Drum Sleds: A Winter Drumline Dream Come True
Catagory: diy
drums + snow = fun
It was 4:30 in the morning when I got the call from Thomas.
“Chief, it’s time to go; we’re in your driveway.”
“Are you a fool? It’s f-ing four thirty in the morning; I’m not going with you guys this early! Go away!”
“I see. Markus? Do you remember that time when you lost your house key? Well, you didn’t really loose it and we’re coming in to get you.”
Fearing they’d ransack the place and steal all my food (again), I jumped out of bed, changed into some warmer cloths and headed for the kitchen. There they were, helping themselves to my tasty food.
I forgave them since it was Drumsled Day, a day we’ve all been looking forward to for pretty much our entire lives.
The idea for a Drumline Drumsled goes back years and years. Back, in fact, to the beginnings of edrumline.com. It wasn’t until a recent post to the forum that we took the idea seriously enough to bring to reality.
It was about 5:15 when we arrived at the office. We started things off by looking at some sled designs on the net. Then we checked things out in the forum, called our girlfriends (we’ll I did anyway, and before you make any accusations; No, I’m not whipped).
After accomplishing a whole lot of nothing, we headed for the basement where all the ‘mod’ drums are stored.
The first project required a bass drum, of which we happened to have just one. This particular drum once marched on the shoulders of a Bluecoat drumliner. It was red back then, but somewhere in its glorious history became covered with nasty silver paint.
With the drum selected, the challenge began. How do we get a drum to slide down a slope? Rolling down the slope was no problem (we’ve done that a hundred times), sitting still on the slope was also not a problem, but sliding? This was going too take some creative engineering.
A few of us jumped in the van and away we went. We decided that what this project really needed was a set of downhill skies; I mean a cheap set of downhill skies. As with most of the drum mod projects, a stop at the local Goodwill Thrift Store was all it took.
For a total cost of $2.14, we had just what was needed. While we out making purchases, Boom-Boom stayed behind to cut the bass drum in half. He also cut the heads and rims.
Attaching the skies wasn’t as big of a chore as we expected. We drilled holes across the boot mounts and then ran a tension rod through the hole and into the drum’s hardware casing. It held great, and prevented any need for extra screws or fasteners.
We loaded the contraption into the van and headed for a nearby hill.