Drum Building Tutorial - Making A Drum Shell Worker Jig

Making a Drum Shell Worker Jig

This is inexpensive and easy to make, but is useful for doing all kinds of things on both the inside and the outside of the shell. The rollers we used for this project are available from Rockler. Click here to go to the Rockler page. They are a good quality roller for a resonable price. Avoid ones that are too cheap - they may not roll on center.

List of Materials:

1. Rollers (Rockler # 20836 )
2. Some scrap flat metal (1/4" thick x 1" wide aluminum will work well, available at a home center)
3. Four 1/4"-20 bolts, four washers for same, four clamping knobs
4. Length of straight and flat wood
5. Length of 2 x 4 lumber
6. Some drywall screws

The shell worker can be made using a variety of materials that you have laying around. This article will just give you the general idea of what can be done. The rollers are mounted on aluminum crossbars with the 1/4"-20 bolts and clamping knobs. The aluminum crossbars are mounted to a piece of wood that is straight and true. The rollers can rotate to accomodate various size shells and still have good stability. Our fits shells that are 12" diameter and larger. With careful measurement, you can construct one that fits your needs.

You can put the shell over the rollers to do things like stain, sand, and layout mounting holes. Put the shell on top of the the rollers to sand the inside of the shell.