Traveling Music Stand

[Will Reyer]

The Mauswerk Design Traveling Music Stand
03/28/14 Will Reyer

Back in November some of the locals came out and we played acoustic music for 3 hours on a Friday night in my shop. They all arrived carrying ring binders with song lyrics and chords, except the obvious technologist of the group, who had his on an electronic tablet. I've got 3 big ring binders full myself. Nobody had a music stand, though, and the older I get the more useful the books of lyrics are.

Before the next after-hours picking party at the local guitar store then, I got around and quick cobbled up a portable stand out of some 3/16” masonite pieces I had on hand. This started out as a 5 minute project but went through several iterations before it got to be useful design.

A 4x8 ft sheet will make 3 stands. 3/16” masonite works fine. 5mm or 6mm underlayment plywood also works, is lighter but flimsier and has splinters that require sanding. You also will need a 1x2x6.

The uprights are 16” wide and 24” and 32” high on the sides. They're held together with nylon wire ties through 5/16” holes centered in 3/4” from the short edge. On the slanted tops, make protruding tabs starting 3” from the high points and 3” long, sticking up 3/8”.

The slanted notebook table is 12” x 24”, masonite or plywood. The ledge at the bottom of the table that holds the ring binder is 3/4”x 1”x24” pine. Both parts attached with 3-#6x1” fine thread sheetrock screws through #8 flat washers and aliphatic resin (yellow) glue.

The slots for the tabs on the uprights should be 1/8” wider than the thickness of the materials you're using for the uprights, because the parts mate at an angle, not 90 degrees. Drill holes of that diameter 3” apart on centers and cut along lines between the holes tangent to the diameters. If you lay the three pieces together upside down it's pretty easy to see where to locate the slots.

[Dave Bagwill]

Hey, that's a very good idea!! Thank you.

[Will Reyer]

Rev D
Mauswerk Design Traveling Music Stand

This is what happens with poor planning. If I was still doing design for a living, I'd be embarrassed by this whole project. As it is, I'm long retired so can just write it off as encroaching senility.

Places that make machinery or like creations document their components and assembled products by making drawings. While the product is being developed, some companies use an “X” designation for the associated pre-production drawings. The first part designs will be labeled “X0”. If the part needs changes, the drawing will be revised to version X1, then X2, etc.

At some point, prototypes will be built and tested, revised and improved, vendors will have bid to produce parts, marketing ditzes and sales weasels will be cranked up and salivating, and the product will be released to production. At this point the revised production drawings will be designated Revision A.

Good design requires careful thought. This started out as a 5-minute project to quickly fulfill an immediate need. Then the revisions started. This is probably at Rev D at this point. But then, even automotive manufacturers sometimes have to make product recalls and affect fixes. At least, that's my excuse.

My daughter came up from Texas in late July bringing us our granddaughters for 10 days. While she was here Dan had a gig scheduled at the local tapas restaurant on a Saturday night from 8-11. He asked David and me to come play with him, so my daughter came down to listen. She saw my music stand and immediately wanted one, being a drummer herself.

I made a couple more stands for her and will take them by car to Texas when we go for the younger granddaughter's birthday. I added cutout handholds to improve portability. These cutouts are made by drawing 2” circles on 5” centers and connecting tangencies. The centers of these patterns are located 12” up from the bottom of the uprights and in 5-1/2” from the long (outside) edges.

Before you add the 1x2” ledge to the slanted music table part sandwich the table part between the uprights, flush with the bottom and long side and clamp all three together. You can cut all three handholds out at one time. Photo sideways to fit.

[John Link]

Those mouses have done some good thinking.