Project: Kent

[Ming-a-Ling]

I just posted this up at drumshed, but I thought I'd post it here too since there's some pretty handy people around.

I recently acquired an old Kent snare drum for 20 bucks. It's pretty rough looking right now. I'm wanting to restore this thing, but I'm pretty new to all of this so I need some help. Here's a couple pictures of the drum when I got it.

http://www.jeremypantoja.com/23_1.JPG
http://www.jeremypantoja.com/2a_1.JPG

As you can see it's pretty rusty, and the finish has quite a few blemishes (to put it lightly).

Here's a picture of all the lugs and tension rods and hardware good and rusted up

http://www.jeremypantoja.com/Kent_Parts_All_01.jpg

Is there anything I can do to remove the rust? And what do you recommend I do about the shell? I'd like to keep it looking as close to original as possible. Is there a way to work with what's there to make it look nice, or should I fill in the holes, refinish it and drill new ones?

Like I said I'm still pretty new to all of this, so the more detail and info, the better. Thanks in advance!

[Byron]

It definitely looks very cool now besides the hardware, if you soak the hardware in that stuff British Boy used it takes the rust right off

try to stick with that old wood look, maybe try to take whatever is on there now, off
then stain it really dark

[Ming-a-Ling]

Yeah, I really like the look of it now, and i'd like to stick really close to that. I actually have some wood stain that is really close to that color, so hopefully I can just use that on it. BB used some sort of paint thinner on his lugs I think (I could be wrong). Do you think that would work on rust?

[Byron]

you might have to just by new lugs, if you do try to buy some that are similar to these, I like these ones a lot

[Ming-a-Ling]

Yesterday I began my journey on refurbishing my old Kent snare drum. It's going to be a long and taxing task, but I'm up for the challenge.

I began my Saturday by evaluating what supplies I will need. After consulting several seasoned experts (see: forum.drumshed.org), I put together my list. I then loaded the family into the automocar and headed to a few hobby stores so my wife could run some errands. But after that I loaded them back into the automocar and headed towards Home Depot where I picked up all of my necessary supplies, including Naval Jelly, Deft Clear Gloss spray, Lacquer Thinner, and a Dremel kit. I was set. Time to go work on the drum! ...after my wife runs a few more errands.

Ok..errands have been ran, and I'm back home. I ready my supplies and get to work. The naval jelly worked like a charm. And the Dremel was a gift from god, that I had to pay for, making it a little less like a gift. After several grueling hours of work spanning two days, my hardware is ready to be sprayed.

Here are some before and after pictures (just in case you don't look at the first post in the thread):

http://www.jeremypantoja.com/Kent_Parts_All_01.jpg
http://www.jeremypantoja.com/Kent_Hardware_Clean01.jpg

I may have to get some new tension rods, as two of the ones I have are less then straight, and they have the most damage to them. But I may not. We'll have to see.

What's next you say? Well, next I'll be working on the hoops. I'm not looking forward to this. They are very large. Hopefully everything goes ok with them. And then I'll be on to the shell. I'll keep you posted.

~Ming, signing out.

[Black Rose Immortal]

wow they look pretty nice man keep it up and keep posting

[White]

Wow, thats a big difference you made with the chrom lol, keep it up and are you planning on staining it or painting the wood? id just say you should stain it give it a nice look, and yeah ,keep up the good work

[Ming-a-Ling]

Thanks! I'm not totally sure of how I'm going to deal with the shell yet. I'm going to sand it down with some 400 and see how it looks and go from there. I have some stain that looks just like what is on there, so if it needs it I'll use that. Then I'll either do a tung oil finish or use some deft clear gloss spray. Not sure yet.

[GhostDrummer519]

Thanks! I'm not totally sure of how I'm going to deal with the shell yet. I'm going to sand it down with some 400 and see how it looks and go from there. I have some stain that looks just like what is on there, so if it needs it I'll use that. Then I'll either do a tung oil finish or use some deft clear gloss spray. Not sure yet.

Make sure that after you start at 400 you keep going down w/ the grit size... just wanted to make sure if that was your plan.

