Tag: bending wood

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Drum December Day 10 | How to Glue Before Clamping Drum Frame

Portia "Po" Chapman
On day 10 of Drum December, Po spreads glue on the white oak before clamping the drum frame to dry. Her assistant holds the frame firmly still at the Love Art By Po Kingston Art Studio
Drum December Day 10 – Po Glues the White Drum Frame Before Clamping the Dry-Bend

Choosing the Right Glue for Handcrafted Drum Frames | Drum December Day 10

At the Love Art by Po studio in Kingston, I believe that building a professional-grade drum frame is as much about the type of glue as it is the technique used to apply it.

Different moisture levels in wood require different chemical bonds. Whether you are working with freshly steamed “green” wood or seasoned dry wood, choosing the wrong adhesive can compromise the sound of your instrument. In today’s update, I’ll explain how to pick the right glue at your local hardware store to ensure a lifetime of pure sound.

The Challenge: Gluing Damp vs. Dry Wood

The first hurdle every drum maker faces is moisture. If you are bending steamed red oak, the wood is naturally damp.

Early in my practice as an installation artist, I treated drum frames like standard carpentry—LePage Pro Carpenter’s Glue. However, standard wood glue and damp, steamed wood do not mix. I would return to my shop table the next morning to find the joint “slimy” and uncured on the inside.

The Polyurethane Solution

To glue damp wood effectively, you need a moisture-activated adhesive like Original Gorilla Glue. This polyurethane glue uses the moisture in the wood to “activate” the bond. It bonds damp frames like a dream, but it comes with a significant trade-off: The Foam.

The Science of Sound: Why “Foaming” Glue Causes Rattle

If you want a pure, resonance-free tone, you must understand how glue affects vibration. Polyurethane glue expands into a foam, creating tiny air pockets within the joint.

Are Drum Frames Meant to Rattle?

  • The Rattle: If you enjoy a “smooth rattle” or mechanical reverberation, foaming glue is your best friend.
  • The Pure Tone: If you want a clean strike, never use foaming glue. The drum frame produces sound just as much as the rawhide. If your glue joint contains air pockets, the vibration of the drum strike can cause a “seam rattle” deep within the wood.

How to avoid the rattle:

  1. Glue the frame only when the wood is fully dry.
  2. Use a non-foaming moisture-resistant glue like Gorilla Glue Clear. (Note: “Non-foaming” glues can be slippery, making clamping a damp frame more difficult.)

Three Steps to a Rattle-Free Steamed Frame

If you are new to drum making, remember that hitting a drum with “enthusiastic force” will eventually shake loose any weak or brittle bonds. To ensure your steamed frame remains silent and solid, follow these three steps:

  1. Cooling Time: Let the wood cool until it is no longer steaming, but is still slightly damp before applying glue.
  2. Even Spread: Use a non-foaming polyurethane glue spread evenly across the entire joint.
  3. Pressure: Use 6+ C-clamps, applied two at a time on opposite sides to ensure even compression.

Innovating with Dry Wood Bending

For my premium drums, I prefer to glue the wood when it is fully dry. This produces a beautiful, rattle-free instrument. However, dry hardwood doesn’t like to bend—it behaves like a floor plank!

To solve this, I developed a proprietary dry-bending technique. The wood is pre-bent and shaped before the glue is ever applied. You can see the foundation of this technique in my previous posts: Day 5, Day 7, and Day 8.

My Go-To Choice: Titebond III

For dry, single-layer frames, I recommend Titebond III Ultimate.

  • Why? It offers a longer working time, becomes “tacky” quickly for better clamping, and is rated for both interior and exterior use.
  • The Secret: Let the wood and glue “perform their magic” for at least 24 hours before sanding or knocking the frame.

The “Drum Making Golden Rule”

Frame drums are built for life—they go from drizzling rain at a community circle to the dry heat of a bonfire. Because they are exposed to moisture, heat, and travel, your glue must be waterproof.

