Vintage update: Sam Ulano’s King Size Pad, refurbished

Remember when I got this gigantic practice pad?

I was thrilled to add this vintage pad to my stable. But I was also really nervous, because the large slab of gum rubber was showing its age. I worried that I’d ended up with a museum piece rather than a playable vintage pad. My goal with nearly all of my vintage pads is that while they’re historic, they should also be in decent enough shape to at least offer a short demonstration if asked.

I sat on this pad for a couple of months and asked around about ways to restore the rubber. After not getting a reassuring answer from anyone at local hardware stores or the handful of woodworkers I know, I weighed whether or not replacing the gum rubber would make sense. Gum rubber from fifty or more years ago is unlike what industrial suppliers call gum rubber today, and I worried I’d lose the feel by replacing it.

Finally, today promised to be a sunny, dry day and I decided it was time to act. I’d gently pry up the original rubber. If it was too degraded, I’d replace it with a new piece cut to the same size.

I took a deep breath, applied a thin flathead screwdriver to one edge of the rubber slab, and gently began to pry up the rubber. I took my time and pried a tiny little bit at a time before taking the whole slab in my hands and slowly tugging on it. To my relief, it came up in one piece. I was surprised to see that it was almost 1/2” thick, rather than a more standard 1/4”. 

(The top of the gum rubber, a

Ready hardened and crumbling, cracked even more as I pulled it up.)

To my even greater relief, the rubber was only degraded (by air, light, and time) less than 1/8” down; the other side of the slab was like almost new. Whatever glue had been used to adhere the rubber into the wooden frame had stayed with the wood. 

All of this meant that I could simply flip the rubber over and glue the old side down into wood frame, and the fresh side could be the new playing surface.

I lightly sanded the wood frame, applied a thin layer of wood hardener, and set it in the sun to dry. Out in the sun, it took about five hours to dry thoroughly. (I was careful not to get any hardener on the hard rubber surface on the reverse side.)

When the hardener was dry, I lightly scuffed up both the wood surface inside the frame and what used to be the top of the rubber slab, wiped off the excess crumbs from the rubber and the wood, and applied the glue.

Then I carefully pressed the rubber back into the frame. It was a snug fit and I took my time to make sure it would be fully seated all the way around. Then I weighted down the rubber and let it sit for two hours. This evening, I checked my work, and was happy with how it had turned out.

I tried it out and noticed that without the thin hardening on the top of the rubber, the feel and response is a touch softer now. I think this will be best with concert or drum kit sticks. With 1/2” of rubber, marching sticks will feel a bit sluggish, and I suspect that’s not what Sam designed these pads for anyway.

In case there’s still an odd smell — I was born without an olfactory sense so I can’t tell — I’m letting it air out overnight in the shed, right next to the open screen window. It should be ready to bring into the house tomorrow.