P.S- I'm liking this stuff... GREAT WORK :thumb:

Cheers:chug:

[Nick90]

That rust came off nice, i didnt expect it to come out soo good, nice work. I would put a nice stain to keep its woody look. Nice job.

[aznriceball]

good luck on the hoops, those are going to be a royal pain. keep up the good work, keep us posted on ur thoughts for the shell :)

[Panopticon]

i hear ketchup and coca cola take off rust real nice...

[Rayne264]

i hear ketchup and coca cola take off rust real nice...
i heard if you put a nail in coca cola for a couple days, it'll be completely gone. i wouldnt risk it...

[Nick90]

^^ ya, hes right, we did it in science class. the acid eats at it, dont do it.



sorry again, my brother=moron

[Nick90]

but then again if you monitor it and make sure the acid doesnt corrode too much then it will work.


sorry again, my brother=moron

[rockindrummer]

Nice man. It looks really good. I didn't think the rust would come off that easily, great work man keep us posted.

[Kainen]

^^ ya, hes right, we did it in science class. the acid eats at it, dont do it.


and people drink this stuff?

[derryk]

Mmmm... carbonic acid.

I want to hear about someone who does the nail experiment, leaves the coke/pepsi in the fridge, and has someone drink it.

[Aaron]

^^ ya, hes right, we did it in science class. the acid eats at it, dont do it.
no you didnt, because myth-busters proved it doesnt work. tell me science-boy, where is the oxygen within the cola required to catalyse the reaction hey? unless your superheating it in your normal school lab, i think your telling a porky.

p.s. before you answer bubbles, guess what gas is in carbonated drinks? thats right, carbon-dioxide.

p.p.s and no smarty pants saying that oxygen is one of the bases for carbon-dioxide, i know..

[Aaron]

Ming, I'd suggest finding info about whether its safe to clear-laquer over what it is currently, to preserve that old-world look. and chromed-brass vintage style tube lugs!

[Talos]

no you didnt, because myth-busters proved it doesnt work. tell me science-boy, where is the oxygen within the cola required to catalyse the reaction hey? unless your superheating it in your normal school lab, i think your telling a porky.

p.s. before you answer bubbles, guess what gas is in carbonated drinks? thats right, carbon-dioxide.

p.p.s and no smarty pants saying that oxygen is one of the bases for carbon-dioxide, i know..

You pwn'd his *** good man.:thumb:

[Aaron]

doing my bit for the community, only 94 hours left.. ;)

[Jezen]

no you didnt, because myth-busters proved it doesnt work. tell me science-boy, where is the oxygen within the cola required to catalyse the reaction hey? unless your superheating it in your normal school lab, i think your telling a porky.

p.s. before you answer bubbles, guess what gas is in carbonated drinks? thats right, carbon-dioxide.

p.p.s and no smarty pants saying that oxygen is one of the bases for carbon-dioxide, i know..

I was a little skeptic of his comment. When my last milk tooth fell out, I put it in a glass of coca-cola for 3 days. It corroded abit, but it was still there. I then tried milk, and well nothing happened really.

[wipe_my_button]

good job man. i need to clean my hardware too. what did you use to clean and what brand was it?

no you didnt, because myth-busters proved it doesnt work.

thats such a great show

[Ming-a-Ling]

It's called Naval Jelly. I don't know if that's the brand name, or just what it is. Worked wonders though. Then I took some 0000 steel wool to it, and then put a wire brush on my Dremel and used that. Washed it all a few times, stuck it in the oven for about 30 minutes to dry it off, and then I sprayed some Deft Clear Gloss on it.

