Restoring an old drum kit

sh1tin-a-brick

Hello all,

Having trouble getting much info on this. My mother spotted an old, very worn and rusty kit in a charity shop. I've always been interested in battering around and getting the basics of drumming (I play guitar mainly, just a bit interested in trying my hand at it). The kit was £15 sterling, I told her to pick it up because that's half nothing.

Had a look at it there, it's a Millenium and in fairly bad shape. The chrome is mostly rusted and the cymbols are woeful. The kick pedal is working though and the skins are all intact. I know it's not a good kit, but it'll do. There's a second snare that is a different make and seems a lot better than the included one. Only problem is, the stand for the snare is missing, any idea on getting one of those relatively cheaply?

I'm not really interested in the usual responses of "it's a crap kit" or "it's not worth it", "buy a different one". I haven't the money for a kit, and as mentioned I'm literally just going to be banging around on it. I think it'll be a nice little project to try and give it a bit of life.

Any advice on what I'd need to get for cleaning up the rust, and would a spray of WD40 be any good for keeping the pedals going? Or even better, any links to articles, tutorials etc for this kind of thing?

Thanks!

daireaire28

sh1tin-a-brick wrote: »

Hello all,

Having trouble getting much info on this. My mother spotted an old, very worn and rusty kit in a charity shop. I've always been interested in battering around and getting the basics of drumming (I play guitar mainly, just a bit interested in trying my hand at it). The kit was £15 sterling, I told her to pick it up because that's half nothing.

Had a look at it there, it's a Millenium and in fairly bad shape. The chrome is mostly rusted and the cymbols are woeful. The kick pedal is working though and the skins are all intact. I know it's not a good kit, but it'll do. There's a second snare that is a different make and seems a lot better than the included one. Only problem is, the stand for the snare is missing, any idea on getting one of those relatively cheaply?

I'm not really interested in the usual responses of "it's a crap kit" or "it's not worth it", "buy a different one". I haven't the money for a kit, and as mentioned I'm literally just going to be banging around on it. I think it'll be a nice little project to try and give it a bit of life.

Any advice on what I'd need to get for cleaning up the rust, and would a spray of WD40 be any good for keeping the pedals going? Or even better, any links to articles, tutorials etc for this kind of thing?

Thanks!

If your looking for a kit for just starting out, your better off with a crappy little thing until you get the hang of things and become addicted lol

There are very basic snare stands on musicstore.com, probably the cheapest would be around 20-25euro, but as you said... your only looking for something to bang around on!


For the rust, I use Brasso and it really brings out a shine on the HHx's! I remember reading on some forum a while back that apparently 'Turtle wax chrome polish'
is great for rust problems also.


Hope you get going!

desertcircus

sh1tin-a-brick wrote: »

Hello all,

Having trouble getting much info on this. My mother spotted an old, very worn and rusty kit in a charity shop. I've always been interested in battering around and getting the basics of drumming (I play guitar mainly, just a bit interested in trying my hand at it). The kit was £15 sterling, I told her to pick it up because that's half nothing.

Had a look at it there, it's a Millenium and in fairly bad shape. The chrome is mostly rusted and the cymbols are woeful. The kick pedal is working though and the skins are all intact. I know it's not a good kit, but it'll do. There's a second snare that is a different make and seems a lot better than the included one. Only problem is, the stand for the snare is missing, any idea on getting one of those relatively cheaply?

I'm not really interested in the usual responses of "it's a crap kit" or "it's not worth it", "buy a different one". I haven't the money for a kit, and as mentioned I'm literally just going to be banging around on it. I think it'll be a nice little project to try and give it a bit of life.

Any advice on what I'd need to get for cleaning up the rust, and would a spray of WD40 be any good for keeping the pedals going? Or even better, any links to articles, tutorials etc for this kind of thing?

Thanks!

Is there a brand name on the other snare?

MixedUpMick

Millenium is the store brand for Thomann Music Store in Germany in case you didn't know. If you have a look at thomann.ie you might be able to find your kit on the site and see what it looked like new.

You can get cheap snare stands from Thomann, but it will cost you and extra €15 for the delivery so you're better off getting one locally in a music shop or second hand (donedeal/craigslist).

For the rusty rims and lugs, I recommend Silvo (from the makers of Brasso). You should get that in any hardware shop. If any of the black rubber washers are missing off the tuning rods you can pick them up in a hardware shop too and they'll only cost a few cents. Bring one washer with you so you can get the right size. A tiny dab of 3-in-1 oil to lubricate the tuning rods wouldn't go amiss either.

Millenium drums are not as bad as people make out. It's all the cheap extras that let them down, but the drum shells themselves should be decent if they haven't warped. You should take off the skins and measure the diameter of each drum across the middle with a measuring tape. Make sure it's the same distance all the way around. While you're at it, check if the interior surface is smooth and that the edges are even all the way around. If all that checks out, the drums will sound good with fresh skins (but skins are not cheap I'm afraid).

The best thing you can probably do is get a local drummer to call around and help you set up the kit and look for any problems. Most drummers would be happy to natter away about drums with you for an hour or so. I'd take a look myself if you weren't so far away.

All said, this sounds like a fun project.