Forum and Festy Newbie

[RockettMan]

I'm a newbie here and was wondering if any of you experienced Festys might have a solution. I own and operate a custom drum company and often need to cut down pieces of ply drum cylinders. Besides a table saw, any ideas on how to do this? I no longer have a table saw in my new shop as besides this function, it does little more than take up room and become a "catch-all". I can always bust out my Carvex and get a decent cut, but would wind up sanding a ton.

Thanks in advance!
Rik

 

[rljatl]

A large bandsaw?  

Or maybe build a special jig to hold the drum on it's side. Then a flat board would cover the top of the drum side.  The side of the drum where you want the cut would be visible through a slot in the flat board.  Then, you could lay a guide rail on top of the flat board beside the slot where you want the cut.  The track saw would then be used to cut through the drum.  A second person could rotate the drum while you control the track saw.  Comprede?

 

[Colonel Panic]

A small router table with a good fence?

 

[RockettMan]

Here's what one guy did with a small table saw. There has to be a similar way with a Track Saw, I'd think.

 

[Thunderchyld]

What about building a jig using a horizontal router and a lazy susan bearing?  Adjust the router to height, then spin the bearing to rotate the drum. 

 

[RockettMan]

That's a good idea! I thought about a router because I like the job it does on ply shells. No tear out. The drum has to be held down really tightly. Hmmmm….

What about building a jig using a horizontal router and a lazy susan bearing?  Adjust the router to height, then spin the bearing to rotate the drum. 

 

[Thunderchyld]

I was thinking about this topic again, as I was at a biz auction and there was an enormous rotary table for sale, must have been 4' diameter and probably 3x my mass.  that would work for everything up to marching bass and tympani.  Too bad I've seen entire shops that could fit into the space it did. 

If I were to build a drum shell cutting jig from scratch right now, I'd probably set up an expanding plug that would fit in the drum cylinder.  I'd have to play with the design a little bit, but I'd make a center post/spindle that has arms coming off of it, kind of like an expanding bore hone.  Sizing of the spindle and arms would depend on the diameter of the drum shells of course.  I think I'd go with screw posts for the arms rather than spring loaded, two sets of arms, three arms in each clamping area.  This would allow both sides of the cut to be supported.  Pressure pads of hardwood, backed with cork or rubber for grip.  The spindle would then insert into a bearing post, possibly one for both sides.  This, I guess you could call it a cradle, design would also possibly allow you to keep the drum shell on the spindle for other steps.  Add a motor to it and ya might as well just call it a drum lathe.  If you'd like me to draw up a sketch, lemme know.  Might be good incentive to clean off my drafting table(or learn sketch up, lol).

 

[Kev]

This is when a light sabre would be really useful !

I'd personally go the CARVEX route, but make a collar for the cylinder as a guide and a curved plate for the CARVEX - then follow the collar as your guide path.

 

[RockettMan]

Thank you for putting all the thought into this. I smell what yer cooking'! There is a guy who makes staved drums and uses the expanding arm idea for the lathe portion of the process. Not sure where he got that thing or if he made it. I'll do some looking around the net.

Thanks again!

I was thinking about this topic again, as I was at a biz auction and there was an enormous rotary table for sale, must have been 4' diameter and probably 3x my mass.  that would work for everything up to marching bass and tympani.  Too bad I've seen entire shops that could fit into the space it did. 

If I were to build a drum shell cutting jig from scratch right now, I'd probably set up an expanding plug that would fit in the drum cylinder.  I'd have to play with the design a little bit, but I'd make a center post/spindle that has arms coming off of it, kind of like an expanding bore hone.  Sizing of the spindle and arms would depend on the diameter of the drum shells of course.  I think I'd go with screw posts for the arms rather than spring loaded, two sets of arms, three arms in each clamping area.  This would allow both sides of the cut to be supported.  Pressure pads of hardwood, backed with cork or rubber for grip.  The spindle would then insert into a bearing post, possibly one for both sides.  This, I guess you could call it a cradle, design would also possibly allow you to keep the drum shell on the spindle for other steps.  Add a motor to it and ya might as well just call it a drum lathe.  If you'd like me to draw up a sketch, lemme know.  Might be good incentive to clean off my drafting table(or learn sketch up, lol).