Drum Shelves

NC68

Senior Member
I have several drum kits and when not in use between gigs they tended to be scattered about my "drum room". While I could store some of them in cases I thought that shelves may be a better option.

Before:

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After:

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Those look great. Are they 2x4's, 2x6's or something else? I have a shelf unit I built from 2x4's that holds all my stuff and up off the floor. Very handy.
 
Those look great. Are they 2x4's, 2x6's or something else? I have a shelf unit I built from 2x4's that holds all my stuff and up off the floor. Very handy.

Thank you dmacc. The sides are 2x6's with 2x4 bracing at the top and bottom. The braces were notched out for added strength and stability. The "shelves" that hold the drums are 2x3's with carpet padding and carpet wrapped around them and a aluminum threshold plate to cover the seams. Two chair brackets were used at each end to attach them to the frame. Everything was screwed-and-glued. All screws holding the frame were counter sunk and puttied/sanded/painted over to hide the screw heads. They are very sturdy and probably overbuilt.
 
Nice work! Look at all the room you have now for more stuff!!

I like having my different kits on shelves too.
It makes it very easy to take what I need, put something else back, and it's not all over the place, just stacked up.
 
Great work! :) The design makes a lot of sense too, accommodating different drum sizes = cool :)

Your drum room looks a similar shape to mine, with the sloping ceiling flanks. How do you find it for sound? Mine sucks :( Way too dry/dead, & I strongly suspect the sloping & low ceiling is mostly responsible. That sucks on two levels - 1/ I can't do anything to change it, & 2/ I'm meant to be converting it to a (modest) drum showroom!

Might just steal your shelf design though. Looks cool, & space efficient too :)
 
Thanks for the comments.

The room is actually very live - too much so in fact. I'm looking at acoustic panels to bring it down a bit.

Feel free to steal the shelf design. It was based off of a few ideas I saw around the web. They really have worked out great. If you want measurements I can provide some guidelines. One item I didn't account for was the width or depth of the shelves as you face them. I built them in the garage and when it came time to move them up the stairs and into the room I almost couldn't fit them through the door openings, (I had to take the doors off of the hinges). So if you are building them and then moving them keep those types of things in mind.
 
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Good stuff.............would love to do something similar...............but I'm afraid my kids would use them as a jungle gym.......................maybe in a few more years
 
I've had a few requests for details on the shelves. Feel free to use and interpret and/or modify as necessary. Posted here for reference should others decide to build something similar in the future. Feel free to PM me if you have specific questions or want a larger drawing. You could probably make them wider to an extent. If you make them too wide the cross members may sag. The dimensions shown worked very well with no sag and are very stable.

Here is the basic drawing for one shelf unit:

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Some things to note. The side boards and caps at the top and bottom are 2"x6", (sorry - not sure of the equivalent for our European friends). It's difficult to tell but there is a 2"x4" at the front and back at the bottom and also at the back, top that span the width of the unit. These were lap joined to the 2"x6"'s. All joints were glued and screwed. The screws were counter sunk and puttied and sanded over prior to painting. The 2"x4" cross braces were used to add rigidity to the unit rather than relying solely on the 2"x3" cross members that were used front and rear to cradle the drums. Also note that the drawing shows the front bottom leg angled and not flush with the floor. The actual shelf unit is flush with the floor so full contact of the front, bottom of the 2"x6" is realized. The approximate angle of the front 2"x6" is 15 degrees from the 90. The top 2"x6" end caps are also flush with the front leg, (pictures show this below).

An example of a lap joint can be seen below:

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A few pictures of the end caps at top and bottom:

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Regarding the 2"x3" cross members that are used front and back that cradle the drums:

After the frame of the unit was built I found the best way to determine the location of the 2"x3" cross members that cradle the drums was to use small wood blocks and clamps along with the approximate range of drum diameter that would potentially occupy the shelf in question. To keep the center of gravity low and to utilize the natural contour of the frame, larger (bass) drums go at the bottom followed by floor toms in the middle and rack toms at the top. Due to individual needs of each drummer you will need to plan and adjust accordingly, (e.g., a 26 inch bass drum user will need to make adjustments as well as a 20 or 18 inch bass drum user). The frames I made accommodate 22 to 24 inch bass drums at the bottom, 13, 14, 15, 16 inch toms in the middle and 10, 12 and 13 inch toms at the top.

