OVERVIEW: Ted and Tim try their best to make a steel pan.

Hey guys – Ted and Tim here. Thanks for visiting our page to check out our experience with building a steel drum. In case you haven’t checked out the video we made and pinned to this page, be sure to do so in order to get a real understanding of the long and complex process that it was.

Before delving into the steps we took in our attempt to build a steel drum, we would like to talk about why we took this project on and what we got out of it aside from blisters on our hands. After reading Play Mas by Mustapha Matura and watching the documentary on Carnival in class, Tim and I were both extremely drawn to the steel pan bands and the role that they played within Carnival. Not only do the steel pan bands get their fair share of being the center of attention during and leading up to Carnival, but the music that the drums produce has become the anthem of Carnival and is always playing in the background of the festivities. While we were not able to create or play the drum as effectively as the natives of Trinidad & Tobago, we gained an appreciation and an understanding of all the work that goes into creating this entertainment for the Trinidadian people that is such a significant part of Carnival.

Step 1: Finding a 55-gallon Oil Barrel

The first step in our quest to build a steel drum, after doing all of the research of course, was to find a 55-gallon oil barrel. What we found out is that these are much easier to come by in a place like Trinidad & Tobago, where oil is a valuable and common commodity, than it is in Hamilton, New York. After reaching out to various people and companies, ]we were directed to White Eagle Ag. & Truck, a tractor mechanic about ten minutes away, where they gave us a used barrel for free. Coming off this big victory, we got straight to work.

Step 2: Sinking the Barrel

The first step after finding a barrel was to sink the drum to the depth necessary to create a cello drum. Using a sledgehammer, we pounded away on the barrel for an hour or so until one time when we lifted the hammer only to see that we had punctured a tear in the barrel. Getting the correct tension around the surface of the drum is crucial in the way the drum sounds, so we immediately knew that this puncture was too large to be repaired – we were going to have to find a new barrel. Luckily, the shop we had gotten our previous barrel from directed us to his neighbor, another agriculture mechanic, who also gave us one for free. This time, we were going to be more cautious, and so we went out and bought a mini sledgehammer and gradually worked on sinking the barrel to the correct depth from the outside-in. While we created a few minor ruptures in our second drum, we utilized Duane Martinez and Professor Dewitt Godfrey, both metal working experts and Colgate professors, as resources throughout the process.

Step 3: Cutting (and cleaning) the Barrel

After we sunk the barrel to the correct depth, we cut the drum at the correct skirt length using an electric saw. Part of the steel drum narrative is how they are beautiful instruments made from what would otherwise be thrown away as trash or used as a storage container for oil. When we cut the barrel, this reality set in almost immediately as we watched murky, crude oil spill out onto the ground and on our shoes. Needless to say, this part of the experience definitely made us appreciate all of the work that goes into building just one of these drums.

Steps 4 & 5: Welding the Ruptures and Grooving the Notes

 

Once the barrel was cut and all that remained was the drum, Professor Godfrey weld the ruptures shut, and we shaved down the protruding metal from the drum in order to make the surface more equal. After the ruptures were repaired, we measured the length, depths, and area of the notes on the drum and outlined them with a sharpie. After the notes were outlined, we took a dull chisel and hammered it into the lines we had drawn to groove out the notes. This was a very important part of the process and definitely the most difficult for us. In order to get the various different sounds on just one drum, these notes need to be precisely grooved and separated from each other for each note to be truly distinct.

Step 6: Time to Temper

After we grooved the notes, it came time to temper the drum. To do this, we started a fire in the other half of the barrel which we were not using, and once it became hot enough we placed our drum face down over the flame. After about fifteen minutes or so of being subjected to this immense heat, we took the drum off the fire and cooled it down with some cold water. The result of this tempering process was the hardening of the steel caused by a chemical reaction. After spending so much time sinking the drum and grooving the notes, the steel had become softer than it originally was, and so the tempering process re-fortifies that steel and makes it harder.

Conclusion

In the end, we came out with a semi-functional, not-so-pretty steel drum. While the result was not everything that we were hoping for when we took the project on, the fact that we created a drum that was intact and produced notes similar to the ones you hear in Calypso music was enough of a reward for us. All in all, it is definitely not an easy feat to build a steel drum. The process was fun, tiring, educational, and garnered a new found respect for an instrument you might not hear everyday.

Interview with Professor April Baptiste

Below is a look at our interview with Colgate Environmental Studies Professor, April Baptiste. As a native of Trinidad & Tobago who has had experience with Carnival, we asked her some questions to gain more insight into the authentic Carnival.

 

Works Cited

“Making Steel Pans from Oil Drums.” Making Steel Pans from Oil Drums. Caribbean-steel-drums.com, n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2017.