ABS Tube Drum
Designed By Dan Bruner
([email protected])

These drums are good for accompanying your didjerido music or to use by themselves. Using an ABS coupling for the same diameter pipe of the Didjerido, I made a drum head out of plain old tire inner tube material and a hose clamp. I also designed a yolk-like device that will hold three pipes at one time. The idea is that you make three drum heads, and the holder, and you can use any combination of note pipes to make a three piece tube drum. I only designed the holding device for three drums because any more would be too big to put under your arm or between your knees (however, you could build a rack of some kind...).

I think the drawings are pretty self explanatory, but here's just a few things. When making the drum head you have to adjust your hose clamp so that you can barely push it over the rubber onto the coupling. Once it is set, place the hose clamp on a reliable table, place the rubber piece centered on top of that, then place the coupling centered on top of everything. With your hands push down on the assembly, using your entire body weight if necessary, until it slips together. It should stay at this point, but it doesn’t hurt to keep a little pressure on it while you tighten the hose clamp. If everything didn't remain centered then start over. Once that's done you can clip off some of the excess hose clamp leaving about an inch. You’ll need that extra inch if you ever have to readjust the drum head or replace the rubber. That's it for the drum head. Just make two more and you’ll have enough for the drum holder.

The drum holder is a clamp-like device made from ordinary 2x4 lumber. A hole saw works best for the three drum holes, but there are other ways to go about it... You will want to drill the three drum holes and your two bolt holes before you cut the board into two pieces. This will insure that everything lines up later on. Use ordinary 1/4 inch bolts that are longer than 3 1/2 with some wing nuts to hold the assembly together. Last of all use some washers with your bolts and wing nuts to help spread the pressure over the surface of the wood when assembled.

That's it, paint or stain your drum holder and put it all together. You don't have to crush your pipes to keep them in place, just tighten it enough so that they don't slip out. Sit down and put the drum under your arm or stand up putting the drum between you legs. Either way the open ends of the pipe will be behind you. Use your finger tips to strike the drum heads and make some music.

You can use any combination of note pipes, but realize that they are no longer specific notes like they were with the didjerido. The idea is just to get three that sound good in combination and work with that. I like to use three that are dramatically different from each other (ex. the largest pipe, the smallest pipe and the middle sized pipe).