DK Percussion

06/20/2025

It's been a while since the last episode... this one is rather unfortunate.

In this episode of the Light Timpani Rebuild, we explore what went wrong with the chrome plating process. Unfortunately this isn't a "shined and polished" vi...

05/20/2025

"Hey, maybe I'll switch back to calf sometime this week and get some work done in the shop..."
The local news:

04/17/2025

Walter (my 31”) got jealous of all the time I’ve been spending on other timpani that he started complaining. Swapping to plastic today and tidying up a few …complaints.

04/03/2025

03/24/2025

After a great week with Greenville Symphony Orchestra and Furman Percussion headed up the road to visit pennstatepercussion for some timpani repairs!

03/08/2025

Casting, take 2, went better! Hoping take 3 (and 4) are even better. A few thoughts: I need three castings: one to hang onto to copy again, one to machine for a customer, and one to hang onto in case machining goes poorly.
Also, there's a proper tool for everything and I didn't intend to show the world what tool I used to make a vent hole... in the wrong direction. Can you tell what it was?

02/27/2025

So... it begins. Christmas '23 @ bought me a metal melting furnace set to start learning about casting and mould making. Tonight was the result of over a year of YouTube learning, reading, and lots and lots of thinking. Is this first casting perfect? Absolutely not. Is it far better than could have been expected? Absolutely. Captions on FB photos.

02/21/2025

New blog post bringing back a familiar image from the past - learn your vocab!

Click on the part of the timpani for a further explanation: Part Name   This image is from the original American Drum Manufacturing Company’s website,…

02/12/2025

Photo dump from the last week or so of shop work. Flesh hoops to their owner and laser cut one piece gauge pointers to replace an original broken Spenke part. And the new website is functioning! Time for a break?

02/10/2025

"New" site! Well, sort of. I needed to switch providers and thus needed to rework a lot of my stuff. Check it out and use "NEWSITE" to save 10% on your order through next Sunday!

A machine shop based business serving the needs of timpanists and percussionists worldwide.

01/07/2025

Cast aluminum hanger arm; cast threaded portion snapped under tension. All fixed and ready to return to its owner! (Captions on photos.)

12/13/2024

Been busy getting the new shop set up (IE rebuild a mill and lathe) and haven’t posted in a while. Here’s a photo dump: