How to Make a Steel Pan Drum

The Steel Drum or Pan drum; as it's often called, is the newest instrument on Earth. Invented sometime in the 1930's, the Steel Drum has gained popularity at a remarkable rate. You can hear the Steel Drum in many genres of music - Reggae bands, rock groups, classical ensembles, jazz combos, and just about any other kind of music you can think of.

Things You'll Need

• 55-gallon oil drum
• 40-pound sledgehammer
• A template
• A tuning device
• Paint or Chrome for decoration (optional)

Instructions

1. 

   There are three total necessary steps in making a steel drum. But don't let the number of steps make you think the process is simple. Making a steel drum (also called a Pan Drum) is not easy. Much labor and time goes into such a project. For a beginner, it's near impossible to create a steel drum that is of good quality. In fact, most of those making steel drums out there today have studied under a professional drum maker for many years - often 10 years or more!

2. 

   A 55 gallon oil drum is selected. High quality is absolutely necessary.
   A 40 pound hammer is used on the bottom of the barrel in order to stretch the barrel into a concave, bowl shape. The process of stretching the bottom of the barrel into this bowl shape is called "sinking the pan". This bit of making a steel drum is both incredibly loud and exhausting - making this the most grueling part of making your drum. It's also a bit tedious as you have to be most careful to stretch the barrel very evenly and also not to destroy the barrel by deforming the ring.

3. 

   The steel must be tempered next. This makes the steel exceptionally strong and prepares it for the rigors of the tuning process.
   To temper your barrel, you will build a very hot fire - heat up the steel for a short time and then cool the red hot barrel down with cold water.
   The drum makers in Trinidad build fires on the beach when they temper their drums. When the drum is heated properly, they dip the drum into the ocean to cool it down.

4. 

   A template is used to mark the placement of each note on the sunken head of the drum. Lines are drawn in pencil to guide the tuner's hammering. Each note outline is then "grooved" using a nail punch and a hammer. Grooving the notes make the notes more visible and also isolates each note's vibration somewhat from the other notes in the drum. It is very important not to weaken or break the metal with the nail punch during the grooving process.

5. Then, the barrels side, or "skirt", is cut to the proper length, and holes are drilled near the rim to hang the drum from a stand with wire or rope.
   The pan maker then takes his hammers of various sizes and "pongs" the notes up from beneath, making them stand out like bubbles from the interior of the pan. This gives the note the approximate tension it needs to vibrate at the correct pitch.

6. Using a tuning device (such as a keyboard) the steel drum maker very carefully hammers at the notes from the top. The note is stretched and smoothed carefully to ensure that it will vibrate precisely uses a tuning device, like a keyboard or a stroboscope, and carefully hammers at each note from the top, stretching it and smoothing the note area so that it will vibrate precisely.
   Each individual note on the drum head must be tuned in relation to the other notes, or the pan will not "sing" correctly.
   Often a pan maker will tune each note several times before the whole pan is fully blended together.

7. 

   The last step is optional, but does make for a nice looking Steel Drum - bright colors are usually chosen to paint the drum. Sometimes, the drums are dipped into chrome and them polished to give them that lovely shiny, silver look. However, this often dulls the sound of the drum. After chroming, a drum may have to be mildly tuned again.

Tips & Warnings

• This is; to say the least, a very difficult project.