Stiff tension rods/lugs

How do I cure this/should I be worried about it?

On the batter side of my snare there's a couple lugs which are stiffer than the rest so once I've put the skin on, put the hoop on, got all rods finger tight and given each lug a 1/2 turn, 2 of the lugs are much higher pitched.

The thing that worries me about it is that I tune my batter quite high, so the stiffer lugs are reaching their maximum tension much quicker than the rest. (I'm tuning the other lugs up to make even tuning.) I've put Vaseline in all the lugs to help prevent rust but it doesn't seem to have helped much with the rods turning evenly.

Would one of those pressure gauge tuning thingys help?

Cheers

take the tension rods out, spray some WD40 on them or put some silicone gel (the lubricating one) on it. that will get rid of some dirt on your tension rods and hopefully the inside of the lug too. if they are still not going in enough i'd say you're tightening your snare WAY too much and damaging your drum skins at the same time.

Every once in a while I find a Lug Nut in the lug that's stripped a little - sometimes a lot.

They can strip from improper alignment, too much tension or maybe they were just not good to begin with. I've had a NEW drum that had a lug not not working properly and when I checked ot was partially stripped - so it does happen. If the t-rod is cross-threaded it can strip too of course. Sometimes it's the T-Rod itself and NOT the lug nut that's the problem.

Hope this helps

Without knowing the make and age of the lugs, it's hard to be very specific with an answer. It sounds like there is some problem with the threading in those two lugs. It could be dirt, it could be that the threads are not cleared of debris from the plating process, or it could be that the threads are not actually cut deep enough.

I'd suggest first changing tension rods and see if the problem is with them; maybe the threads on them have gotten damaged or stripped.

If that doesn't do it, you could try the lubrication suggested earlier.

And as a last resort short of replacing lug nuts or lugs, you might try retapping the lug threads. Use a 12-24 tap and some light machine oil, and go slowly, backing the tap up every so often.

Don't laugh, this works great! Go to a sporting goods store and buy a brass gun cleaning brush for a 22 cal. pistol, push it into each lug and twist it out, it will bring out the grime. You might have to do it twice, then clean the threads on the rods/lugs. When ready to put back together spray some wd40 into a small cup/cap and dip each lug into it then dab on a tissue before inserting into the drum lug.

05WideGuy said:

Don't laugh, this works great! Go to a sporting goods store and buy a brass gun cleaning brush for a 22 cal. pistol, push it into each lug and twist it out, it will bring out the grime. You might have to do it twice, then clean the threads on the rods/lugs. When ready to put back together spray some wd40 into a small cup/cap and dip each lug into it then dab on a tissue before inserting into the drum lug.

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I would clean off as much WD-40 as possible, then put some machine oil on the tuning bolts. Even clean motor oil is fine. The problem with WD-40 is that it evaporates and takes lubricating oils with it. It is not a lubricant; it is a solvent.

I think I've solved it, just switched some of the rods around, seems some of the rods and lugs didn't like eachother much.

I agree with Deathmetalconga - I've heard many times (but in the context of cleaning bass drum pedals) that oil and WD40 don't work well together. I like the ingenuity of the gun cleaning brush though.