Sapele Stave Snare Drum
Introduction: Sapele Stave Snare Drum
This past eight months has been a trying time for musicians and musical opportunities in 'normal' social situations. With gigs at a minimum, I decided it would be fun and a challenge to build myself a guitar, a chambered body Telecaster guitar with a 4 way switch for tone versatility, to be exact. I did that, and it turned out to be maybe my favorite guitar in the 'quiver' currently. But, that's for another Instructable.
After the guitar turned out so well, I started perusing the parameters of the internet to see what other wood oriented builds folks were doing. I came across the 'stave built snare' on a Youtube search, and, since my oldest son is a drummer, I figured this would be a good one to tackle. And I could incorporate some time with my 31 yr old son who leads a very busy work life, and might appreciate some time trying his hand at something new.
We started this project in mid - October in hopes to be done by Christmas, as this drum would be my gift to him. We finished before Thanksgiving (my OCD and 'git er dun' mentality took over) taking advantage of some unusually warm and sunny November weather in Minnesota. Here is our process, along with many photos to add to the build thread. I hope you enjoy our journey as you follow along, and give this a try in the future. It won't be my last stave built snare, I know that for sure!
Supplies
-7 linear ft of 7/8" thick, 6" wide Sapele dimensional lumber. Sapele is in the Mahogany family.
-2 seven inch and 2 four inch hose clamps to combine to make 2 stave clamping bands
-2 2 x 4' 3/4" plywood panels
-Assorted lengths of 1 x 3 and 1 x 6 pine lumber
-1 4' length of 5/8" large threaded rod
-2 1' lengths of 5/8" large threaded rod
-6 washers and nuts to fit the 5/8" rods
-box of 1 5/8" wood screws
-Titebond wood glue
-table saw
-router
-drill press and hand held drill
-assorted other tools
-snare drum heads and hardware parts
Step 1: Cutting and Shaping the Wood Staves
We selected Sapele from our local Rockler dealer because of it's sonic qualities, relative hardness, and cost. 787
The first step was to cut the stave material to the proper width. Since we were using 16 staves on our 14" snare drum, we cut them to 2.75 " wide. Diameter(14) x 3.14 divided by 16 . To get the correct angle on the edges of each stave to add up to a full 360 degrees of a full circle, we divided 360 by 16 staves which came to 22.5 degrees; but each stave has 2 sides, so you divide that number by 2 and end up with a 11.25 degree angle on each stave vertical edge.
We did the bevel on the long pieces first after they were cut to width, and then cut the individual staves to our calculated 7" deep snare drum we wanted to build. Most snare drums are 5.5" , 6", or 8" but we were looking for something unique.
Step 2: Stacking the Staves, Binding and Gluing
The next step was to stack the staves in the round shape of the drum, and bind them together using the hose clamp straps. This is a 'dry fit' stage, to make sure the edges are lined up well. We did reconfigure this a couple of times, certain staves fit better next to others, until we got the fit we wanted.
After they are bound and tightened up, we wrapped two strips of blue painter's tape around the shell in between the two clamps. Wrap the tape as tightly as possible, as this will be our retention system for keeping the staves in place for the gluing.
Next we removed the clamping straps, and then cut the tape where two of the stave edges met. This released the round shape, and we then laid it out on a table surface, outside facing down, so the beveled edges of the staves were opened and facing up. Then we applied a fairly generous amount of glue to each gap between the staves.
After all the joints were full of glue, we folded the staves back up into the shell shape, and bound it with the clamping straps once again, tightening to max pressure. After removing the painters tape, we used water and rags to wipe away the glue squeeze out and clean up the shell surface inside and out. 220