[-=[Luke]=-]

Wow, that stuff really took care of the rust. Nice job so far! Btw, did you aquire that old snare off ebay? I'd like to do a restoration project myself but i don't know how i'd find an old snare drum cheap. Cheers

[Little Android Man]

no you didnt, because myth-busters proved it doesnt work. tell me science-boy, where is the oxygen within the cola required to catalyse the reaction hey? unless your superheating it in your normal school lab, i think your telling a porky.

p.s. before you answer bubbles, guess what gas is in carbonated drinks? thats right, carbon-dioxide.

p.p.s and no smarty pants saying that oxygen is one of the bases for carbon-dioxide, i know..

i saw that episode. hehe :)

[wipe_my_button]

Btw, did you aquire that old snare off ebay? I'd like to do a restoration project myself but i don't know how i'd find an old snare drum cheap.

ditto.

[Ming-a-Ling]

Yup, got it off eBay for like 20 or 25 I think.

[-=[Luke]=-]

What did you type in the search? Anything specific or just like "old snare drums" or something?

[Ming-a-Ling]

Umm...I think I found this one under "Vintage Snare Drum" or something like that. I don't recall though. Might have just been "Vintage Drums"

[Nick90]

no you didnt, because myth-busters proved it doesnt work. tell me science-boy, where is the oxygen within the cola required to catalyse the reaction hey? unless your superheating it in your normal school lab, i think your telling a porky.

p.s. before you answer bubbles, guess what gas is in carbonated drinks? thats right, carbon-dioxide.

p.p.s and no smarty pants saying that oxygen is one of the bases for carbon-dioxide, i know..

Well you are right but i didnt post that. My twin brother, who doesnt drum btw, posted it because he enjoys going on my comptuer and screwing around with my stuff.

My brother is a moron and this is what really happend because im in the same class as him. My teacher put a penny into a glass of pepsi, three days later he then took it out to show everyone how clean it had gotten. But my brother the moron was skipping. He came back the next day and looked into the glass and saw no penny. He asked me what had happend, and i told him it had melted because pepsi is dangerous and you should drink coke. Heh, moron. Well he belived me.

Well sorry about that folks, better warn him not to touch my stuff.

so Aaron, dont take it as me saying that, just because we are twins dosent mean we are the same and sorry about him.

You pwn'd his *** good man.

not this time :thumb: but my brothers, yes.

[_R2D2_]

But my brother the moron was skipping. He came back the next day and looked into the glass and saw no penny. He asked me what had happend, and i told him it had melted because pepsi is dangerous and you should drink coke.

:lol::lol:

[Black Rose Immortal]

for some reason i don't buy it lol j/k

[Aaron]

twins, man i hate that movie.

[Nick90]

well thats like me and him, but Im not a big Austrian man and hes not a small American.

[Ming-a-Ling]

Here's a little update on Project: Kent.

So after I got all the hardware cleaned up I embarked on my next journey, and that journey was to work on the shell. Now I had 2 options for the shell. One was to lightly sand it down getting rid of what lacquer was there so I could respray it, and the other was to remove the old finish and put on a new one. I chose to go with the former. I loaded up some 400 grit sandpaper and began sanding away the lacquer very gently. Then things took a turn for the worse. My dad decided to call me, and me being the fool I am decided I could do two things at once: talk on the phone and gently sand away lacquer from a drum. Well, I found out that night that I am not a multi-tasking individual. While on the phone my mind kind of wandered and I ended up sanding 2 spots more then I wanted to. It looked hideous. So, I hung up on my father, sweared rather liberally for the better part of an hour, and decided I better go for the latter option.

So, I began sanding the rest of the shell. It was a long and arduous task. It took it's toll on me both mentally and physically. My arms were sore, my spirits were down, and at one point I think my soul tried to leave my body. But I pressed on. After about 3 or 4 days of steady sanding I got all the old finish off that was going to come off and had the shell pretty even, barring a few spots.

http://www.jeremypantoja.com/Kent_Sanded.jpg

It was now time to stain the shell. Luckily I had some stain left from my other snare drum project and it was very close to the old color, just not as dark. So, armed with the knowledge from my last finishing job I stained it. I decided to go with a tung oil finish as apposed to a spray on gloss for this one. I think it came out pretty nicely. There are a few spots where I could have done better but I'm still learning. I let it sit for a couple days and then attached the hardware to it to take a pic and see how it's going to look.

http://www.jeremypantoja.com/Kent_Progress_01.jpg

Now all I have I have left to do is the hoops. They are proving to be very very difficult. They are the most damaged of all the pieces, and I'm still not sure how they're going to look. You can see on the picture I had started working on one of them. It looks semi-decent in the photo, but if you see it up close there is still alot of bad spots on the one clean area. Hopefully it doesn't take too much longer though. I'm very eager to finish with this project. Then I'll just need to get a couple heads for it and a new snare.

