New iron cobras = useless tama....

Yeah, you're probably right. Could it just be cheap metal?

Could be, or it might be improperly hardened/tempered for the intended task. It could even be just one or two batches from an otherwise reputable supplier that were not up to snuff. Hard to say.
 
I never broke a pedal spring, but I've been around a couple that did. I've broken several springs in different equipment, mostly on doors of tape decks. It's usually the eye hook that breaks.

Maybe heavy tension of the spring with it's continual stretching has something to do with it. I run my pedals fairly light.

Dennis
 
are you putting max tension on your springs, and burying the beater into your bass drum (thus creating a lot more tension on your spring)?

if so fix your technique, if not so unlucky bud. i think they're like $5 for new springs though

O.P. hasn't responded. I'm with Uniin on this one. I see so many pedals set up way past 90 degrees to contact the batter. I would bet a shiny buffalo nickle that is what happened here. I've been bashing Metal sets most of my drumming life and have never broken a spring or batter head. However, it is quite possible you had a deffective spring with porosity defects in the metal from manufacturing.
 
Oh, I never even thought about the angle that the beater is hitting the bass drum. But mine can't be more than 100 degrees. I'm not sure how I would fix that anyway, as the pedal board can only go so far up against the bass drum hoop. And like I said, the tension setting is in the middle, probably closer to the looser side. I guess I'll be working on letting the beater rebound. It gives a better sound that way, too, so I have two good reasons to improve my technique.
 
You could look at it this way, with the Tamas, you're only replacing a $2 part. If you have DW pedals, you'll eventually replace that $30 hinge between the pedal and the heel plate. Not a bad trade-off, I say ;)
 
Karl mentioned replacing that hinge, now you Bo. Is there something I'm not aware of regarding the life expectancy of those hinges? I just don't see how they could fail, under normal playing. Do the castings crack or something?
 
Karl mentioned replacing that hinge, now you Bo. Is there something I'm not aware of regarding the life expectancy of those hinges? I just don't see how they could fail, under normal playing. Do the castings crack or something?

If you look at the design evolution of the DW pedal from the old Camco design, you'll notice it began as a relatively simple door hinge. Over time, my old hinges became loose because the hinge part became wider as you worked the pedal over time, causing it to be replaced because you couldn't tighten it up. I've seen hinges bend at the connection point to the bottom of the pedal plate - it's really the only goofy design flaw of the Camco. This is why we've seen DW bulk up their pedals, and create the delta hinge, their answer to a weak design flaw.

If you look at the Tama Camco pedal, what they did to improve it was to eliminate the separate hinge. The foot pedal has a notch cut out of the bottom of it, and the heel has a protruding piece that fits into the footpedal notch. They then simply put a hardened steel rod through the heel and footpedal. I've never had a problem with this design and it's simpler and eliminates a piece to the pedal! It cuts down on weight and allows the pedal to be cheaper at the point of sale.

It's funny that DW really sold the ol' 5000 on it being light and it giving you the ability to fly on it. Fast forward 30 years and now the DW5000 and 9000 are about the biggest and heaviest we've ever used.
 
I wanted to replace the standard hinge with the Delta. Wanted to, not had to.
Just like the action better with the Delta.

The "problems" were because of Loc-Tite, not wear haha!

The OP just needs to use a heavier duty spring. The springs that come standard most pedals seem kinda flimsy, but that's me.

I have DW's HD springs on all my Eliminators. The oldest 2 are over 5 yrs old, newest probably 3 yrs. No Problems, never stretch as far as I can feel.
 
After having my Rolling Glide double for 10 months, the right pedal spring broke. A little better than 6 weeks, but I'm still kind of disappointed. I mean, how common is it for springs to break?...

If you're a gigging drummer, spare pedal springs are just one of several items that are a must for the pocket in your stick bag. This is nothing to do with Tama, or DW, or anyone else who supplies springs with bass drum pedals. It's a replaceable engineering part - sometimes you get millions of cycles, sometimes you only get thousands, but everything eventually breaks or wears out. It just so happens you got thousands with this one. Replace it with the correct spring, you'll probably get millions out of the next one - but if it breaks in a similar period of time then there may be a problem with the pedal setup.
 
Never had a problem with mine and had it a few years, and I often, but not always, bury the beater (I prefer to say I don't release it, bury it implies I'm constantly trying to impale the drum). I have the spring pretty loose though.. I can only imagine yours was as tight as it could go?

I am going to start taking a spare spring to gigs with me now though just in case!
 
Thanks flurbs, that makes a lot of sense.

Out of curiosity, I measured the amount of thread below the "spring tight" mechanism for further clarification on my tension settings. If you other Iron Cobra owners don't mind, it would be great to see a comparison.

This is a stock photo showing what I measured (red rectangle). Mine comes in at 3/16".
 

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Thanks flurbs, that makes a lot of sense.

Out of curiosity, I measured the amount of thread below the "spring tight" mechanism for further clarification on my tension settings. If you other Iron Cobra owners don't mind, it would be great to see a comparison.

This is a stock photo showing what I measured (red rectangle). Mine comes in at 3/16".

Mine is about the same as the photo, probably a bit looser than that even.
 
Actually the hinge on the cobras can break...


mine just has, but it is the bearings that have failed, not the hinge mechanism itself.

I'm being told by my dealer that you cannot get just the bearings, you have to buy the whole board. does anyone have any info on this?

Aaron
 
Ugh, I just got a Power Glide DB and so far I'm not liking it.

Going from being able to do quick doubles successively for a duration of time to really struggling to be able to do it consistently. Just not feeling right at all. Been adjusting it the whole past two days and just haven't been able to find a setting that feels right. I'll give it more time but so far I am pretty disappointed, I play better on a piece of shit Alesis pedal I have. Kind of wishing I had just bought the Falcons.
 
If you look at the design evolution of the DW pedal from the old Camco design, you'll notice it began as a relatively simple door hinge. Over time, my old hinges became loose because the hinge part became wider as you worked the pedal over time, causing it to be replaced because you couldn't tighten it up. I've seen hinges bend at the connection point to the bottom of the pedal plate - it's really the only goofy design flaw of the Camco. This is why we've seen DW bulk up their pedals, and create the delta hinge, their answer to a weak design flaw.

If you look at the Tama Camco pedal, what they did to improve it was to eliminate the separate hinge. The foot pedal has a notch cut out of the bottom of it, and the heel has a protruding piece that fits into the footpedal notch. They then simply put a hardened steel rod through the heel and footpedal. I've never had a problem with this design and it's simpler and eliminates a piece to the pedal! It cuts down on weight and allows the pedal to be cheaper at the point of sale.

It's funny that DW really sold the ol' 5000 on it being light and it giving you the ability to fly on it. Fast forward 30 years and now the DW5000 and 9000 are about the biggest and heaviest we've ever used.


Yeah the delta hinge is one of the best footboard hinges out there imo....the weak link with the 5000's are the rocker hub...just about as cheap as they get. Has anyone tried the canopus speed bearing that replaces the rocker hub? I wanted to try one but 60 bucks is a bit steep when compared to the 4 dollar rocker hub....I may start a new thread on the speedstar...
 
Happened with my brand new mapex falcon. They sent replacements. Not that big a deal, just gotta keep spares I guess.

My 13 year old iron cobra springs are still going strong.
 
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