Roberts Drum Company: Production Update #1

From the beginning, I had decided to produce this kit one drum at a time. Normally, a drum builder would do all the processes for each drum at the same time - like sand all the shells, wrap all the drums, drill all the drums etc. But I wanted to be able to give each individual drum the attention it deserved. This would also allow me to hone my building knowledge as the kit moved through the production process.

I started with the 9"x13" rack tom. It was the smallest drum (read - the least expensive to replace should anything go wrong) and required the least amount of hardware, assembly etc. It seemed like a good place to start. I started by taking stock of all the materials I had rec'd - to ensure that I was not missing any important parts. Turns out that the suppliers I used were on the money - I was not missing a single thing!

The first thing that needs to be done is shell sanding. I took an afternoon and sanded all the shells (the only production process that I performed on all three drums together). The sanding is done to enable the finishing process (wrap on the outside and a satin oil finish on the inside) to be completed later during production. Once I was satisfied with the feel of the shells, I moved on to wrapping the outside of the shell with the Silver Sparkle wrap.

I learned that wrapping the shell(s) is not quite as easy as I anticipated. No matter how much time I spent lining up the wrap, it always ended up just a bit crooked where the two ends of the wrap overlapped. However, I was able to trim up this slight misalignment with my utility knife to make the overlap look more uniform.

After wrapping the shell comes layout for drilling. Here's where all the high school and college math comes in handy. I measured and marked all of my holes to be drilled, then double and triple-checked them. Then checked them again against all of the hardware to be installed.

Once the layout was done, drilling begain. Going slow and steady is the key here. That and starting with a small drill bit and gradually increasing the bit size until you get to the desired sized hole. This took a while - but I ended up with the perfect sized holes for all the hardware.

The result? The drum assembled with no problems what-so-ever! I decided to do a few small things during assembly to make these drums "that much better". Things like using Locktite on the hardware screws so that the hardware fittings wont loosen up over time. And packing the lugs with cotton pieces, to ensure a pure tonality from each drum. The tom took about an hour to assemble. The last part of the assembly process before putting on the drumheads is the badge installation. I affixed the badge to the drum using contact cement - then reinforced it with the air vent grommet - for a very vintage vibe.

Check out these photos for a step-by-step view of the rack tom production: