Building a Drum Riser from scratch

[pdp 9091]

First I'd like to re-introduce myself to the drummerworld forum. My name is Josh and I'm currently a freshman in college. My major is Sound Engineering at the New England School of Communication in Maine, USA. I joined the dw forum about 3 years ago now and spent alot of time on it for a while but lately I haven't been around. Since then I've been in a band or two and have really grown as a drummer. But..to the point...

Half of my band are still upperclassmen in high school. My guitarist and good friend Chris's mom is the head of the Project Graduation Committee and is in charge of putting on a fund raiser for the class of '09. The fund raiser just so happens to be a night of live music at the school. I found this an awesome opportunity to make this thing awesome! Me and Chris went right to work. Today we drew up plans for a drum riser for the show. We wanted to make this show at the school something good, nothing you would expect from a high school. We trekked down to the local Home Depot saturday in the snow and started shopping for materials.

Our receipt read as fallows:

(9) 2x3 's
(2) 4x8 pieces of particle board
some cheap generic black carpeting (31 us cents/sq. ft)
(5) 90 degree angle rods



It all came to about $50 so it wasn't bad at all. Saturday nigh we started the project. We decided that we wanted to make the riser in two sections (two 6'x4' platforms). We made the frame for the first platform tonight, attached the particle board surface and screw on 4 legs. As of right now it is a little bit wobbly but once we throw some supports under the surface and across the front, back, and sides, we should be golden. Hopefully later today (sunday), I will have pictures of our progress so far.

Ultimately the finished product is going to be two platforms put together to make one large drum platform sitting 2 feet and 8.5 inches off the ground; pretty decent size. The wood painted black, black carpeting stapled to the surface, and finally steel 90 degree angle rods for the trim on the front of the surface, the sides, and the legs to give it a pretty cool look, especially shining under the lights. In the end this riser will hold my set which is a 4 piece with my 3 cymbals and my hats. I will keep you guys updated. Any questions just ask.

[pdp 9091]

***UPDATE***

Today we finished the first half of the riser (the construction part). We modified our plan a little bit as we went along as you can see. We had to find the best way to keep the frame sturdy and to not wobble so it cost about 15 bucks more in lumber but it was worth it. I think we did a pretty good job because that thing is sturdy as the trojan horse.

-note this is only half of the riser. The full finished product will be two 4'x6' platforms butted up against each other to make one large 8'x6' riser. To prevent sliding we are going to install some sort of lock or clamp system below each platform.

[Bram]

Looks cool, but isn't it a little too high??

Bram

[oldrockdrummer]

you need to rack brace it from front to back to prevent collapse. Just a friendly peace of advice from a framing carpenter

[pdp 9091]

Originally Posted by Bram

Looks cool, but isn't it a little too high??

Bram

Nah it's only 2 feet and 8 inches off the ground. It just looks ridiculously high off the ground in this picture for some reason.

Originally Posted by oldrockdrummer

you need to rack brace it from front to back to prevent collapse. Just a friendly peace of advice from a framing carpenter

It seems pretty sturdy right now but ill take your advice seeing you're a framing carpenter. But would you be able to go into detail what a rack brace is. I am no carpenter at all. Me and my buddy drew up the plans for this and with some help from his dad who's pretty handy, we made it as sturdy as possible so far.

Pdp! Good to see you back around here.

Good looking project. Nothing like getting your hands dirty on some old-fashioned DIY.

[Daphfz]

You need 4 support beams for the middle(just for saftey lol). I think the 4 beams should be directly in the middle and start at the bottom supports at all sides and finish directly in the middle(see picture). i did my best to colour the different sections of the wood so you can see that there is a cross in the middle to support a kind of pyramid support system meeting directly in the middle to help support the whole board. Please note the cross needs to be supported where it joins :) otherwise it may give way lol. hope this helped :), you've done a great job so far! :D Good Luck :)

[pdp 9091]

Originally Posted by Mediocrefunkybeat

Pdp! Good to see you back around here.

Good looking project. Nothing like getting your hands dirty on some old-fashioned DIY.

