Refinishing your drumset! (getting an awesome natural finish DIY)

[malmbas]

Man, I've done that heaps of times. You sand through to the finer grades of sandpaper, which start to polish the surface, and then you see all the low spots that the rougher paper didn't get. Freakin annoying i know

If the shells are pretty porous it really helps to prep the shells with a sealer or filler coat. Otherwise you need to keep clear coating, knock back sand, clear coating, knock back etc... until the deep spots are filled so you have a relatively flat surface the wet sand
Did you use a sanding sealer before the poly?

I use Meguiars 'Wet Look' a lot, it really brings shells alive after the long sanding, finish cutting etc.. process. It doesn't really have that much cutting compound in it, because it's meant for the end of the buffing process, so it's alright to apply by hand if you don't have a buffing machine. Might just give you a little bit more of that 'shine' you're looking for

Anyway the kit looks really cool as it is mate!
It must have the soul of a green kit, that's why it changed

 

[Composer of Requiems]

Heh I was thinking, "How bad can it get? Never mind, I'll just throw on some lacquer and knock it off later with sand...."

Well, now I know better XD!

 

[shawal]

wow. this is great man. very informative and detailed. thanks

 

[marilynmanson]

Looks cool. But after refinished the whole drum kit.. What really matter is... Does it actually affect the sound quality..?

 

[AaronP]

Hey guys! I know its been ages since the last activity in the thread, but this thread actually did help me quite a bit in my own similar project so I thought i'd try to give back to the community by making sort of a video tutorial on how to do it.

I realised then when you're actually doing it, you encounter a lot more things than pictures can show, so if any one else here is interested, here's the link to the series - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4_vTfGcZH5Z5N14WZdIiR0a8ONNGjxU4

(P.S its contexted for Singapore!)
(P.S.S Thank you so much for the original post!)

 

[Vgfghlj]

Different drumsets will probably be glued differently. My Pearl Target had seals at the edges and down the length of the shell, while the Pearl Forum that I worked with was glued only at the overlapping area.