Cymbal Repairs / Mods

Wavelength said:

Really nice! I have an 18" BBR au naturelle (which I like), and that mod made a huge difference! How does the radially lathed bell compare to a circularly lathed one?

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Thanks for the kind words.

The bell is hand scraped and in comparison to a standard lathing pattern, tends to add a bit more complexity to the higher frequency band which is emitted from that area of the cymbal. The difference is quite subtle though.

been reading some of the replys & am wondering if drilling a cracked cymbal is the best option(other than buying new)i have a crack on the edge of my 16" PST5 & it sounds like shit!!(crack is about 2cm)
also,what is the best way to drill?
is there certain point's,drill bit's(normal,titanium,gold plated?)size's?
im an idiot & cant yet afford a replacement.

akasticks said:

based on the great responses in this thread, i turned a cracked 16" Sabian XS20 crash into a 14.5" crash, and it sounds great!!! I also cut down a Sabain XS20 China into a 10" splash, and supprisingly it sounds really good, probably because it is a lot thinner than a crash cymbal.

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The guitar player just cracked my top Hi-hat cymbal...
I assume since it gets a little support from the bottom cymbal
it's a bit less likely to tear further but I definetely want to get it repaired
as soon as possible. I'm kind of reluctant to try and fix it myself,
because I've never done this, but maybe it's not that dangerous...?

I know this may be pretty irrelevant but my first crash cymbal was a 16" Solar... bad already, I know. I wanted rid of the thing soooo badly but wasn't allowed to cough up money on new cymbals until it was completely dead, SO, as you do, I put a hammer to it a few times creating maybe a 6cm crack down the cymbal and many smaller cracks around the centre-hole, if anything it sounded better afterwards...

I know this is a pretty old thread, but I recently decided I wanted to modify a couple broken cymbals I had. I am currently in the middle of doing a 20'' A custom crash and a 11'' K custom splash. I am using a Dremel tool i bought from Home Depot, That thing is amazing, I was gonna do the tin snip method others were using, but this seemed way more logical.

The crash had a ton of cracks and missing chunks so I cut it down pretty far. Here is a before pic, and another pic of the current stage I am at with it.



Here is phase 2 of the project. Right now it has a really low bell sound, because its so thick, I wish I had a lathe so I could thin it out a bit and get a splashier sound, but since i dont, Im gonna cut it down more leaving about an inch or so from the bell. Hopefully it will give it a higher pitch. This one still has a ways to go.




Now here is a before of the K custom splash. It had some serious damage from years of playing that thing. I loved that splash haha.



Here it is in phase 2. I dont have too much more left to do to this one, I have sanded down the finish since this pic and am gonna polish it up with the buffer on my dremel tool. I am really happy with the way this one is coming, it has a relly nice high bell sound, similar to a zil bell.



I will post more pics and some video when they are finished. I am loving this project and i plan on doing many more.

Here are the 2 finished cymbals, they turned out way better than I expected going into this haha.

I cant tell if this is a crack or a scratch in my paiste 2002 ride. It doesnt come through on the other side of the cymbal, but iam afraid its a crack that will develop even more.

It looks almost like the person using the cymbal on the lathe let it slip for a second and it scraped it.

Vivicide said:

I know this is a pretty old thread, but I recently decided I wanted to modify a couple broken cymbals I had. I am currently in the middle of doing a 20'' A custom crash and a 11'' K custom splash. I am using a Dremel tool i bought from Home Depot, That thing is amazing, I was gonna do the tin snip method others were using, but this seemed way more logical.

The crash had a ton of cracks and missing chunks so I cut it down pretty far. Here is a before pic, and another pic of the current stage I am at with it.

Here is phase 2 of the project. Right now it has a really low bell sound, because its so thick, I wish I had a lathe so I could thin it out a bit and get a splashier sound, but since i dont, Im gonna cut it down more leaving about an inch or so from the bell. Hopefully it will give it a higher pitch. This one still has a ways to go.

Now here is a before of the K custom splash. It had some serious damage from years of playing that thing. I loved that splash haha.

Here it is in phase 2. I dont have too much more left to do to this one, I have sanded down the finish since this pic and am gonna polish it up with the buffer on my dremel tool. I am really happy with the way this one is coming, it has a relly nice high bell sound, similar to a zil bell.

I will post more pics and some video when they are finished. I am loving this project and i plan on doing many more.

