Drilling around old holes

[tugnut]

I have new pearl bass drum spurs. My old spurs only needed 3 holes for mounting. The pearl spurs need 4. My only concern is weakening the area where the spurs go due to drilling new holes around the old ones. Anyone have an experiences with this? My kit is a custom Epek out of regina saskatchewan canada. I am not sure what kind of spurs they were shipped with. Anyways any help opinions would help. I am comfortable with drilling the holes I'm just worried about the shell becoming weak.

[harryconway]

Simplest way to plug small holes is buy a dowel the correct size of the hole. A shade bigger will always work, you can sand that down to fit snug. A shade smaller, however, will not work. Make your plugs, and glue them into place. If you're lucky, the new spurs will cover the old holes, and from outward appearance, no one will be the wiser.

[rmandelbaum]

You can dowel them in, that is very permanent. Another option I have thought about many times is this:
Take a piece of shell material. cut it in the shape of the new spurs backing plate

Then you drill it to the new spurs counter sinking the holes from the back. Make these the correct size to tap so the screws can the threaded through. This will stop them from turning when you connect the spurs later

Drill to the old holes counter sinking from the front.

Place a gasket between the adapter and the shell to protect the shell from scratching.

Then run the screws from the back to the front in and screw the adapter the the shell.

The use nuts to secure the spur to the adapter.

This would look clean and not do any permanent change to your shell which would lower it's resale value ;-)

[tugnut]

thanks guys i will look into it a bit more thn post the results

[Deathmetalconga]

Sound advice so far. Doweling will hide the holes but the strength won't be as great as a whole shell. If possible try to re-use at least one hole from the old spurs.

I wouldn't worry about it too much since it's a drum and will be sitting down most of the time. It's not subjected to large amounts of stress.

[tugnut]

how bout this,
what if I rotated the drum say 10 degrees and drilled holes in a new area. I really don't care too much for aesthetics. The drum will still look fine to me. What do you guys think about that? I guess my vent hole would be slightly off but aside from that its still the same drum no?

[harryconway]

If that's the case, I'd spin the drum 180 degrees, so the bottom panel remains the bottom. The old holes will now be located batter side, where it'll be hard to see. Swap heads, with your new spurs reso. end, you're good to go.

[rmandelbaum]

I would dowel before doing that.

Here is some doweling I just did. This was the spur holes on a vintage TAMA Superstar.

http://robertmdrums.com/images/tama_restoration/spur.JPG

[tugnut]

did you take the wrap off ? looks pretty slick. that's a pretty big hole to cover up.
I like the idea of rotating it 180 degrees. So I just cut the dowel, wood glue it in and thats it eh. Any old drill would work for the drilling right? If I seem anal about all this it's just because I don't want to screw up the kick.

[rmandelbaum]

The large hole is not dowel, it is a plug I cut out of a piece of shell scrap.

Here is the thread on what I am doing

http://drummerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43481


You always run the risk of blowing out the the shell when you drill. If you are careful and do it correctly you will be OK.

Place masking tape on the inside of the shell where you are going to drill.

find a scrap of wood and press it against the spot you are drilling as well

Use a sharp bit and go slow,

[Deathmetalconga]

I would dowel before doing that.

Here is some doweling I just did. This was the spur holes on a vintage TAMA Superstar.

http://robertmdrums.com/images/tama_restoration/spur.JPG

Very good work.
twenty