Here are some pictures of my drums and the drum projects I have been working on. Click on the images for a better view. At the bottom are links you'll find useful if you are interested in working on drums. I will be building some snares soon, so stay tuned. Items for sale can be seen here.
My Tama Starclassics- they are the Performer Birch shells in smaller tom sizes, 10",12" & 14". The kick is an 18"x 22" that is just really fat and full, no hole, no muffling. The snare is 51/2 x 14 and has become one of my favorites. These cymbals are 15" Zildjian hi-hats, a Zildjian 16" A crash, and a Zildjian 20"A Custom ride.

I also purchased an 18" floor tom with it. This 6 piece kit has great versatility. I can get many different setups out of it by changing up configurations and heads.

Here I used the 18" and the smaller drums for recording-- they tune pretty low thanks to the Birch. These cymbals are all Zildjians- 14" mastersound hats, a 15" K crash, a 16" medium crash, and a 20" K heavy ride. The snare is my old Pearl (see below). This set up worked great for a tight yet lively sound on the rock songs we recorded.

I play this kit so much- I just love it and it is the one I use to benchmark all my work by.
This is a kit I built for gigging with 99 Tales. when I asked them what sound they were looking for the reply was simple- "lots of kick and snare!" Easy enough. I got some Keller maple shells and went to work.

The kick is an 18" x 26" with multiple air vents. The ride tom is a 10" x 12", and when it is in a soft case fits nicely inside the 16" x 16" floor tom for transport. The snare is an 8" x 14" maple Tama Starclassic, altho I have a Tama Oak 5 1/2" x 14" snare that works pretty well too. Brass hardware over a black gitter complete the look. I hope to build a matching snare for it soon.

The Cymbals are all Zildjian and are pretty much my standard rock set up. 20" K heavy ride, A custom 17" crash, 18" A thin crash, and 14" mastersound hats.
Going the other way: I built this piccolo bass drum as part of a practice kit that emphasizes a small footprint and portability.

The drum is 5 1/2 x 22 inches and has a black sparkle finish. The inside of the drum I finished with a light colored bamboo veneer, which I then urethaned to create a hard reflective surface. It has 4 air holes to help empty the chamber and keep it dry sounding. The heads have dampening rings, but otherwise there is no muffling.

I was surprised how much tone and volume this thing puts out. It turned out much better than I expected.
Another attempt at portability. I had some left over toms, bass drum, and hardware to put this kit together with.

The bass drum opens up for storage- you can see the snare fits very nicely inside. The sizes are 12" x 22" bass, 9" x 10" and 10" by 12" toms, and a 5 1/2 by 14" snare. There is also a 7" x 8" tom not seen in the photos.

The cymbals are a UFIP 16" crash, a 20" K dark ride, 18" K dark crash, and a Sabian 8" splash atop a Z custom 12" splash. A woodblock and cowbell mount on the bass drum.

Black hardware over a grey marine pearl complete the set. A fun kit to play with the trio, and the bass drum sounds surprisingly big.
Ah- the cow kit. This was an inexpensive used kit- originally a 7 piece. The snare and extra toms went to the jazz kit above. I wanted to experiment with some bearing edge ideas and thought these cheap shells would be ideal candidates for my heavy-handed wood butchering. A practice kit for the fort- but you can see it sneaked into a few gigs! The snare is a Tama Oak shell with Cherrywood hoops- that thing is loud!
These Tama Rockstars were really beat up and looking pretty dogged, so I stripped them and freshened up the bearing edges to be nice and slickery. Here are the tom shells, with a new wrap and ready for the hardware to go back on.

I put on some black rims to go along with the black hoops of the bass drum. Some new heads and wouldn't you know, the thing looks and sounds pretty darn good! Here it has a Tama bronze snare, K crashes and a Simitar ride. This kit is fun to play and has an adaptable range of tone. I love gigging it!

Hey drum enthusiast! I was able to buy this set pretty cheap, and including the wrap and the rims, it was still cheaper than buying it new. You can DIY!
Megaladon. When i can leave a kit set up for awhile, i put on all the bells and whistles. A big kit makes practice so much more fun. Nothing you haven't seen already... uhm the snare is an acrylic Pork Pie, and the trash hat is a 16" crash with 14" china on top. The double pedal is coming along... just putting in the reps. You're crazy if you think i'd ever drag all this stuff to a gig.
I bought my first kit in the mid 70's, from a guy who purchased them in the late 60's- they may have been Pearl Presidents, but I can't remember... they are long gone... so I was pleased to find this in my folks attic- the original snare drum from that kit! A 5 1/2" x 14" red sparkle that needed some TLC. You can see the bearing edges have a few hits in them... the drum was stored without hoops... I was a dumb teenager then so what did I know? The bearing edges and snare bed definitely need some work.

I filled a few dings, did a quick clean up, and found some nice slingerland-type rims... it shore cleaned up purty! It is in pretty good shape now, and should make it until I can do a full and complete job on it. It has a wonderful warm tone. It is interesting to note that both strainer and butt plate have adjustment knobs on them.
This is a snare I made for my friend Hal. I rescued the drum from a garage sale for 20 bucks. The rims and shell were in great shape, just super filthy from years of storage. I cleaned it up and added two dark bamboo veneers. The shell is steel, which creates the chrome accent in the middle. It really sounds present and looks pretty sharp. It is a typical 51/2" x 14" and I put Evans heads on it.
I made this Piccolo snare at the same time I was working on Hal's snare. Another dark bamboo veneer on a 13" x 3.5" shell. I am getting better at feathering the veneer seam. I no longer have to hide them behind the strainer- I can hide them behind the butt plate now! You can make out the dark line right above the right bolt of the plate.
Another rescue job. This is a 12" x 5.5" Tama snare, with a bronze shell and a set of their "mighty brass hoops." It was pretty trashed... Maybe that's why it was so cheap. As you can see it cleaned up nicely. I put a black head on it, which looks great but only sounds OK. My only complaint with this great drum is that the strainer lever is a poor design and can only be operated with deliberate effort.
Useful links for drum building and supplies:

Drum Dojo This is a nice intro to building and refurbishing drums. It got me totally into it!

Jim Casey's Vermont Drums Here is a direct link to his books on drum building. A must have for anyone interesting in working on drums. Has a wide selection of manufactured goods too.

American Music Drumparts John Riolo builds beautiful custom drums, and also provides shells and parts with fast service. He has just about anything you need for drum building, and offers great deals on shell prep when buying the shells and hardware together.

Precision Drum Company A nice supply house and drum builder out of New York.

San Francisco Drum Company I gotta shout out to my Homeys for making some awesome drums with a cool retro vibe. Big Beautiful Drums... the way Matty likes 'em!

Sam Barnard Sam has a wide range of parts, and a huge selection of wraps for refinishing your drums. He offers pre-cut kits that are super affordable, and it takes the hassle out of cutting your own. He can also do custom sizes for you too.

Drummaker.com A good supply house. They got the nice stuff and have fast service.

The Drum Maker's Links Links to the.... uhm.. links. A good resource and starting point.
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