Rings

[peterpessoa]

I need advice. My djembe has a ring that is a couple centimeters wider than the shell and it is also bent out of shape.

I have changed the rope recently but did not get new rings. I thought that by tightening with care I could compensate the irregularities on my roller coaster ring. Not so.... My biggest problem however is that the skin is slipping between the rings and that is really aggravating because the rings keeps going down and down and the skin leftover smaller and smaller.

I would like to know if the rings was a bit smaller and closer to the shell the skin would not slip. Also I am getting a huge range of different harmonics, my djembe sounds like a caribean steelpan, no amount of tightening seems to fix that, is that common?

thank folas, peace!
peter

[peterpessoa]

Also I would like to know if there are any tips or techniques for maintaining the bottom ring (3rd - small one) from skewing to one side or the other during the tightening of the drum. I have tried twice to keep it align but it always ends up inclined to one side.

[rachelnguyen]

Hi Peter,

The size of the ring definitely does impact the amount of skin slippage. I have headed quite a few drums with oversized rings and almost always the skin slips more.

To reduce the skin slip, reduce the size of the rings. I'd get new ones if the old are warped. If you know a welder, get some made to fit your drum. If not, there are several places online that sell them for relatively low prices. (less than $10 each.)

You might consider wrapping the flesh ring in fabric to help prevent slipping, especially if you are using cold rolled steel rather than rebar. (I got that tip out of Michi's new drum building ibook. You can get a copy here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/djembe- ... 5750?mt=11) I have never actually done that... and with rings that are properly sized, have not had issues with slippage, even with cold rolled.

As far as the bottom ring is concerned, I know that some folks use little nails to keep it in place until the ropes are even and tight. I have gotten to a point where I can more or less keep it even without that. Tight fitting bottom rings help, although that does make roping it a challenge. Michi's book has a pretty nifty method for keeping the bottom ring even too!

If I were you, Peter, I would definitely start with the fresh set of properly sized upper rings. The lower ring is not as critical, but since you are going to have the whole drum apart, you might considered having a new one made for that, too. You will need to have a welder put it on for you, though.

Keep us posted on your progress and maybe send in pics!

Rachel

[michi]

I second Rachel's comments. Tight-fitting rings are key to avoid skin slip. I usually size rings such that there is a 3 mm to 4 mm (max) gap between the shell and the inside edge of the crown ring. That leaves just enough space to accommodate the rope loops.

Once you have the loops on the crown ring, you should be able to just push it over the bearing edge and down the side of the bowl with some force. If you have to help it along with a few taps with a mallet, that's still OK.

If the crown ring is so tight with the loops on that you can't get it to come down over the bearing edge, it needs resizing. (Too small a crown ring will crack the shell, or leave grooves in the side of the shell where the rope is pressed into the wood, or the ring will open up at the weld point because there is too much tension on it, or you will tear the skin where it is squeezed between the shell and the loops.)

The flesh ring should be the same size as the crown ring, or maybe fractionally smaller. If the rings are on the loose side, use the smaller one as the crown ring. If they are on the tight side, use the larger one as the crown ring. Ring size must not differ by more than 1/3 the thickness of the rings. If the crown ring is larger than this relative to the flesh ring, you run the risk of pulling the crown ring down over the flesh ring on one side during the dry pull.

The other key to avoiding skin slip is the number of knots. The skin is held in place only in the spots where the rope presses down onto the skin against the flesh ring. In between the cow hitches, nothing holds the skin in place at all. So, more knots means more pressure points, which makes skin slip less likely. 28 - 32 knots is a reasonable range.

If you have a rolled steel (smooth) flesh ring, make sure to wrap it generously with cloth to a thickness of about 0.5-1 mm of fabric. This allows the skin to deform itself around the rope where it contacts the flesh ring, which helps to lock it in. If you wrap the flesh ring too thinly, that deforming doesn't happen, and the skin is more likely to slip.

If you have a flesh ring made out of rebar, either don't wrap it at all (works just fine), or wrap it generously. A measly layer of wrap removes the friction you get from a ring that's not wrapped at all, and it disallows the deformation (dimples) you get in the skin with lots of wrap. In other words, a thin layer of wrap on a rebar flesh ring is worse than thick wrap and worse than no wrap at all.

For rebar flesh rings, I no longer bother with the wrap. It simply isn't necessary. For rolled steel rings, I wrap generously.

Another trick is to use the first of the hitches shown here (the one using black rope). This hitch doubles the number of pressure points where the skin is trapped, making skin slip basically impossible. The double-strand hitch does the same thing, and you may like the chunky look. Be aware that this version is difficult to tie evenly and consistently, and that tying it off cleanly is difficult too. (There are detailed explanations in my book for how to do this.)

To keep a floating bottom ring centered, the trick is to apply tension by hand evenly and slowly. Go around three to four times by hand, tightening a little bit more each time until, on the final round, you are pull as hard as you can by hand. Also, when starting to tighten on one side, tighten three or four verticals, then go to the opposite side, tightening three or four verticals there. Then to the same thing at 90 degree angles, so the ring is held in place by the higher tension at the four compass points around the perimeter. When tightening with a bar during the wet pull, check the ring position every few verticals and, if it looks like going off-center, tighten on the opposite side to re-center the ring before continuing.

