Success: Floor Tom to Bass Conversion

I have a self-esteem problem. I nearly always fear I'm incompetent. Or, more accurately, I fear that OTHERS think I'm incompentent. Ironically, in most things, I'm actually pretty well skilled. I can do just about anything that I set my mind to...really. And without much effort. I'm not GREAT at everything...but I can get things done. "Jack of all trades, master of none" kind of thing.

But sometimes I surprise even myself. Sometimes I'm kind of fucking brilliant.

So I've been mulling the floor tom to bass conversion question. Did research yesterday online and was shocked to see no DIY solutions that don't involve buying a conversion kit (note to those kids...buying a conversion kit is NOT a DIY solution...so stop posting it as such). Took five minutes on Monday night to take a look at my drum and pedal...using a pillow to test height and such. Spent five minutes yesterday doing some drawings. Got home around 6pm last night and headed to the garage to see what supplies I had. I emerged about an hour later, and only two lumber cuts, with a working conversion. It doesn't look bad either. In my usual style, I threw it together with nearly no measurements taken and haphazard sawing, drilling, and screwing.

Here it is in all its glory (complete set of detailed photos here):



The specs (in retrospect):
Two 17" x 3.5" x 0.75" boards
One 15.5" x 3.5" x 0.75" board
Two 15.5" x 4" x 4" cedar posts
Assembly: all screws, some toed and some straight screwed. I forget the length, 1 and 5/8 inch I think. I pre-drilled all the screw holes.
Total finished weight: about 5 pounds

As planned, I put this together with my 16" x 16" floor tom. I took the legs off. The hardware that holds the legs on rests on the top of the board on either side. The third leg holder can face top or bottom, but I built it with it on top, so not sure if it fits as well the opposite way. There's 7 screws across the front holding the board into the post. Each leg has 2 screws holding them to post (I put 3 on one leg but figured out quickly that this didn't work because of the angles). Each board is held to the other boards with 2 screws.

There was some luck or divine intervention involved here. Just about a week ago a delivery of 4x4 cedar posts arrived to my house intended for fire wood. They were cut to different lengths. There were two...just two...that were exactly the right size for this project. The other boards I had laying around. The front one too was exactly the right length and didn't need cutting. Only the two side boards needed cutting and I happened to have a board that was just the right length (plus a few inches) to provide both sides when cut. Quite remarkable really. And a good thing too, because my circular saw is dying and barely made the two cuts I needed.