what thickness of wood...

[Wood_workur]

would be able to wrap around a 3" (three inch) radius (6" diameter)? and then would an inner tube (or 2) be sufficient clamping power? I'm thinking of trying my hand at making some octobans

but I think I'd have better luck using wood than spending $200+ on acrylic to make them


edit- I'd also like to add in that they layers have to alternate like plywood.

[Martin]

bendable plywood

Many years ago, Woodcraft had nice 3in dia. plywood cylinders, but now, I can't find them in the catalog.
Lee Valley has Finnish Baltic Birch plywood bendable to 1 1/2 inch diameter. Other thickness will bend to 3in. dia.

[Wood_workur]

If i took 3 layers of the 1.5 mm thick wood and made the 6" diameter cylinder (3/16's thick and 9 plies) would it be strong enough to support the tension of drumheads?

edit- looking at the amount of wood I would need its 3 sheets per drum (I'm making 8 hopefully) which would be $500 for the wood its self.

Does home depot of lowes carry 5" pvc and couplers? that would get me very close to 6 (about 1/8" too small) which wouldn't make much of a difference.

[Uncle Cracker]

You can find 5" PVC at some home centers. Although not much in use for pressurized water applications, it is more common for drainage and ventilation. Be careful, though, because thinner wall or styrene-based pipe (read: cheap) is not very stable, and will either distort easily, or crack if you just breathe on it. Schedule 40 pressure-rated PVC pipe would be better, if you can find any.

[drumpriest]

Alex, great thread and I hope it'll work for you, I've had a piccolo snare on my list for quite a while.

First, most drum shells of quality are made from curly hard maple. Great resonance, and a good veneer wood. Typically you will bend this via the "bent wood laminate" method. Step one is to create a bending form. In your case, that would mean being able to make a bunch of 3/4 circles, and the negative of that, with a difference in diameter of the thickness you want the shells to be.

Then you make or buy veneer, and soak it in water for at least an hour, and glue it together in the form. A urea formaldehyde glue is popular for this now, because of the slow set time and extra rigid set.

I'm figuring on making my form by stacking up a bunch of 3/4" MDF, cutting out the circles with a router on a trammel arm from squares that have enough extra to stay together and give me some clamping surface.

[Wood_workur]

I did some reading and searching, and I think I got it figured out. In the recent edition of wood they talked about using heat and those circular pipe clamps that you have on your dryer to shrink the end of a pvc pipe. I'll get some 6" pipe and make a for that I'll slip inside then shrink it to the form so that I have an OD of 6" That will get the pipe small enough that the head and rim will fit on. I also saw this some where else on the internet, they guy used an oven. How hot does PVC need to be to be able to work it like that? Could I stick the end in boiling water, or would I need to use the oven? $500 in plywood is way out of my budget for this, even though it is cheaper than buying them from Tama ($700 for 4)

[siliconbauhaus]

Wouldn't searching on CL for a set of tama octobans be easier once you add up the cost of the wood plus your time plus a potential goof?