Hey!
I'm probably being boring as hell posting all this stuff about my cocktail drum project, but I'm learning a ton about how to build these things and found something really useful. Sorry if everyone already knows this trick.
In order to convert my two 12x15" 1960 Ludwig marching drums into a cocktail drum, I've had to remove the original gut snares and add a fan-style set of snares under the top head. Finding fan style strainers is really really difficult. I liked how Keith Cronin used the Purecussion Headset snares, but those are pretty rare, too. What I came up with cost about $9 and was really easy.
The drum I'm using as the top part of the cocktail drum was missing the felt muffling disc. Ludwig didn't put those metal discs underneath the felt discs--if you have one on your tone muffler, get rid of it.
Buy a set of snappy snares. Cut two-four inches off the snare wires and toss that piece out. Use the longer of the two pieces.
Insert the muffler arm into the slot where the plastic snare strip would normally go on the snare wires.
With the dial of the muffler facing you, pull the snares toward you.
Melt a drop of solder underneat the snares to hold them in place. Press the snares down.
Put a lot of soldering wire on top of the snare band right over where you inserted the muffling arm. Solder to make a secure connection.
Voila! When everything cools, you have a secure snare fan. The dial at the end of the arm holds the snares against the head however you like them. I'm pretty sure this design reflects the design of most of the original cocktail drum strainers, anyway. You can't flip the snares down in a hurry, but then, I don't think many cocktail drums offer that capability anyway.
I've found a couple of tuning issues that I'm going to start a separate discussion on.