Music Stand

Started by gitano, November 26, 2018, 06:20:14 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

gitano

At least a year-and-a-half ago (might have been two-and-a-half) I told my wife that I would make a custom music stand for her for Christmas. Well... it's just about Christmas.

The major components are complete. Left to do are:
1) Put the finish on the major pieces - legs, upright, 'table',
2) Attach (glue) the legs to the upright,
3) Make the knuckle that attaches the table to the adjustable shaft of the upright and allows the table to tilt,
4) Make and install a brass ferrule on the top of the upright to capture the pin that adjusts the height of the shaft that connects the table to to the upright.
5) Glue the "strings" (brass rods) of the table where they belong. (This will be clearer when you see the images below.

The image of the Table was taken with my DSLR. All of the others were taken with my phone in my shop. It's tough to get the color balance right in the shop and with the phone camera. All of the wood (table, legs, height dowel), is locally harvested birch, the upright is pecan.

Here's the Table:

The blue tape is holding the wooden piece in place before it is glued.

This shaft/dowel was made from scrap from milling the rough birch planks. Really pretty piece of wood, but it took me the better part of four hours to make it.


This is just a preliminary close-up picture of the Legs in place on the Upright.


The Upright and Legs.


The following are some pictures of the Upright before I took it off of the lathe.




I have applied finish to the upright in the below picture. I wanted to do it while it was on the lathe.


I'll post pictures of the finished product. Next project, (due AT CHRISTMAS), is a display cabinet for my daughter's father-in-law. Not sure that's gonna make it on time. I leave for pheasant hunting on the 13th.

Paul
Be nicer than necessary.

Paul Hoskins

Beautiful & elegant as usual. Few people have the skills to do something like this any more & no ambition to try it. I highly suspect artificial intelligence has a lot to do with it. :(......Paul H

Jamie.270

Very impressive Paul!  I love the lyre symbolism, it's perfect.
And it appears the craftsmanship is top-shelf as usual.



Is that an original design?
QuoteRestrictive gun laws that leave good people helpless, don\'t have the power to render bad people harmless.

To believe otherwise is folly. --  Me

gitano

#3
Thanks for the nice compliments, folks!
Quote from: Jamie.270;152026Is that an original design?

Yup. That's what has taken so long. Every piece you see in the Table has been made at least twice. Also, it's difficult for me to work on things like this more than 6 hours a day. I get to a point where no matter how hard I 'focus', I can't seem to not 'drop things' or forget to turn a workpiece the 'right way' before applying a power tool. It's been this way since I was a kid working on model airplanes and tanks. Some of the "twice made" was due to on-the-fly design changes, and some were due to operator error. (OE usually results in some serious swearing...)

WRT the "original design": I looked at a LOT of custom music stands on the internet. The lyre motif is NOT my original idea/concept, but the actual design and implementation is mine. Also, EVERY SINGLE stand I looked at had three legs. I don't know why that is. The only reasons I can think of is "saving material" (seems unlikely), or reducing weight (also unlikely in my opinion). I asked my wife, and she didn't know or have a preference. Having made this one, I will say that three legs yields a "lighter" look. However, I opted for stability/function over "looks lighter". The legs are a little 'clunky' looking to me. I don't like their shape, (also my design), but it's too close to the deadline - Christmas - to change them! I might thin them a little.

I only used three power tools:
1) Shaper - for the molding profile on the ledge of the Table,
2) Table saw - for cutting boards to length, width, and thickness, and
3) Bandsaw - to cut the rough outline of the "lyre" sides and legs.

All of the rest of the work was done with hand tools - a variety of planes, hand saws, files, sandpaper, and of course, liberal doses of 'sailor talk'. ;)

Oh yeah, I did use a drill press to drill the holes for the brass rods. And, I'll use the lathe to make the brass ferrule for the top of the stand, and whatever screws I may need.

I hafta say that I LOVE this birch! It's gorgeous, it's 'hard', and it's fairly easy to work. It does "burn" VERY easy with power tools though! The next tree I cut, I will absolutely cut blanks thick enough and LONG enough for full-length rifle stocks. I was going to send sakorick a plank to use for a stock but couldn't find one both thick enough and long enough. :( The drawback as a stock wood is that the "sapwood" is REALLY light-colored, and staining the highly figured 'flame' is extremely challenging with associated high risk. You can't stain until you finish the shaping and sanding, and if you then get the staining wrong, you've ruined the stock and wasted all the time and effort! The trouble with the "tree" is that the darker heartwood doesn't make up sufficient proportion of the cross-section of the tree to get a whole butt out of it. Nevertheless, it's very pretty wood. The truth is that it is better suited to the likes of music stands, guitar backs, and other such 'specialty' pieces. I have, from the moment I felled this tree, - been planning on making small 'furniture' pieces from it. Things like jewelry boxes, (something on the order of the ones seen here: http://www.alladd.com/jewelry-cabinets/sapele-standing-cabinet/index.html).
[/SIZE][/FONT]
Paul
Be nicer than necessary.

branxhunter

I suspect the reason for three legs rather than four being standard is to cater for floors that might be slightly uneven; three legs will just cause the stand to cant slightly, while four legs will cause the stand to rock and require a folded up piece of paper under the leg where the floor is low.

