THE "C' DRUM BY
TRACIE HILL
TRACIE HILL
The drum pictured is the earliest known "C" (100 rd.) Thompson drum. The drum is now in the West Point Museum.
A close examination of the drum reveals the designer's thoughts. Every piece of this drum is hand fabricated. Unlike the Colt drums which had their bodies formed by match metal die forming, this prototype was created by spinning the sheet metal.
The spinning process is performed by taking a wooden pattern of the shape to be created and mounting the pattern into a lathe. The metal of the body of the drum is then formed around the pattern while the lathe rotates. Spinning works well for prototype or production work were the tolerances are not very tight.
