rerouting keystone ludwig’s

[mikepmcde]

Hi all, before I get going on redoing my ludwigs which I tentatively plan on rerouting- especially my ludwig standards- I would like clarification on one specific and niche topic..... rerouting where the reinforcement rings overlap and cause inconsistency in ring width.

So obviously if you reroute that ring overlap the pilot with follow the contour and cause the bearing edge to be inconsistent, but my question is can you get away with rerouting the interior by raising the bit up just a hair and potentially replacing the bit for a larger angle to reach under the rering without taking too much material off?

attached is a rough depiction

PS I do not intend to use 45 degrees on my 60's keystones, I plan to use a less steep angle like 60 or so.

 

[Tommy D]

Cutting edges on old Ludwigs sucks. Those rerings are complete garbage. Honestly I don't understand how they are so inconsistent in thickness. It almost like it was purposefully done that way, but I have no idea why. Laziness??? Every drum has that funky 2-3" wide gouge taken out where it's at least 1/16" to 1/8" thinner than the rest, then the scarf joint is thicker by a significant margin. What a cluster of a mess. Don't forget that the outside has a hump at the scarf joint where the wrap literally goes under the wood shell... At least you can file that down and get the outside edge to be consistent, but the inside??? There isn't much you can do to get it consistent with a router. When I used to cut the interior edges I would avoid cutting in the areas that were low (thin) and cut the rest. I would file back the high (thick) areas to blend with the rest of the shell. I would also intentionally leave just a bit more flat spot across the apex because it's easier to file or sand that last 1/16" by hand than rip through it with a router blade spinning at 15k rpm's. You go too deep with a router and you have to completely start over if you haven't fubar'ed the whole job.