Rob's 2Box DIY Ludwig Kit

[ROB219]

Hi guys, I am new to this forum but some of you may know me from over on VDrums.com as "rasoo" I've been hanging around on there since 2006.

Anyway recently I decided to change over from my Roland based DIY A-E conversion to a Drumit5 module and 2Box hihat pad.
I take delivery of the module and hats early next week as I write this.

The kit in focus is a modified Ludwig Epic Modular kit. It was originally a blue/black fade with twin 20 x 8" kicks. Toms are 10 x  8, 12 x 8, 14 x 12 and 16 x 12. Snare is 13 x 6.

Here is the donor kit:






All mounts on a Roland MDS-25 rack (strong!!) I currently have Roland cymbals which I have used before with a 2Box module and they work fine.
I'll be DIY'ing a new 20" ride and a lower hat "cymbal" for the HiHats. Some custom mods for the HiHat clutch are also on the cards.

In its current form the kit sports a "Marble" wrap in a blue/Black colour. That will be going in favour of this new Tangarine Sparkle wrap:



Its ordered and should be coming in from the USA soon.

In the meantime I had (with the help of my mate and fellow member on here "Twisted Mellow" Ian) some custom 2Box decals made from artwork supplied, I got some orange decals made for the front of the kick drum head and some smaller white ones for the bottoms of the custom cymbals I'll be doing. Oh, the cymbal bases will be painted in a lovely bright orange to match the Module.
More on them later....

The front kick decal fitted:



Notice the drum is still in its old colour, like I say I don't have the new wrap through yet, but the black hoops will stay.

So, I'll post more as it comes to hand, happy to field questions and comments/suggestions are more than appreciated!!

Rob.

[puttenvr]

We all want that 2Box logo on the fronthead so much ...
How did you?

[ROB219]

We all want that 2Box logo on the fronthead so much ...
How did you?

Went to 2Box site and downloaded a .PDF file which had the 2Box logo on it. I then took a screen shot, and cleaned up the logo in MS Paint, I also changed it over to the orange from black.

Once I had the orange logo, it was not near the quality needed to be plotted by the sign maker, so I had the .BMP rendered/vectored to a higher quality (.PDF)
I then sent that file to the sign maker, who then made me 4 x large orange logos (150mm / 6" tall) , and 8 x smaller (75mm / 3" tall) in white. These smaller ones I'll use for my DIY cymbals I am making.

Cost was $51 AUD and $5.60 for postage.
The place I had them made was stickerart.com.au  (he may even still have the file... if not I can supply it)

Service was exceptional, next day I had them!!

[twisted.mellow]

Orange-ifying the kit - sounds good! And the logo came up really nice

Damn these ranga kits... now thinking orange wrap for mine!

[ROB219]

Completed the lower hat today.

Sorry I didn't get any pics of me cutting the 1" edge off the donor 14" crash to make it 12" diameter... trust me I did it... by hand with cutters!!!  Cleaned the edge up with my angle grinder and going over it lightly.

Nor did I get any pics of me drilling the grommet hole, drilling/grinding the grommet or putting the cymbal into etch primer... but yeah I did that too.

What I DID get pics of follows:

Painted and ready for decal and edging:



This is the grommet. I modified a blanking one I had to have the hole large enough for the signal cable to pass through. Did this with a Dremel, the hole in the cymbal was also made larger with the Dremel as well. I'll also mod this to accept the lead for the cable... it will keep it in place as well.





This is the cymbal inner with rubber edge fitted, the rubber edge used to adorn the rims of the toms. I took the rubber off because I will no longer be using the rim triggers on the toms, the edge is made 1" shorter than the cymbal so that it "stretches" on to give a nice snug fit:



Underside of hat bottom, painted, grommet fitted and new decal to go on:



And the finished cymbal:





Now to get started on the Ride. That will be during the week!

[edtc]

impressive work on your bottom hats !!

what system are you planning to use for the edge switch  of your 20" ride cymbal ?

[ROB219]

Not going to worry about the edge really, I don't use the edge on the ride at all. All I want is bow and bell.

Makes life easy come build time.

[edcito]

Welcome on board Rob, you gonna have a lot of fun creating those dsnd's

[ROB219]

Thanks mate! I will indeed. 

[roel]

nice work Rob, Looks cool!

[ROB219]

Some more updates!!

Ok, so to start here is the finished HiHat. The original magnet goes inside the bell, placed on a HiHat base felt of about 1/4" thickness. This just raises it a touch to meet the sensor better.

Also, I added another inner ring of rubber to the edge. This actually sits the 2Box hat up about 1/4" as well... perfect seating position for the magnetic "thing" ... sorry I have no idea what to call it... we'll call it the magnetic actuator. Yeah, that sounds tech savvie I reckon.

Some pics:

Underside



And regular view, open



.....closed



Inside of hats... This shows how I overlapped the edging to get the outer edge to raise the upper hat pad. I did this to clear the grey jack box on the underside of the 2Box HH pad.





Inside of bottom hat assembly:



Inner workings assembled:



....cont

[ROB219]

Now for the progress on the ride.

Donor cymbal painted underside, resting on the 3mm thick smooth rubber sheet that will form the playing surface:



Once that was all done I worked out a solution for mounting the Jack housing, and the piezo housing as well. I was going to incorporate the whole thing in one... but I just worked with what I had available to me. I bought a small die cast Aluminium box to house the jack. I also turned up a 2 piece piezo housing that has easy access for any future mods.

So, here is the completed assembled Piezo housing, before fitment to the cymbal.



Its underside (which I didn't photgraph unfortunately..) is profile shaped to match the inner bell profile of the cymbal. I did this to make it easier to attach the housing to the cymbal. As it will be pop riveted, if it were flat, the rivets would not reach though and grab... also it would make it prone to damage with a poor fit.

Here is the housing dry fitted to the cymbal, for matching and drilling:





The inside of the housing, has a cut out for the piezo to mount directly the the metal cymbal, on a double thickness disc of double sided tape.



Riveting the assembly to the cymbal.



And how the piezo will mount:



This pic shows Aluminium box used to house the jack, and where it will locate:



....cont

[ROB219]

Now, you'll notice the small hole under the jack, this is where the piezo wires come through from the piezo housing, I ground a small valley to accomodate the wires so they would not get crushed by the top plate when fitted.



This is a close up of it:



Ready for soldering:



And soldered:



And finally the completed assembly, all protected and no stray wires or risk of piezo damage. Sturdy too.... a must I say.





I couldn't help myself! I had to sit it in the kit to see how much better it will be when done!







So, all I have left to do is fit the top rubber sheet, edge it with a little cutting device I devised, and fit the rubber outer edge.

[ROB219]

Oh.. I also made up a little mount for the module too... took all of 10 minutes!

[roel]

Nice work Rob I will post some photo's soon of my upgraded 2box kit.