Here is an example of how to gauge the position of where your 2"x3" cross members should go, (this is shown on the outside of the shelf unit as they are already built - do the same on the inside of the frame when building yours):

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Some important things to keep in mind when positioning each shelf:

1. For the lowest shelf make sure that it is high enough to give you a few inches of clearance from the floor. Should water or something else contaminate your drum room you don't want your bass drums soaking it up.

2. Pick a drum head that will be fairly representative of the range of drum sizes you plan on storing for that particular shelf. For example, I used a 15" head for my middle shelf and then made sure a 13" head or drum would work there as well as a 16" drum.

3. If you can, position all three shelves and then gauge the clearance when you remove a drum from a particular shelf. This is not important for the top shelf but for say the bottom and middle shelf you will find that you need to lift the drum up and out as the drums are truly cradled like a new born baby...shhh...don't wake the baby. If the shelf above is too low then you won't be able to get any drums in or out and that will suck.

4. Examine the angle of how the drums on a particular shelf is cradled. The last thing you want is the drum to somehow roll out and onto the floor. It would have to be pretty badly angled for this to happen but its worth mentioning.

Here is a picture of the bottom most shelf with one of the two bass drums removed:

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As far as the 2"x3" cross members they are wrapped for nearly the entire width with carpet padding and then carpet. I was fortunate enough to have some left over carpet that was used to carpet the drum room so it matched which was a nice touch. I simply wrapped and stapled the padding around the circumference of the 2"x3" and then did the same with the carpet. To give it a finished look I nailed in a similarly colored aluminum carpet threshold plate to cover the seams.

Each cross member is attached to the frame using two aluminum decorative "chair brackets" as can be seen in the pictures below:

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I think that's about it. If I could change one thing it would have been to lower the rear cross member that bolsters the top of the shelf frame. Due to its location the top shelf is limited to smaller drums. Not that I would want or should put anything very large up so high but a 14" snare bumps that rear brace. The picture below shows it's location. The 12 inch tom in the picture just clears hitting the rear brace:

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Not a big deal and I still get plenty of use out of that top shelf.

Yes - a very long post but I want to make sure anyone who wants to take this on has all of the necessary information to make it a success. If you do build them please let me know how they came out and any lessons learned from the process.

Thanks and happy building!
 
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Beautiful work there, really classes up the room. Now it looks like the equipment room for some high end studio.

I'm too clumsy with tools to attempt this project on my own but I have been thinking of getting some store bought shelves to organize my drum room. At the very least it'll make the wife happy.
 
Yes - a very long post but I want to make sure anyone who wants to take this on has all of the necessary information to make it a success. If you do build them please let me know how they came out and any lessons learned from the process.

Thanks and happy building!
Bruce, thank you so much for putting this up, & sharing information so generously. This is a huge help for anyone contemplating such a build, & your design + execution is superb. I'm needing to build something similar, although primarily for snares, & your build is both an inspiration & a pleasure to see. Fantastic!

Cheers, Andy.
 
Thanks to everyone for the positive comments. Much appreciated.

Please Note:

I don't know what I was thinking but 2"x3" boards were used for the cross members that cradle the drums NOT 1"x3" as previously described and reflected on the drawing. Corrections to the post text and drawing have been made. My apologies to anyone who may have purchased 1"x3" boards, (although highly doubtful anyone built these in the last 19 hours).
 
I'm blown away by what you've given us here, even if it did have to be revised. Definitely going to build one of these - well, prevail upon my son-in-law to build it, more likely.

Thanks!
 
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