Shell Inner Ply Delaminating

[Pete Stoltman]

I have an old Sonor Teardrop era floor tom. The inner wood ply is delaminating in one spot. At this point it is not having a noticeable effect on the sound but I would hate to have it get worse. Does anyone have experience with this type of repair. I'm inclined to shoot a little wood glue down into the gap and clamp it but open to suggestions.
Thanks

[Webmaster]

That is what I have heard of for this repair. I personally have not
done it. Be careful not to glue the clamps down so apply pressure and wipe and probably repeat a few times before the final clamping.

I asked a friend and got this response.

Get some Weldbond or even Elmer's Carpenter Glue ( yellow ) and run it between the de-laminating pieces, clamp, wipe off the excess IMMEDIATELY with warm water and a rag, ( BOTH these glues are water based, yet flexible ), and let dry thoroughly. That should do it! (TommyP)

David

[Pete Stoltman]

Thanks David. That's the info I was looking for.

[O-Lugs]

I've never done this repair, but I have heard that the best way to repair a delamination is to get a syringe and either inject the glue from an accessible spot or carefully drill (or stab with the needle) into the center of the delaminated section and then carefully (as to not bruise the wood) clamp the delamination together until the excess glue squeezes out . MAKE SURE THERE IS NO GLUES RESIDUE ON THE BEARING EDGE!!

[Pete Stoltman]

Thanks O-lugs. Fortunately this is pretty accessible so I don't think I'll have much problem getting the glue in there but great idea about using the syringe.

[zeeb]

I just performed similar fix on a 1950 Gretsch snare and tom with significant inner ply separation -- after LOTS of internet research and thought -- here's what I did:

1. find a good round section of the shell and trace the inner diameter on the 3.5" side of a 2 x 4. Slowly cut through the arc with a jig saw and inspect when you're done (blade wander). Perform 2 straight cuts on the 2 x 4 -- one inch from where the arc hits the side of the board on both sides of the arc. Now you have 2 pieces that you can use for clamping each side of the shell in the affected zone of separation.

2. Since I could not easily pull the plies together, I made a 'make-shift' steam heater. I used my son's cold mister and blew this moisture into the intake of my wife's hair dryer and onto the affected area. I don't know if this is safe, but worked fine. After heating the ply for about 1 minute, I clamped the zone with some Robogrips and the blocks I used for 24 hour. Now I'm ready to glue.

3. I went to Woodcraft and found this really neat "Chair Doctor" glue kit with a syringe and 3 different needle sizes. I used Titebond III inside this syringe. The Chair Doctor glue said it expanded -- not what I wanted to do.

4. If I could inject glue from the edge near the bearing surface, that's where I did it. Sometimes I used my pic set (Craftsman) to wedge the plies apart enough to fit the needle into. One zone was in the middle of the shell and I bought a 1/16" drill bit and drilled at angle and again carefully used one of my pics to separate the plies slightly.

5. Sometimes if I needed the smallest needle size, I'd blow the hairdryer on the Titebond III glue to reduce the viscocity. Again, I don't know if this was safe to do, but worked fine.

6. After injecting glue, wipe excess with damp paper towel. Clamp joint and again wipe the glue that was extruded from clamping. Careful not to glue the blocks to the shell -- sometimes I put some duct tape on the blocks so I could separate after drying, but never had an adhesion problem. Leave clamped for 24 hours.

7. Clean the syringe and purge needles with water.

8 BUY AMERICAN!!!!