If you end up with a lop-sided bottom ring after the wet pull, no problem. Let the skin dry, then loosen the verticals a little, re-center the ring, and take out slack very gradually over several rounds to keep it centered.

Cheers,

Michi.

[Beerfola]

I've had good success with preventing bottom ring drift by inserting dowels between the ring and stem. Four points (12 o'clock 3,6,9) is sufficient. When there is sufficient tension simply slide them out. (household items used in lieu of dowels)

[michi]

Yes, this can work, if you have something of just the right thickness. It's easy to end up with marks in the side of the wood though, if the pressure from the wedge against the foot gets too large. (Not a big deal, seeing that this part of the drum is rarely visible.)

Personally, I don't think it's worth the trouble though. I'd need to keep spacers of lots of different thicknesses around, seeing that I skin drums for other people, and I dislike anything that slows the process down needlessly.

If find that, with a bit of practice, it is easier and quicker to keep the ring centered by hand.

But, as always, there are many paths to drum making. Do what works for you and what makes you comfortable. After hundreds of drums, I'm still changing small aspects of my technique and continue to learn little tricks. Every now and then, one of them turns out to be good enough to keep. That's how I make progress

Michi.

[Waraba]

Have you tried temporary rope before roping? I used to get the rings in place with a piece of spare rope, that would be removed after the real rope was woven all the way around.

[michi]

Have you tried temporary rope before roping? I used to get the rings in place with a piece of spare rope, that would be removed after the real rope was woven all the way around.

No, I haven't tried this. To be honest, I'm not sure it's worth the trouble. It's really not that hard to keep the bottom ring centered without any other aids. Just take your time, and tighten the verticals gradually over several rounds, keeping an eye on the ring. It'll stay perfectly centered if you are patient without any spacers or temporary lacing.

Cheers,

Michi.

[shortypalmer]

Keeping the bottom rings straight is not hard, work the drum upside down until the ring gets set and can not move again, i find that works for me, What i do is pull the verticals with the drum right side up, go around once, turn the drum over straighten the bottom ring, turn it back over and pull the verticals again, turn the drum upside down again and straighten the bottom ring, keep doing that until the bottom ring is set. if the top ring gets out of level it can change, once the bottom ring is out it stays out of level. the other alternative is after head dries, you can loosen the verticals, straighten the bottom ring and then retighten the verticals.
as for your bent rings, you can knock them into shape with a hammer, all you need is a hard flat surface. being oversize is a different story. if you need new rings give me a call and i can help you out.
as for the skin slipping, i do not suggest putting cloth. i paint all my flesh rings to prevent rust, i feel as if cloth is put on in such a manner that when the head starts to get tight, the skin can rub on the cloth and cause it to unravel thus causing the skin to slip, painting to me is the easy way.

[michi]

Last week, I got a drum from a customer to re-skin with rings that were literally more than an inch too large in diameter, so there was a little over a half-inch gap between the outside shell wall and the inside of the rings. I explained that this is not a good thing and that it is very difficult to prevent the skin from slipping with rings that large, but the customer didn't want to pay for having the rings resized, which requires a full rebuild. (Understandably so, because the drum was one of those really cheap and nasty Ghanaian ones. No proper bowl inside, and full of rough and splintery carving. The rebuild would have cost as much as a whole new drum.)

The solution: when placing the ring on the skin, before tying off the rope loop, run a bead of clear wood glue around the outside of the ring. It glues the skin to the ring quite effectively and helps to prevent slip. Not a nice thing to do because, when it comes time to fit another skin, it's one hell of a job to get rid of all the skin fragments that end up glued to the ring.

But better than going through all the work of re-skinning, only to find that the skin won't stay in place during the dry pull…

Disclaimer: No, I do not advocate doing this, and I've done this only twice so far, in desperation. Better to get the rings re-sized.

Michi.

[flambeau]

>>To reduce the skin slip, reduce the size of the rings. I'd get new ones if the old are warped.

Rings are not that hard to true up with a hammer and a hard flat surface. Sight across the ring to see where the dips and swells are and place the ring on the hard surface with the bend in the ring curving convexedly (I love making words up) and tap the high part with the hammer. Repeat the process until sighting across the ring gives you a straight line.

>>You might consider wrapping the flesh ring in fabric to help prevent slipping, especially if you are using cold rolled steel rather than rebar.

Slipping is a real heart breaker and can ruin the sense of accomplishment you deserve from re heading the puppy. I've taken to gluing the skin to a fabric wrapped bottom ring (woven fabric, not knitted. Cotton works best for me- old bed sheets, for example) . I set the ring on the skin preparatory to folding the edges over the ring, and run a heavy bead of Tite Bond on the skin around the outside of the ring. It will add a day to the drying time, but you will never get that sinking feeling watching the edge of the skin disappear below the rings again. To remove a glued skin from the ring, soak it overnight and it will pull right off.