and keep it away from the shell while both glued surfaces are drying.

1. Open the gate by removing the two black knob screws and letting the hinge down. The top roller should be backed up from the bottom roller by at least an inch.
2. Insert the shell through the gate and lay on the bottom roller. Line the shell up square with the roller and place the seam closest to the floor. Close the gate and reinsert the screws.
3. Insert the laminate piece on top of the shell and line up the underlying piece with your seam lines that you drew on your shell. Remember , underlying piece goes past the lug line and overlapping piece goes on the lug line or just past it to the edge of the lug.
4. Get your laminate lined up roughly on the ends and the edges. Bring the top roller down by turning both top handles simultaneously to put even pressure on the laminate. Not too tight. It doesn’t require a lot of pressure. Look form the side to check that there is an equal amount of daylight on either side of the shell. This is not crucial but get it as close as you can to keep the shell from travelling sideways when rolling.
5. Roll the shell back and forth from end to end to see if the laminate is lined up. It may take several repositionings to get it just right. Check to make sure that the shell and laminate are not skewing or getting out of alignment with successive turns of the rollers. If so your shell might not be square with the rollers or your pressure might not be even.
6. Once you have everything lined up, roll the shell with the underlying seam line at about 8:00, pin back the underlying end of the laminate to the top of the machine’s I beam with clamps and begin gluing that half of the drum and that half the laminate. You will need to roll the shell down again a little further to finish gluing up to the halfway point. You may even want to go to the 2/3 point to make the other side’s gluing a one step process. You may also need to repin your laminate on the frame to get it out of the way. The glue takes about twenty minutes to a half hour to set up and get hard. A fan makes this dry faster. Make sure to glue every bit of the laminate including under the clamps.
7. Roll the first glued half through the machine, then repeat the process from the other side of the machine with the second half, remembering to mark your glue line on the underlying piece. Voila, you have put new skin on the cat!
8. Clean glue off the machine’s rollers with soap and water. It that doesn’t do it you can try a mild solvent like Goof Off or try rubbing the glue off with your fingers

Note: use only 3m fastbond water based contact cement.