Overall I'm displeased because I wanted to preserve the vintage look, but those spots on it were so bad I couldn't just settle with that. So, it's not going to have that vintage look (the shell at least), but at least it will still have that vintage sound. And I learned a very valuable lesson: avoid the phone at all costs.

[drummingducktape]

nice job man hope it turns out ok

[iplaybass9340]

Man that looks SICK! Awesome job! Maybe on of the best re-finishings I've seen on this site.

[Ming-a-Ling]

Thanks for the compliments guys. Even though I'm bummed I couldn't keep the vintage look, I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out.

[Mündo]

Whoa! Where do you live? Fiji? Time zones really mess with things! It's still 2002 there!!?

[Ming-a-Ling]

Whoa! Where do you live? Fiji? Time zones really mess with things! It's still 2002 there!!?

Haha, yeah, the clock/calender on my camera got messed up when the battery ran dead and I haven't taken the time to figure out how to fix it.

[GooseFilms.net]

2 words: Wood hoops.

[Black Rose Immortal]

2 words: Wood hoops.

no way he should keep the original hardware on there it would ruin what he is going for. I also personally think that it came out very beautiful looking, good ojob.

[Ming-a-Ling]

I've actually considered wood hoops, and am still sort of considering them. I want to get the original hoops as best I can. If they still look awful, I might get some wood hoops. I dunno though. It's a terrible debate in my head. I really wanted to keep everything original. I went so far as to be extra careful when removing the old paper Kent badge as I want to put it back on....But, on the other hand, I messed up and had to redo the finish. But yeah. I'm going to try to get the original hoops looking good. If I cannot stand them I'll probably get some wood ones.

[Erotomania]

wow!! that turned out nicely! good job... what did you use to take off the rust?

[RichHunt]

i heard if you put a nail in coca cola for a couple days, it'll be completely gone. i wouldnt risk it...


Yeah, too right, all the coke would leak out.

[Ming-a-Ling]

wow!! that turned out nicely! good job... what did you use to take off the rust?

I used this stuff called Naval Jelly. It worked great. If you even need to remove rust, pick up some.

[Drum Monkey]

I think it still looks good :D

Great job man that is going to look/sound amazing :amaze:

-DM

[Panopticon]

thats some sexy refinishing...it looks professional...

[Ming-a-Ling]

Thanks! Yeah, we'll see how it sounds. It is a Kent snare. They weren't exactly top of the line back in the day, but I have a soft spot for pretty much any vintage drum. I might end up redoing the edges on it. That would make it sound better. We'll see though.

[Drum Monkey]

I'm sure you will be able to get it to sound good... My steel Westbury snare sounds pretty decent considering it's just a beginner piece of metal... :lol:

-DM

[lilblakdak]

Take your hoops to a chroming/plating shop. They can mediablast them and then rechrome them relatively cheap.

[drum_with_ease]

So nice.

[Jezen]

I like your pyjamas.

[TormentorScott]

and at one point I think my soul tried to leave my body.

Hah, classic. Very good job overall, restaining/refinishing can be sooooo painful, just be glad that what is probably the most annoying part (sanding) is over.

Don't get too hung up over the smaller things that went wrong. Just take a step back (mentally and physically) and just look at it, I think you'll find yourself saying "Hey that's a damn fine looking snare drum".

[Ming-a-Ling]

Thanks man. Yeah, I'm not too upset over it any more, I mean I am, I would have liked that old time look, but whatever, I can't turn back time, and it's not like it's looking terrible or anything. And yeah...the sanding was definetly terrible. These hoops are proving to pretty bad too though.