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Drum Building Tutorial - Making A Snare Bed
The Down and Dirty of Snare Beds - Gettin' er done
The bearing edge we'll make is a basic even-arch snare bed. It is simply a gentle and even curve in the bearing edge. The first component of the snare bed is the arch itself. For this tutorial we are starting with a drum that does NOT have bearing edges cut. You'll be able to lay out your curve easier this way. The first thing
you must do is mark the center of the bed and if your lug holes are not already drilled, the location of the lugs on either side of the snare bed.
After laying out where the snare bed will be, you need to decide on the width and depth of the snare bed. This bed will be 5.25" wide and 3/16" deep. I would not suggest going deeper than 3/16 of an inch. However, you can go much wider on the width. You'll need to make it wider if you are going to use a wide snare unit.
You can layout the arc by eyeballing, and that is fine. I prefer to accurately create a template though. Once you've decided on the width and depth of your snare bed, you can calculate the radius of the arc with this formula:
(r = radius, w = width of bed, h = depth of bed)
r = (w2 + 4h2) / (8h)
For our snare bed, the radius of the arc is 18.47, or to round off, 18.5 inches. Draw an arc on a heavy piece of paper or anything else you can think of. You can use a string attached to the end of a pencil. I actually cheated on this and drew a circle in a drawing program, then printed it out.
Measure off the width of the snare bed as shown.
Draw a line where the arc and the end points of the snare bed meet.
Next, cut the paper on the line you just drew. This is where you will line up the template on the drum shell. Cut away the arc on the template, then center the snare bed between the lugs and tape it to the shell.
Draw your arc by carefully following the template.
Now Let the Sawdust Begin
Sand a flat arc in the shell up to the line. You can use a sanding drum as shown or a file. The best file I have found for this is actually a cheapo I found at Wal-Mart. It is not a metal file and it's not really a wood rasp either. It has teeth that are larger than most common metal files and smaller than a
wood rasp. One side is flat, and the other is curved.
Once your arc is sanded, you'll need to relieve the edges by filing on the outside and inside of the shell. You can make the profile of the snare bed the same as the rest of the bearing edge, make it "fatter" with a big roundover, or anywhere in between. Just remember that on a wood drum, snare attachment cable
will dig into a sharp bearing edge.
Finish off the bed by sanding smooth, especially where the outer edges of the snare bed meets the regular bearing edge. You don't want to have a point that may poke through your snare side head. Now get out there and make a drum!
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