Ludwig was known to do whatever it took to get a drum out the door. have read many stories of them using whatever was around to complete a drum and also using odd items of old stock to keep from wasting things. just an idea.

mike

+1 to Mike with Ludwig...(esp. in the 60`s)...it`s one big crap shoot with that era of Luddies but it certainly keeps the forum guessing.I love these type of posts.

Wayne

Tough to say but the Ludwigs were very frugal about materials. if they stumbled onto a good deal on some copper washers they'd no doubt be willing to take advantage of that deal. I doubt they made their own washers, but if they did and there were some leftover copper about (from slow selling copper timbales perhaps) they might have turned it into washers. Who knows? They might just as easily be something someone switched out (although again...Why copper?) but with Ludwig it's hard to ever know as they did whatever it took to keep drums rolling out of the plant and didn't waste anything.

Quite true - they'd throw anything on the shells to get them out the door in the mid-sixties. I haven't checked the rest on the kit's lug screws/washers yet, but it appears that about 90% of them have the same paint as the interior shells. Some of them (in the bass drum) were corroding a bit, so that's why I cleaned them last night and made the copper discovery. The washers are permanently affixed to the screws (that is, the washers freely rotate, but won't come off the screws because of the threads), so they were definitely a package deal. I'm still torn about whether to clean them all, which will remove the paint, or leave the good ones alone. I'm always thinking resale value, even if I keep them forever.

Copper is a good material to use for those washers and why you need them there. If the bolt catches the hoop on just one edge first and scratches into the hoop, you need to repair the hoop.

Good point, but I think you might've mistaken my comments to be about tension rods. I'm actually referring to the internal screws and washers that hold the lug casings to the shell. These Ludwigs are date stamped Jun. 1965, and the washers are distinctly copper in appearance.

there brass

Brass would be more plausible, but these washers are distinctly copper in appearance. The screws on the left are the way they look before cleaning; the two at right are after cleaning.

scrape them and u will see the goldish color it a oxidation

So, you're saying the white substance is oxidation and not Ludwig's internal shell paint? I hadn't considered that...