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Hi Vivicide,

I am also using a Dremel tool to do my cymbal mods. I am curious what bits you are having the most luck with? Especially in the "finishing" process; that being smoothing the edges and getting the best "roundness"(shape) out of it? Any input on the "Dremel Method" is much appreciated!

Hi everyone. New to the forum and'd like to share this repair. I've repaired a black label Paiste 2002 18" medium crash that had a crack about 3-4" long using a pneumatic die grinder. I've run the cut-off wheel into a candle first so the alloys from the cymbal do not gum up and stick in the pores of the wheel. Otherwise the cut-off wheel will just kinda slide on the cymbal instead of cutting good. I've made a vid on YouTube. I'd like to add that this compressor was week and the cut-off wheel kept wanting to stop. It would have went alot smoother with a good compressor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKMGAfWBGMM

It's been talked about, but I've never actually seen anyone do this to a cracked cymbal:

This cymbal wasn't cracked, but I was playing around with a Pearl 300 top hat and came up with this.






Has a very interesting sound. Trashy china, but very thin sounding.

Much better than the original cymbal, but don't know that it will ever make its way onto the kit. Never know though

What do you reccomend I should do to fix my beloved paiste?



Only a small crack but I need to fix it before it gets out of hand.

Here's another shot with colour adjusted so you can see it better,


From the original series,

I know this topic is a bit dated but i have a question ! I have this 14"crash Meinl cadet series al trashed up and i tried repairing it , it's a very old series i think .. but i have no good use for it s i don't find the sound very exiting . So i wondered : maybe i could transform this old piece of crap into something useful like a crash or a bell .. ow yeah it's a very thick cymbal so .. any suggestions ?

I bought a used Sabian AAX 10 inch splash, not soon after I bought it, it started developing a crack right under the bell. I'm not really looking to repair it, but I kind of want to keep it just the way it is without further damaging it. Right now, it gives a good effect with the crack. Any tips?

Hi all i am new to this forum and need some ideas/ suggestions please.

I own 2 18" Zildjian A custom cymbals 1 is a Projection Crash The other is a Medium crash the projection i had not used for years as it had a crack in it i just used to use it with hot rods on my elec kit as a ride cymbal and the medium picked up a crack at some point during this summer.

Obviously like any one i am gutted that they are cracked i have tried drilling tiny pilot holes in the ends of them to stop the crack spreading its been about 50% successful on one and like 10% successful on the other.

I don't want to sell them because 1) even when i crack cymbals i like to keep them and 2) i don't quite appreciate selling cracked ones on as they are nothing like the real thing when undamaged i feel it is unfair on the person buying the cymbal.

So basically i am looking for some help and suggestions on modifying these beasts.

With one of the cymbals i would like to completely take out the crack with what ever tool i would need and put little pilot holes init so i could insert some rivets and turn it into a rivet crash ride? the other i would like to again take the crack completely out and possibly try and turn it into one of the EFX cymbals that zidljian make.

Or alternatively just reduce them to 17 or 16" cymbals?

If any one could help me with what tools i would need and how i would go about doing it all it would very much be appreciated.

Cheers

Carl

Any one any suggestions please?

I have these old hi-hat style cymbals that don't fit on my current stand and want to drill the center holes out bigger. Is the best thing to use just a regular drill press or something? I have access to a machine shop with metal lathes and all sorts of fancy stuff.

These cymbals were over used and to be honest I hit as hard as i can when i get in to it. By using a hole saw I managed to stop cracks going any further. But I always cut at lest 5mm past where I can see the crack. %90 of the time I found I could get a few more months out of a cymbal + depending on how soon i found the crack and how well cut it out. I also found that cutting a large hole has less chance of a crack starting from the hole rather than cutting a small hole.

I've tried welding and silver solder both are pants wont last one gig.

These cymbals pictured aren't a good example though, they were used for just practice with a punk band and I just kept cutting.

nofreewill said:

I have these old hi-hat style cymbals that don't fit on my current stand and want to drill the center holes out bigger. Is the best thing to use just a regular drill press or something? I have access to a machine shop with metal lathes and all sorts of fancy stuff.

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Do NOT drill that cymbal.You will destroy its value as a collectable instrument.It may be time to retire it,but if you must play it,get a vintage stand for it,or i believe Gibraltar make a stand for vintage cymbals.Remember,that old cymbal is a lot thinner than modern ones,so if your a hitter,might as well say good by now.It won't stand up to the pounding.

Steve B