Project 3: Piano Stand

This time, our project was to create something useful to our home. There weren't much guidelines for this project, except that it had to have some work required.

For my project, I decided to create a extended piano stand after my recital. The stand that was installed on my piano can hold a maximum of 3 pages, and it's frustrating to have to flip pages, especially during recitals. And, even if I could separate the pages, how would I fit it on the stand. My solution was to create a fold out piano stand that I could easily take with me anywhere. My total length would be 36" by 12", each individual frame would be 9" by 12"

I wanted to make my design unique, so I added etchings on all of the frames, to make it more aesthetically pleasing. I wanted to add a treble clef on the first frame, a piano spanning over the second and third frames, and an ending bar for the last frame. 

I wanted the bars on the first frame to have a fading-off effect, so I printed the second frame before that and worked on the fading with Ms. Tran. It's a good thing that I did the second one first, because I found an issue in that. 

Turns out that the laser-cutter has a length of 11 3/4, not 12, so I was missing 1/4 of an inch. 

Before I reprinted it, I printed the first frame, which came out well. Only after that did I reprint it. But, we were getting close to the end of the semester, and it takes a LONG time, so Ms. Tran said that I should cut it outside of class time. 

To do my last frame, I had to use adobe illustrator, which was something that was a little new to me. Thankfully, Ms. Tran said that I could copy some of the gradients we made in the first frame and paste it in the last frame. After a bit of editing, I was able to prepare my last frame for laser cutting.

I also 3D - printed a small device that worked like a paper clip in order to hold my pages to the stand (each clip is placed at an intersection of two frames). However, I realized that I printed the gap in the holder twice as big as I wanted it, and because of time constraints, I couldn't reprint it. I plan to reprint it after the project is finished.

After completing all the cut-outs, I realized that the screws that I used were too tall, and poked out the other end. To fix this, I had to trim the screws, and then add soft adhesives to cover it up completly. I added some extra adhesives at the back, just so that it doesn't scratch the piano.

Top 2 images: The problem. If you want to keep music on the stand, you're limited to three pages. While it is possible to put 4 pages, with some overhang, it might not be that stable. On the bottom is the solution. Its able to hold 5 pages, which means that I can play non-stop for that music on those pages. Below, I've attatched a short clip of me playing the song. I don't play all the pages (I don't know it that far), but I've played the first few measures, and on the stand you can see the 5 pages.

SOUL Reflection:

S: I think my work was very good, with precise details. I could have added some extra accesories, but that was all based on the time I had.

O: If I had the chance, I might have added some extra accesories, like more things to hold the paper.

U: I learned a lot about adobe illustrator and different tools that helped in tracing objects.

L: My biggest limitation was time. We had a shorter amount of time to make Project 3 and Laser Cutting takes  a LOT of time.

WISCR: I met the S and W because the project required not only Fusion 360, but adobe illustrator as well, and I had to stay motivated even with the time constraint.