Musician Stuff

metalspinner · February 03, 2023, 11:19:43 PM

I have a convention coming up next week and have been gearing up with a new product.
These are trumpet stands. Usually trumpet players have several ugly plastic stands kicking around. So I thought some may want nice, furniture quality stands for their homes and offices.
These are all hand turned, though one step was on a lathe I have a duplicator set up.
The turning blocks are laminated from butcher block material.
The first turning operation is to turn a foot on the base. After installing a threaded bolt into the bottom, the part is turned around in the chuck and held on the turned foot.
The second operation is to rough out the shape.
For the third operation, I remove the chuck with the part and put it on a second lathe set up with the duplicator. Then turn the part following the template.
Then I remove the whole thing and go back to the first lathe to sand and part off.
Including glueing the blocks all the way through sanding, each turning takes 28-30 minutes.
The longest single step is turning the foot which takes 8 minutes.
The duplicator is important because these need to fit the trumpets pretty close. And using 8-10 sets of calipers really stinks.

This is a Grizzly lathe I picked up on CL for $250. The Rockler duplicator is about $500. So this whole
Setup was very reasonable. I'm considering making this into a CNC setup. I already have all the hardware in my Amazon cart. Just want to see the interest at the convention next week before I keep adding $$$.

The duplicator leaves a rough looking finish but it easily sands away on this simple shape with 80 grit paper.

metalspinner · February 03, 2023, 11:40:47 PM

On the duplicator, I did reconfigure the mounting. It comes with some rests that bolt to the lathe bed. These are very awkward to adjust and tweak with a wrench.
So I bought a second banjo assembly from grizzly and used two banjos to mount the duplicator to the bed. I did need to machine a couple of new posts for the banjo-to-duplicator connection. Now tweaking the entire duplicator is very simple.

Magicman · February 04, 2023, 08:49:11 AM

Very innovative Sir and hopefully user interest will be rewarding. I wish you the best.

Ron Scott · February 07, 2023, 04:59:08 PM

Very nice!

Old Greenhorn · February 07, 2023, 05:50:32 PM

The end result is very simple and elegant appearing, but there is a lot of work to make those. Good on ya, neat idea! I bet these guys eat them up.
I was contacted about doing some work for the green room at a historic concert hall here in town. They are working on the green room expansion now and will want some instrument racks, possibly a coffee table and some other stuff. Anybody ever make guitar/mando/fiddle/cello racks for cases etc.? Any ideas?
AT the luthier show I had one artist doing a guitar workshop who needed a foot riser (under his Doctor's orders). We scrambled all over and had nothing. I went out to the common central area and grabbed some chuck of split firewood, best I could come up with on 10 minutes notice. Well the artist is a local fella who tours and produces all over the world and we know each other (I think he has 4 Grammy's under his belt now). I apologized, he laughed and said 'Yeah man, that will work fine! They don't call it 'woodshedding' for nothing." We both laughed, but I resolved that next year I would have a nice foot riser for him. After his class we were catching up and it turns out he is getting into rustic woodworking. Maybe I can help him out there too. ;D

So if anybody has ideas on foot risers of instrument racks I'd love to see those. Metalspinner, I hope those things sell like hot cakes!

metalspinner · February 09, 2023, 09:53:22 PM

OGH,
There's tons of storage/ display racks at this show for sting instrument storage. Ill try to get away and take some pics... but I'm
By myself so it's tough to get away from the booth.

Old Greenhorn · February 09, 2023, 09:56:48 PM

AH, that would be super, just some snapshot ideas for group racks would be a huge help in the thinking department. Hope you have a great show, did trade shows quite a bit and I know you can't really leave the booth. How are the horn stand sales going?

metalspinner · February 12, 2023, 09:50:25 PM

Sold three of ten. I'll call that a win. Another show in March so I'll have more time to advertise them to plant the seed.
Here are a couple of stands...

Old Greenhorn · February 12, 2023, 10:58:17 PM

Glad you had a good show! Word does have a way of spreading on new ideas and I know if I was a horn player, I'd want one of those, especially for around the house. Keeps the instrument handy, but secure.
Thank you very much for taking the time to get those photos and posting them. I live in guitar country, but the venue that asked me about racks does mostly classical stuff, plus some contemporary for special events. I love those cello boxes! I'll have to see if I can get my hands on one for dimensions, then upsize it for a bass. Basses I can get access to much easier than cellos. (It's not a band without a bass.

) I found that fiddle display rack very interesting. Sorry, it is probably a violin rack with a couple of viola's thrown in. Did you happen to get a closer look at it? I am wondering which part of the instrument was taking the holding weight? Were they hanging by the tuning pegs? It's the only thing I can see that would work, but I know a lot of classical musicians will not allow that for their instrument. ~~Fiddles~~ Violins are tough to hang, very delicate and the pegs are wood.
Thank you again for the photos, gave me a lot of ideas.

dougtrr2 · February 13, 2023, 08:14:42 AM

The craftsmanship on all the stands is excellent. The box type stand for the cello/bass may actually be more secure, but I really prefer the look of the open stand. It is just more pleasing to my eye. I would be curious as to which type sells better.

Doug in SW IA

Old Greenhorn · February 13, 2023, 08:39:15 AM

It looks to me like those stands are for display not sale, which makes sense. It's not often you need to store 4 basses unless in a music room, school, or orchestra. None the less those provide very good food for thought. The project I MAY be involved with is still in approval stages and there are trees to cut before site clearing can start which was why they called me. The site manager knows me from the Luthier's show and was wondering it it were possible to make this stuff from the trees they harvest before construction. I told het how long that timeline would be and she is good with that. This place has been around a long time (over 100 years) and is on the national historic register so approvals for everything take forever with all the committees involved both inside their organization and also the historic landmark board. So I have lots of time to think at this point. :D

I note that none of those cello/bass displays have accommodation for the peg (foot).

Thanks again for the photos and ideas.

Texas Ranger · February 13, 2023, 08:52:26 AM

I am not attempting to stand with these folks, outstanding work. This was an attempt to use an early computer controlled engraver, never found one that would do what I wanted to do (early '80's). Never finished and my girls used it for practice around the house.

Old Greenhorn · February 13, 2023, 09:06:04 AM

Well, I think that looks pretty dang nice! You are a Stand Up Dad! (I saw what you did there. ;D)

metalspinner · February 13, 2023, 09:07:39 AM

That's very nice,TR. it may have inspired them to practice more from Dads music stand.
Yes, these were display stands for quick tear down at shows. You can see the wedges in the violin racks.
But I think the quad stands for the bass and cello are cool. That can really be dressed up for a permanent stand