Thanks and its good to be back. This project actually gave me the idea to show everyone.

Originally Posted by Daphfz

You need 4 support beams for the middle(just for saftey lol). I think the 4 beams should be directly in the middle and start at the bottom supports at all sides and finish directly in the middle(see picture). i did my best to colour the different sections of the wood so you can see that there is a cross in the middle to support a kind of pyramid support system meeting directly in the middle to help support the whole board. Please note the cross needs to be supported where it joins :) otherwise it may give way lol. hope this helped :), you've done a great job so far! :D Good Luck :)

Well this is only half of the riser. We are building a duplicate of this to make the whole dimensions 8' x 6'. I will be seated in the middle of the riser so that is basically right over where the risers butt up against each other. Under me and my snare and the bass drum will be the most legs. 6 legs and 4 forty five degree angle supports below me. Is what you said still necessary if 80% of the weight will not be in the center of that is basically what im trying to say. And we are also creating an H shaped support system under each surface on each side of the riser. This will support it too from bowing in,

[Daphfz]

Ahh I see, I wish u luck then :D

[oldrockdrummer]

Originally Posted by pdp 9091

Nah it's only 2 feet and 8 inches off the ground. It just looks ridiculously high off the ground in this picture for some reason.



It seems pretty sturdy right now but ill take your advice seeing you're a framing carpenter. But would you be able to go into detail what a rack brace is. I am no carpenter at all. Me and my buddy drew up the plans for this and with some help from his dad who's pretty handy, we made it as sturdy as possible so far.

just run diagonal braces from front to back like the braces that you already have on it . or plywood the sides.

[dkerwood]

Can you post a picture with a person standing next to it...? Because it does look CRAZY high.

[jimtyler]

Looks great so far! I did something similar but not as tall, with this addition. I picked up some rolling casters and attached them to the bottom of the legs. That way I can have my drums set up off stage, and literally roll the whole kit out at once. I drilled matching holes on the floor in both sections of the riser and simply drop a I_____l shaped clamp into the holes to lock the risers together.

[pdp 9091]

UPDATE!!

We finished most of the riser. From here on out is just the small details (trimming, painting, etc,,)

The picture you see here is 8'x6'. We're going to paint the wood black and trim the edges of the platform with metal angle rods. Finally we're going to slap on some black curtains that hang down and well be good to go.

[latzanimal]

How are you going to move it?

[bradmapex]

Thats pretty sick i gotta say, two questions tho... what size wood did u use? 2x4's...etc. and this ones off topic but did u buy a bassdrum head with the fsas symbole on it or is that a sticker?

[drumhead61]

good job let us see when it has the drums up on top

[Daphfz]

Originally Posted by drumhead61

good job let us see when it has the drums up on top

Agree'd :D, a drum riser is just a carpeted table without the drums on top :)

[pdp 9091]

Originally Posted by latzanimal

How are you going to move it?

It fits perfectly in my buddy's truck just standing up so we just made 2 trips.

Originally Posted by bradmapex

Thats pretty sick i gotta say, two questions tho... what size wood did u use? 2x4's...etc. and this ones off topic but did u buy a bassdrum head with the fsas symbole on it or is that a sticker?

We used 2x3's for the legs and most of the supports then particle board for the surface. And the fsas is a sticker that I had on the back of my jeep for the longest time and became my trademark and everyone knew it was me drivin around town haha. but for my senior year talent show last year I took it off and stuck it on my kick head and its been there ever since.

Originally Posted by drumhead61

good job let us see when it has the drums up on top

Pics of the show are below. Some of pics are of other bands because there's not alot of good shots of the riser because it was surrounded by stage, lighting, and half stacks. Im in the last picture.

Along with a few videos of my band and another band my guitarist is in.

my band doing the adventure by angels and airwaves
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bhBw...eature=related

my guitarist's side project - california by phantom planet (you can see me rocking out in the front row in the blue shirt)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWmKi...eature=related

jjimmy eat world cover
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkgPp...eature=related

[Daphfz]

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet :D. Welldone mate, you should be proud of yourselves :), quite a nice turn out :)