The Golden Rule:

No matter the purpose of the drum, ALWAYS use a high-strength, waterproof glue that produces zero (or nearly zero) bubbles.

Coming Tomorrow: Join me for Drum December Day 11, where I’ll share a deep-dive tutorial on Professional Clamping. I’ll show you the “tricks of the trade” to ensure your frame is perfectly circular and structurally sound.

See you tomorrow!

More information about Love Art by Po Drums

watch Video on Youtube
📧 Portia@loveartbypo.ca

One response to “Drum December Day 10 | How to Glue Before Clamping Drum Frame”

  1. Drum December Day 11 – How to Clamp a Drum Frame – Love Art by Po Avatar
    Drum December Day 11 – How to Clamp a Drum Frame – Love Art by Po

    […] Welcome back to Drum December! Today, we are diving into one of the most transformative stages of the process: using my innovative dry-bending technique to compress and clamp the drum frame. This method is born from my preference for non-polyurethane glues, which we explored in our Day 10 tutorial. […]

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Behind the Art, Behind the scenes, Drum December, Drum Works, How Po Makes Hand Drums, Kingston Artist, Portia Chapman

Drum December Day 3: Po’s Bendy Wood Reveal

Portia "Po" Chapman
Po Chapman holds a freshly sun-steamed hardwood plank in her backyard studio, demonstrating how flexible the wood has become during Day 3 of her Drum December drum-making process.
The Bendy Test — Po checks the flexibility of her sun-steamed hardwood before shaping it into a drum frame.

Today, Po reveals the next step in her innovative sun-steaming process — the moment when three days of sunlight, water, and patient preparation finally transform kiln-dried hardwood into a material that is ready to bend.

Testing the Wood After Three Days of Sun-Steaming

Today marks the moment when Po checks the results of the full three-day sun-steaming cycle. In yesterday’s post, we watched her begin this method by sliding the hardwood into the long ridged tube and filling it with water to let the sun do the work. By this morning, the fibres within the wood had warmed, expanded, and begun to relax. Now it was time to see whether the wood had softened enough to become flexible — or whether it needed more time in the sun.

After pouring out the steaming water, Po slid the hardwood out of the tube and laid it gently on the grass. The board emerges from the tube hot, ridged, and stiff — the opposite of what you might expect from a piece of wood that will soon become a circular drum frame. But this is where Po’s ingenuity comes in.

Still too hot to handle with bare hands, Po begins a technique she discovered through experimentation: walking on the wood. Wearing proper shoes, she carefully steps along the length of the board, back and forth, allowing her weight to massage the fibres into motion. The grass protects the surface from dents and provides the perfect soft foundation for the wood to ease into its new flexibility.

For about five minutes, she continues this rhythmic movement — a sculptor’s touch expressed through her feet rather than her hands. And then comes the test.

With one foot still grounding the board, Po gently lifts the opposite end.

In today’s video, you can see the moment the wood answers.

It bends — cleanly, smoothly, willingly.

This once rigid hardwood is now supple enough to be shaped into the elegant circular frame of a drum. What seemed impossible only days before becomes possible through Po’s blend of patience, innovation, and the natural power of the sun.

Tomorrow, Po will continue the transformation as she prepares the wood for its first bends toward the circle it is destined to become.

Drum December unfolds one authentic, beautiful step at a time.

Stay tuned for Day 4.

Watch the Drum December Day 3 on YouTube
📧 Portia@loveartbypo.ca

One response to “Drum December Day 3: Po’s Bendy Wood Reveal”

  1. Drum December Day 21: Drumming in the New Year 2026 – Love Art by Po Avatar
    Drum December Day 21: Drumming in the New Year 2026 – Love Art by Po

    […] how beautiful the Drum December drum turned out. This where we started with Drum December. You can learn exactly how we crafted this instrument by visiting the previous 20 days of the […]

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