House of Drumming.com

Thanks to Tenacious D for the subject line

Hey guys,

I'm reheading/cleaning my kit today and wanted to give a nice thorough cleansing. I figured I'd soak my tension rods in Lacquer thinner to get them clean but I'm torn about what to use to grease them. Too much and they slip, too little and I might get stiff rods (that's what she said). Any suggestions? I'm also thinking about greasing and then using lok-tite (the blue one) to balance it out...

You prob want to let them sit in mineral oil instead, it's an effective cleaner that is very safe for the chrome and metal coatings. Don't forget to soak the receivers too - that's most likely where most the dirt build up is. Pain in the butt to remove every lug, but worth it every so often.

I would not recommend using any form of loktite, thread lock, plumbers tape, etc, etc that's just a whole world of trouble waiting to happen. If you are experiencing issues with de-tuning there are a couple things out to help, the tuning locks for instance. Plastic thingies that clip onto the lug head and hold it against the rim, check on drummaker.com or such. Putting any form of lubricant and then loktite is pretty contradiction to what the intended purpose of each is.

Just a drop of any quality, thin, machine oil should be fine for the tension rods. I use Hoppes gun oil, but partially because I already have it for it's intended use.

Petroleum jelly, aka vaseline. The tiniest amount (smaller than that ... no, smaller still) on the very end of the threads, and the act of screwing in the rod will spread it evenly. If you have de-tuning issues, consider nylon washers.

Thanks for the ideas guys!

I haven't had much in the way of lug loosening, but I tried WD-40 on some tension rods before and they worked loose over the span of a gig or two. I'm just trying to refine my maintenance ways!

@ Yamahaplayer- Someone had mentioned lock-tite before and said it worked great. I know it's silly to lube up and then use something to keep it from loosening, but I wanted to make sure the newly cleaned pieces wouldn't stick on me.

I clean T-rods by soaking them in Dawn liquid soap mixed with water, usually three to one.

For lube, if you must, anything teflon-based. I used teflon Bike chain lube years ago and it worked fine. Let it dry on the T-rods before installing them.

samnmax203 wrote:@ Yamahaplayer- Someone had mentioned lock-tite before and said it worked great. I know it's silly to lube up and then use something to keep it from loosening, but I wanted to make sure the newly cleaned pieces wouldn't stick on me.

Well as always, "someone" VS the rest of the world is a clear picture. Putting any kind of gumming agent or glue agent into your tension rods is a VERY BAD idea.

samnmax203 wrote:@ Yamahaplayer- Someone had mentioned lock-tite before and said it worked great. I know it's silly to lube up and then use something to keep it from loosening, but I wanted to make sure the newly cleaned pieces wouldn't stick on me.

I'm pretty sure Todd Sucherman talks about that on his DVD. He mentions to get a certain type of lock-tite - can't recall which one though.

no KY jokes?

Cheggs wrote:

samnmax203 wrote:@ Yamahaplayer- Someone had mentioned lock-tite before and said it worked great. I know it's silly to lube up and then use something to keep it from loosening, but I wanted to make sure the newly cleaned pieces wouldn't stick on me.

I'm pretty sure Todd Sucherman talks about that on his DVD. He mentions to get a certain type of lock-tite - can't recall which one though.

That would be the Blue Loctite. And it works like a charm, especially on bottom heads that don't get changed as often. I started using it for shits and giggles when I saw it on the DVD, and it worked like a charm. Now I always have a tube of it in my road case. I got mine at a Home Depot, with the thread sealers (the Red loctite is permanent, so you don't want to use that one). Here's the stuff:

http://www.loctiteproducts.com/p/t_lkr_ ... ue-242.htm

That just seems like such a bad idea...

If your tension rods are undoing themselves, that means something else is wrong.