Nice work by the way Paul.

Marcus

gitano

Thanks.

Good point WRT the 3 vs 4 legs, Marcus. One I should have 'twigged' to. I suppose if I had made more chairs, "leveling" would have be closer to the 'front' of my memory. Although, I can't recall seeing anyone using a music stand where the floor was uneven enough for the footprint of their stand to be adversely affected. "Balance" did occur to me (not in the context of three legs vs four though), when I was fabricating the legs. Thinking to myself, "I'm going to have to get these mortise and tenons exactly right otherwise I'm going to be fighting with leveling these legs."

Paul
Be nicer than necessary.

gitano

It's getting closer. I thought I had some 1.5" brass rod, but alas, not. I have some 'on the way' from Ebay. In the mean time, I decided to use a piece of scrap aluminum to make sure there were no surprises when I milled the brass. I made the knuckle and put the legs on.

Left yet to do:
1) Mill brass ferrule,
2) Drill and tap ferrule for 1/4-20 bolt that will lock the post at 'elevation'.
3) Glue "strings" in place,
4) Get a piece of 1/8" brass for pin for knuckle, and
5) Put "finish" on.

Here are a couple pictures from my cell phone:

The Knuckle:


And the "whole thing" without the brass ferrule, 'grub screw', 1/8" brass pin for knuckle, and the finish:


Paul
Be nicer than necessary.

Jamie.270

WOW!


It sure would be nice if you could post a pic of Mrs Gitano's face on Christmas morn when she gets her first look at that piece of art.


She always wanted to be internet famous, right?
lol.
QuoteRestrictive gun laws that leave good people helpless, don\'t have the power to render bad people harmless.

To believe otherwise is folly. --  Me

sakorick

Where did you get the artist talents from?You are making all the rest of us look bad!
Talk to yourself. There are times you need expert advice.

gitano

Thank you for the kind words!

"Mrs. Gitano" has been following the progress of the music stand since "day one", so there will be no 'surprised look' on Christmas morning. I needed her input for the initial specs, I will be leaving for hunting on the 13th, and we will both be in Utah for Christmas, so it never really occurred to me to make it a surprise. I could have gotten the specs without revealing the final design, and I could have kept everything in the shop until it was finished, but that didn't occur to me.

I still have a couple of "must do" projects at hand. First is the aforementioned display cabinet for my daughter's father-in-law. Another long-overdue project is finishing a bedroom suite I started a couple of years ago. I made the bed and two chests-of-drawers, but I still have two large units to complete.

The FIRST thing I am building after we get home from Christmas traveling is a workbench that will be very similar to this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pfm6URciYc I've been using an old kitchen table for the past 15 years, and I've 'had it' with that!

Now that the music stand is almost finished, it's back to the 'salt mine' to get the display cabinet finished and in the mail before the 13th. AND get ready for pheasant hunting AND elk hunting! So, you'll have to forgive my sparse time here at THL. But, "t'is the season", and I know we are all busy with one thing or another. Actually, the primary reason I posted this thread was to 'explain' my relative absence from THL. Not to fish for compliments. (I appreciate them nonetheless!)

Paul
Be nicer than necessary.

Jamie.270

I hope everything survived the quake!
Even from 50-60 miles away, a 7.0 is a pretty good shake.
QuoteRestrictive gun laws that leave good people helpless, don\'t have the power to render bad people harmless.

To believe otherwise is folly. --  Me

gitano

"On topic"... Just about the only thing still standing in the living room was the music stand.:MOGRIN: Good thing I put four legs on it! :D The epicenter was about 20 miles from my house. It was felt in Barrow, 800 miles away. Communicating on cell phone for the time being.

Paul
Be nicer than necessary.

Jamie.270

Whew!
I'm glad you and the wife are okay.  I read your post in The Campfire, and you're right,...
Stuff is just stuff.  But I thought about the Music Stand getting something heavy like a bookcase dropped on it, and worried about it too.


I've been in a few "shakers" and they're not pleasant by any means.  But nothing even approaching a 7+.  That's nutz.


Good luck with the cleanup, I hope you folks didn't lose too much.
Keep us posted when you can.
QuoteRestrictive gun laws that leave good people helpless, don\'t have the power to render bad people harmless.

To believe otherwise is folly. --  Me

Tags: