How Are Today's Steel Drums Made?

Steel drums are fashioned from old containers.

Steel, or "pan" drums are typically made from reclaimed 55-gallon oil drums, dustbins and cylindrical car parts. The drums are hammered so different sections produce different pitches. The manufacturing method today is the same as it was when the drums were first invented in Trinidad during the 1920s. Hand-hammering and tempering gives the drums their characteristic tone.

Sinking the Pan

The pongs are struck with soft mallets to create the distinctive sound.

The manufacturing process starts with a steel barrel. In commercial manufacturing this may be a barrel made specifically as the basis for making a pan drum, while traditional methods involve the reclamation of an old barrel. Sinking the pan is the first step in the manufacturing process. For the drum to create its characteristic metallic resonance, the bottom must be concave. The bottom of the drum is the part that the player hits. The lid of the drum is removed before this process and the drum is placed upside-down. Pan sinking is achieved by a prolonged period of hammering. The drum maker beats the base of the drum so it forms a pan, hence the term "sinking the pan."

Shaping

Once the rough pan shape is formed, a smaller hammer is used to even out any dings or bumps in the pan surface.

Tempering

To make the drum pan more resilient, heat from a blowtorch is applied until the metal glows red. As soon as the metal glows red, it is rapidly cooled with cold water. This intense shift in heat causes the metal to expand and contract rapidly, hardening the surface.

Drilling

The drum must be played with the bottom elevated, otherwise the sound from the pan can't resonate correctly. There are two ways to elevate the bottom: mount the drum in a stand or carry it around your neck. This stage in the manufacturing process involves making two holes on the side of the drum through which the rope is threaded to enable it to be carried around the neck.

Pongs

The pongs are the raised portions of the pan that make different notes. The smaller the pong, the higher in pitch the note. Typically the drum maker places the drum upside down, places a template on the underside of the pan and then uses a small hammer to tap out the pongs. This creates sections in the pan of approximate pitch.

Tuning

Modern drums are typically hand-hammered and hand-tuned.

The final stage of the process involves fine-tuning the pongs. Using a tuning fork for reference, the drum maker gently taps the bottom of any pongs so they are the exact pitch. If he taps the pong too much, he flips the drum over and taps the other side to reverse the modification to the pan.

References

• Idaho State University: Brief Historical Background of Steel Drums
• Toucans: Steel Pan History
• Toucans: Steel Pan Creation