Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - The National Petroleum Company (NP) has donated its drum-making factory to Pan Trinbago to be used for the manufacturing of the steelpan.
....“Just yesterday (Wednesday) NP donated it’s drum-making facility to us,” Diaz added.
The steelband fraternity had faced a drum shortage in 2011 when the machine being used at NP’s facility stopped operating due to mechanical problems.
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Pre sunk drums were done by Metal Industries years ago and given to tuners to try. It proved to be too thick to resonate and we had to thin them out to get them to sound properly. What it did was save you about four hours of work but the pre sunk drum alone was costing twice the amount you would pay a worker to sink, groove,tighten and cut your drum for you, so we all preferred to employ rather than pay a lot more to lay off.
I see the drum machine thing as a cop out by NP. They have another that makes the drums for their oil, but those drums are thinner than the one we require for pan. Again they asked us to try them and said as they mass produce for oil they can include for pan if they worked. They did not as they busted at even four inches as the grade was too thin and the thicker grade too expensive for storage.
Tuners are still fortunate to get good drums from some of the factories although many have gone for a thinner cheaper grade and even resorted to plastics,cheaper than a drum and resold for more and even bulk storage.Given the price of the NP double sided drums you cannot really buy those for bass, four cello etc due to cost and NP drums were mainly bought for front line and that was when the factory drums cannot be sourced.
So it reached to the point where they reduced their "drum days" to Tuesday and Thursday and the turn over was not fantastic,so the easiest way is to get out of what is not turning the numbers to cover overhead cost and put Pantrinbago in the driver's seat.There is also another supplier who is importing drums for himself and has also set up a plant to roll CKD drums and they work well. He told me NP even ordered a few from him. So they said to Pan trinbago here is the machine, order your own flat sheets and tops, assemble it yourself and sell to the tuners when necessary.They made a nice PR out of it.
Can anyone think of an improvement on this name, Pan Trinbago?
Good news on this
@ Claude Thanks,
My motto is, innovation over tradition. I would like to E Mail a message to you. My E mail is
laventl@aol.com and phone (754) 779-7547
Thanks again and love peace and pan.
Good going Pan Trinbago and thanks to NP. I wish there were more details; does this donation means that Pan Trinbago will now be sourcing for engineers, material, manpower, managing production, has a time-frame for inaugrual operation etc,etc..
I guess these questions should have been directed to Pan Trinbago. (lol)
Is there a press that can manufacture cylinders with pre-sunk tops and skirted to the various lenghts?
Ian:
I too wish thre were a machine (press?) that could prefabricate frims with pre-sunk tops, and for all imprints from tenor to bass. It would allow would-be tuners to avoid the trouble of sinking and grooving before being able to start tuning a drum. The skirting part is easy ... but presinking would be a tricky thing, given that the various tops (for tenor, seconds, cello, bass, etc would be different, and therefore require different shaping by an "automated" sinking machine.
Just my 2 cents ...
Peter
Thanks Peter,
Lets hope that this will some day come to fruition.
On another subject: In my book, I wrote that Iron as percussion pieces should be modified. My eardrums ring, does that mean that I have a defect. I suggested that to avoid the decibel intensity, we can use a thinner rod, aluminum tubing or wood. What is your take?
If you are in T&T please call me at 316-9483 or 624-9317. Thanks
Hi Ian:
As a would-be iron man myself, I also have suffered some hearing loss, but I wouldn't change from my heavy steel bell becuae it soulnd too sweet. But wood too soft. However, I empathise with your concerns.
Peter
Ian Boi the "engine room" have it's own people.
Peter. You can have a press design to suit your need. I was once told that they tried this already and it did not work, maybe they need to experiment some more. Everything that's made from steel is either press or bent by a machine, I don't see why there should be a problem with the pan.
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