I'd like to build a drums out of card board rolls

September 23, 2014 12:00 AM

I'd like to build some drums out of card board rolls

I have 2 card board tubes that are 4 and 5 feet long, 4 3/4" inside diameter and 5 1/4' outer (1/4" thick tube). I also have smaller cardboard rolls of various sizes.

I want to make drums out of them. I thought I would use some kind of shellac to coat the cardboard and car chamois' for the heads.

I'm not a drummer and have no idea about what lengths to cut, much less how to put it all together. Any one ever made some cardboard tube drums?

posted by jabo to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

There may be a way to do craft these tubes into more solid things you can drum with, but lemme tell yah, cardboard is flimsy. Drumming is damaging. Buy a couple pieces of PVC pipe from a Home Depot and drum forever with the same kind of great hollow sound.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 5:48 AM on September 23, 2014 [1 favorite]

I agree with Potomac, cardboard will not hold up. It's also probably more sound absorbent then would be good for a drum. Also, I can't imagine chamois will make a good head, you'd probably be better off using actual drum heads.
posted by doctor_negative at 10:35 AM on September 23, 2014

If you just want sound, don't care about how good the sound is, don't care about durability, sure! Here's a video showing how to make a short-lived drum head out of tape, but on a stiffer material than cardboard. Cardboard will sound a bit muddier. Experiment with the lengths and having one or two heads to get different sounds.

Shellac isn't going to make much of a difference in durability unless you need water resistance.

If you want something pretty to decorate your house with, like a miniature version those "southwest style" drums that some people insist on using as tables, what you mentioned will work just fine.
posted by yohko at 10:53 AM on September 23, 2014

And cardboard might not hold up well but you can sure have a lot of fun while it does -- you've got enough cardboard to have a few hours of drum circle for yourself and some friends. Make spares! Cardboard boxes also work. And if you've got a bunch of people with no drums who want to have a drum circle it doesn't matter if the sound is muddy, really it doesn't.

Be sure to bring some trashbags for cleanup.
posted by yohko at 10:58 AM on September 23, 2014

Best answer: I held off from responding to this one, because I didn't want to be the guy telling you that cardboard drums are a pretty crap tough idea. And they are, if you give-a-shit about the actual sound out of the drums. I too was concerned about the flimsy-ness of the cardboard, until I remembered some of the more industrial cardboard rolls I've seen (ie 1/4 inch thick, and solid enough) and then considered, as drum shells, "that's... possibly do-able".

Drummers who care about their sound WILL care about what their shells are made of - ie., "Maple or Birch" is the kind of important decision that will be made when buying a kit or shells, but I get both what you're trying to do, and that those issues may not apply here.

Having said all that, the closest 'real thing' to what you are trying to emulate with the given dimensions looks like "Rata Toms", or equally googlable, "Octobans". But if I was trying to do what I think you want, with the materials I think you have, here's where I'd start...

It's the stretching of the chamois, that I see as a main problem. 'Gaffa' (duct) tape, elastic bands, or some McGyver'ed thing, ain't gonna cut it. Drumskins are tight, and that means high pressures. Whatever you choose will need to be stretched, and that usually requires something that works with what normal drums call 'lugs' and 'rims'.

The 'lugs' are the silver bits on the side of the drums in the picture linked above. The 'rims' are rings that allow you to apply pressure evenly across/around the skin. But the rims work with the edges of standard heads, and your chamois doesn't have those, so not gonna work. I'd take a few cut-off inches of the tube to a drum shop and ask...

1. Do you have some (4) lugs I can buy?
2. What size heads you got that fits this? [politely shove cardboard tube in face]

Unfortunately, drum-skin sizes tend to come in whole-inch variants, so there likely won't be a 'perfect' fit for the cardboard tube. Fortunately, the physics of how heads touch the shell allows for a little wriggle-room. The edge of a real drum shell looks like this. It's rounded on the outside to better allow the percussive waves from when the skin is hit to be transmitted to the shell. Which matters if you're looking to make your birch or maple sing, but word on the street is - cardboard don't sing. But a little sanding might make a non-fitting head squeeze on enough to fit your needs, and (hopefully) a tighter fit will get you better tonality.

TLDR: Possibly doable, as long as actual sound quality isn't a factor., and you're willing to spend a little on hardware.

edit: Having posted that, I realise the rims (also maybe called 'hoops') are less likely to be available for you/in your size. Little claw type thingies might still work though.
posted by quinndexter at 11:15 AM on September 23, 2014 [1 favorite]

I suspect you'll have trouble getting enough tension in the head. Perhaps you could find a pre-tuned head to use? For instance, Remo makes pre-tuned heads that you could friction mount on top of a shell, but their smallest size is 8". Perhaps you could supplement your project with a length of Sonotube?

Looking at the site further, the pre-tuned Remo tubano seems to be a pre-tuned head mounted on an ABS cylinder. I imagine that cardboard could work with the same head.
posted by gox3r at 3:53 PM on September 23, 2014

Response by poster: The cardboard rolls are actually 1/2" thick (I'm really bad at math). I understand that cardboard is less than desirable for a quality drum, rather it could be a fun project that would use scrap material, paint, etc.. I was thinking of making something like the Octobans that quinndexter mentions, drums of varying lengths but I don't know what lengths would be good or a good cheap way to mount them. I thought of chamois for the head because I have a lot of old ones in the garage.
posted by jabo at 5:29 PM on September 23, 2014