Project: Music Stand Extension

So, one of the frustrating things about my music stand has been how small it is. I quickly threw one together a couple years ago to make it wider, but I've never been happy with it. The shelf was hastily taped together and the music fell through all the time. I also have a ceiling fan in my guitar room so the music would always get blown off. I wanted something wider but more functional. So I went and got some poplar stock. I jointed the two pieces together. Dado'ed and glued the shelf in, sanded and finished the back and shelf.

Then, I thought, why don't I put a large chunk of metal on the front so I can attach the music with magnets. I thought that was brilliant, but then, I started thinking about how that would look and thought again. So, I decided to dado out the back with my plunge router to remove all but a little of the wood from the back at the top and then glued the metal chunk into the back. The magnets now hold the music onto what looks like plain wood. Cool huh?

Then, I had some aluminum C stock laying around from a previous project and mounted that onto the back so it will slide down the music stand back and hold well. It worked like a charm. This thing can hold up to 5, 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of music which is about the length of most of the music I play. Pretty cool.

Then I finished the thing with some enamel. It didn't quite come out like I'd hoped. I had some thick spots and some dry spots. So I started to sand it down... Oops. Enamel doesn't sand well. In fact, it started to clump and I'd made a mess of it. I did some reading and it turns out that wet sanding works great. So, I wet sanded it down quite a bit and that eliminate -almost- all my booboos.

Took a little more time, stained a spot that Jenny caught that I'd missed on the top, resurfaced it and made sure to wet sand it between every few coats. Bingo. 

I'm proud of the outcome on this tiny little project and I learned some important lessons in the mix.

1) Make absolutely sure the ends you join are perfectly jointed. A jointer would really help here.

2) Make sure to alternate the grain on butt jointed wood.

3) Be really careful to keep work area clean so as not to dent soft wood like poplar.

4) Thoroughly inspect the stain job from every facet before finishing.

5) Be patient with the finish job. It takes time. Again, keep the area clean and dust free if possible.

6) I need clamps. Big time. (I have since addressed this issue. :)

7) Enamel must be wet sanded. Dry sanding makes it hot and sticky.

8) Routers are so cool. :)

9) Getting the screw holes right on the aluminum C stock was really, really hard. Need a drill press!

10) Take your time and enjoy the process...