Top snare only as a drum

[stickery]

Looking for a top snare apparatus to make a lite weight playing surface. Am getting older and don't need the weight of a full sized drum.

[EquusRacer]

I don't know about an "apparatus", but I've seen snares that are not as deep in the body (sort of like a snare sawed in half).

[AB_Koupal]

The "half size" drums aren't much lighter than their full sized siblings. Take for example the Andante 7" one is 5.64kg/13.1 lbs while the 12" one is 6.80kg/15 lbs (stats gleaned from their website), Premier cites theirs as being 6.50kg/14.3 lbs and 7.20kg/15.8 lbs respectfully.
It is possible to take just the top section of the drum, the part containing the snare mechanism and top head, and use that. I don't have any stats on that but I imagine it will be significantly lighter. There is a trade off in that one doesn't get a full drum sound from this "pancake" because it doesn't have a wood shell to resonate and focus the sound.
Flint Percussion says their drums weigh in at just 4.20kg/9.25 lbs if you are willing to look outside the big three (Andante, Pearl, and Premier).

[Pablopicasso420]

The top mechanism off of a High tension snare is often used for younger players. you need to leave a couple of the support rods to hold the drum.

Depending on what & where you are playing, I would look into an older drum. The new HTS snares are much heavier than some of the old 8 or 10 rod premiers. They have a much lower tone and you cannot use the modern woven kevlar heads. Personally I like the older sound with the lower tone and fatter snare. You can also take of the bottom mechanism and head off of those drums to lighten the load.