Serial Number 022-003

Bubinga Snare Drum

Started on February 13, 2024: completed on March 2, 2024

This drum is to make up for the last drum I built. I wasn’t too pleased with all the issues I had with the building process of SD002.

The last drum got borked because of two things: 1) I used a secondary measurement – the staves outer width is supposed to be 0.237″ and a secondary measurement of 0.25″ – meaning that was the rounded measurement which I tried. It may not seem a lot but when added up, it makes a difference to the overall dimensions

2) The other issue I was facing and am still facing with SD003 is cuts that aren’t straight…on the table saw. It’s really weird because these are with the bevel cuts and some times, there would be a joggle/second angle on the cut. I still had this issue when cutting the bevels on SD003 and made a second pass at a slower speed. This seemed to have remedied the issue but I had to cut a little more off the overall widths of the staves. I think I still have enough wood for the final dimensions but it may be close.

I made some modifications to the jig and got a better route. I still think it could be improved on but one thing at a time.

After one of my lunch meetings, Mike and Rod – my CNC guy and milling guy, respectively, came over to take a look at my setup. This was Rod’s first time here and he was suggesting some things to help make the route smoother/better. It is always good to have other opinions and suggestions, especially those from people that have experience in working machinery.

This drum was supposed to be made out of Purple Heart but Windsor Plywood still doesn’t have anything in stock. Good thing I bought a board of Bubinga the last time I was there. With how well the first Bubinga drum turned out, I figured it would be good to build a second one eventually.

With the assumption that I will manage to get my hands on some Purple Heart, the Wenge snare drum could be used for demo.

Overall, the installation of hardware went better on this snare drum but could have been better. Still a few more things to work out but the next snare drum will probably be the last if there is no interest in them.

SPECS

Body Bubinga

Diameter 14″ 

Depth 6″

Hoops generic no name

Lug Casings Gretsch double end

Tension Rods

Snare Strainer Drum Workshop

Snare Dixon 20 strand snare wires

Batter Head Evans G1 coated drum head

Snare Head Evans snare side head