Floor tom to Kick drum conversion on a tight budget. +updated+

This Instructable will show you how to turn a floor tom into a kick drum utilizing existing hardware and cheap materials.

Be sure to look at all the pictures

I will also explain how I stripped and refinished my drum and how to port your front head with a normal household can.

I apologize for not including step by step pictures. I didn't think to take pictures during the process.

This entire project came together very well for me.

So lets get started with the materials.

Step 1 Materials and tools

Materials for stripping and refinishing:

Sand paper

Mod Podge

Foam brushes - a few large and small

razor knife

disposable bowl or cup for the mod podge

magazines or books

Materials for the floor tom conversion:

See picture for sizes

1 pack of washers

1 pack of screws

1 pack of bolts with nuts.

Memory foam pillow from the Goodwill.

3 pieces of builders hardware including a T shaped piece and 2 L shaped pieces.
See the picture.

One piece of mahogany flooring sample.

Foam can cozy

Zip ties

Drill

Comments

[bigredlevy]

I converted my floor tom today. my method was a little different, as I need to be able to change it back quickly. Check it out on my blog http://levysounddesign.blogspot.com/

[boonokian]

Very nice. Simple, effective. Thanks for sharing, and thanks for checking out my instructable.

cheers

[tudgeanator]

This is awesome! I did this with a 14x14 floor tom and it is now much more portable ( I can fit my whole kit in one long cylindrical bag), but most importantly, it sounds amazing! Great 'ible. And I'm thinking of re-finishing my snare like you've done here, but do you think I could print off designs onto glossy paper and use those? And what is Mod Podge? I'm in the UK and i have no idea what it is. Is it a resin or something?

[boonokian]

I am super happy that my 'ible worked out for you. Id love to see a picture of your drum. I am pretty sure that you can print out your own pictures to cover your drum but I'm not positive. For more on Mod podge and decoupage techniques check out their page. http://www.plaidonline.com/apMP.asp Once you get some Mod podge or another equivalent product. You may want to print one picture and try to apply it to a spare piece of wood or something to make sure it doesn't make the ink run. Thanks for using my instructable and thanks for letting me know how it worked out for you. All the best, Boo

[tudgeanator]

Pictures uploaded. Slow because I was waiting for a new resonant head for the kick, but gave up waiting - it's arriving tomorrow. I re-finished the tom with pages from 'The Beano', don't know if you get it in the states (I'm from the UK), but it's a comic for children that I found a stash of old ones in my room. I ended up using watered down PVA to paste the comic pages to the drum and to varnish it, and imh it turned out pretty well. I think a coat of polyurethane varnish will up the shiny-ness and professional-looking-ness of it, but i wont be doing that for a while because i have no money. One question, what effect does porting the resonant head make on the tone of the drum? And how would you best suggest tuning my kick for jungle/Drum and bass, and jazz?

[bigredlevy]

For tuning, This Site is full of really good info. I play a bit of everything. I usually have a pillow against a tight batter head, then the resonant head tuned low.

[boonokian]

The drum looks great. I like how colorful it is with the comics.

The porting is supposed to give you a tighter punchier sound with less resonance. But if you do port the front head ,don't make it too big. If it is too big it will be like not having a front head at all

As far as tuning i can't really help you with that one. I am still playing around with the tuning of my kick. I have even considered removing the muffling. I would imagine you are gonna want to tune it pretty low. And you might want to experiment with some muffling. Just keep trying it until you dig the sound. Also have someone else play the drum if you can. So you can hear how it sounds from in front of the kit instead of just behind it.

Have fun groovin,

[colinlewis]

I like your solution a lot better than one I did, which was basically a cradle for the drum made out of plywood. Correction: I believe Step 3 should read "90 degrees" not 180.

[boonokian]

Thanks for checking out my instructable. I am glad that you liked it . Thanks for the correction too. I already fixed it. Take care B