DIY electronic drum kit made with Fleet Farm buckets and all wood rack.

A bucket that I purchased at Fleet Farm for $3.39. It is the perfect size to make 10 or 12 drum.

Trim Down the bucket with a jigsaw. I cut the bucket about 3/4 below the raised area shown by the arrow. The raised area will keep the bottom hoop from moving up.

To make a 10 drum. Cut out a section of the bucket. The circumference of the 10 drum measured just below the top of the drum is now 30 1/2

Pull cut edges together and rivet .

Outside View.

I used a router with a homemade circle jig to cut the 3/4 oak Veneer fiber board paneling into a cross member. Drilled 1/4 hole in center and cut 2 1/2 holes to let air through. I cut it so that it would fit tight and pushed it down so it was 2 5/8 from the top. It should line up with the raised area on the outside of bucket. The bucket is slightly tapered so it will be loose at top and get tighter as you push it in.

I didn't get to fancy here, just drill 4 pilot holes across from each other for the sheet rock screws to support the cross member.

Used one of the leftover wood circles for the piezo support. I counter sunk a 3 x 1/4 screw in the wood circle. I added two nuts onto the screw to give me the right height for the foam block be above the top of the bucket about 1/8. You could also use flat washers. I cut a circle of 3-M double sided tape the size of the ceramic to attach the piezo to the wood. I also added another circle of 3-M double sided tape cut to the size of the ceramic to attach the foam block to the sensor.

If you don't want to use foam blocks. You can also make foam cones from the foam sanding blocks.

Installed drum trigger.

Added the oak drum mounts. Tutorial here

I used a router and a homemade circle jig to cut the 3/4" oak Veneer fiber board paneling into hoops. (Or you can buy one of these) I cut the inside diameter of the top hoops big enough so they will just fit over the top of the bucket. I cut the inside diameter of the bottom hoops so they will fit tight on the bottom of bucket.

On the bottom side of the top hoop I used a table router to cut a 1/4 deep groove wide enough for the screen mesh head.

A normal 10 or 12 drum head rim will fit perfectly into that groove.

I used a real 10 and 12 drum hoop as a template to mark the holes. Drilled the holes about half way through the hoop. Did this for all top and bottom hoops. The 12 hoop has 6 holes 10 has 5.

Purchased 6 Turnbuckles at Fleet Farm for $5.00. You can also find them here http://www.mcmaster.com/ Part # 30125T203. You may need to bend the hooks with a pliers so they are parallel with the body of the turnbuckle. I had to do this with the ones I purchased from McMasters. Make sure you screw the hooks all the way in before you bend Them. That way the screw area won't get bent.

Put on some DIY window screen mesh heads I was able to get the mesh head as tight as needed by tightening the turnbuckles by hand.

You can Paint or stain the drum and hoops as you like or just find a different colored bucket.

I added some oak Veneer on the edges and stained.

I did the bass drum a little different I used the same method I used here to support the peizo sensor. I scraped all the coating off a CD disk. I cut to size and super glued it to the wood. I wanted to make sure I had a nice flat surface and the 3-M double sided tape stuck well. Then I cut a circle of 3-M double sided tape the size of the ceramic and attached the piezo to the top third of the CD disk. The drum pedal beater will hit right in the middle of the CD just below the sensor.

Added more 3-M tape to the piezo and CD disk

Remove the sanding surface from the sanding block and stick the whole sanding block to the 3-M tape.

I have been using my Roland KD8 for about a year now and I really like the way it feels. I was surprised how good the bucket bass drum felt. I could hardly tell the difference between the KD8 and the bucket bass drum.

You can also use a normal 12" drum hoop.

I'm using Roland CY8 and Cy5 cymbals with this drum kit.

You could also make your own cymbals.