Whether or not you have to remove the glue depends upon whether the shell is covered in it or a just a little bit. It can be quite a chore removing all the glue if the shell is covered with it as mine were. It also depends on how strong the glue is. Its best to do this outside unless you enjoy cleaning sawdust from your carpet/tiles and having your house smell like solvents.
Basically this step isn't hard to understand or do but just takes alot of time. Luckily for me the glue on my drums is quite easy to get off. The method for removing the glue is to take your 80grit sandpaper and wrap it around a block of wood to make sanding easier. Unfortunately a cylinder is about the hardest shape to sand. You then soak the end of a rag in methylated spirits and rub the section of glue your trying to get off a bit. Then you grab your sandpaper and sand the glue in the direction of the grain (up and down - not left/right - otherwise you will end up with scratches). The methylated spirits loosens the glue and the sandpaper pulls it off and sands the shell at the same time. Be careful with your bearing edges - you don't want to alter the shape of them otherwise the drum will sound different and may be hard to keep tuned. I mean very careful with them. I tried using mineral turpentine to dissolve the glue - which it did but then removing the dissolved glue was a nightmare so its actually alot easier using methylated spirits. The first picture shows that different type of wood I described earlier. The second picture shows you the rough area I rubbed metho onto - and the colour it should change. The third picture shows how to sand.
All it takes is time to perform this step - and patience. You will probably use alot of sandpaper in this step as the softened glue gets compacted to the sandpaper and makes it pretty useless. Your thumb will probably get quite raw aswell - I know mine did. Here are a few pictures of how it turned out - sorry about the camera shadow. I also showed you what can happen if you are too impatient when removing the wraps. In my case it was because of the cheap wood - but its the same outcome either way. The final picture shows sanding with the 160 grit paper. You can use 320 grit aswell if you want it smoother - but when you apply the varnish it comes out as plasticy feel so it doesn't matter either way.
When you done onto the next step - staining!
©Daniel Wright 2004