474 



Popular Science Monthly 



A Music Stand 



AVERY pretty and useful music 

 stand can be easily constructed 

 with inexpensive material. Anyone who 

 can use a hammer, saw, auger, varnish- 

 brush and glue-pot, can make this stand 

 at an astonishingly low cost. The ma- 

 terial necessary can be obtained in al- 

 most any village. The use of the stand 

 is not restricted to music, as the one the 

 author constructed had various uses. 

 The lowest shelf held a set of Shake- 

 speare's works. The next was used for 

 music books, the second for sheet music 

 and the top for holding a lamp, a metro- 

 nome and a match-holder. 



The materials will mostly depend upon 

 the advantages: Four boards (dressed 

 to required thickness), IS'' x 24'''; one 

 board (dressed to required thickness), 

 9" X 18'' ; four iron rods, 4' x 14". 



Tacks and putty are required, as well 

 as spools of different sizes and shapes, 

 nails, and glue. The boards will be 

 dressed for a few cents at a planing 

 mill ; the rods can be obtained at a black- 

 smith's and the spools at a dressmaker's, 

 tailor's or milliner's. Thumb tacks may 

 be procured at a book store. 



If possible, obtain spools that have 

 had Nos. 36, 40 or 60 cotton thread, 

 and dress the boards, of the first 

 size, to a thick- 

 ness equal to the 

 length of the hole 

 in the spool. This 

 will vary with 

 the size of the 

 spool. Find 

 points on the 

 four similar 

 boards, four 

 inches from the 

 corner, on the di- 

 agonal. This mav 

 be done by drawing the diagonals and 

 marking on them points x inches from 

 each corner. With a W-h\t, bore holes 

 at these points in the four boards (x 

 depends on the radius of the spool in 

 Fig. 3). 



Place the spools in a vise and saw 

 each in two, making the cut parallel to 

 the hole in the spool. Then drive the 

 finishing nails, one in each half-spool, as 

 shown in Fig. 1. Commencing at one 

 corner, nail these half spools to each of 



Method of cutting 

 and placing spools 



Music stand easily constructed at small 

 expense and with few tools 



the boards, the hole in the spool running 

 at right angles to the top of the board. 

 Some difficulty will be .found in driving 

 the nails into the spools, to avoid split- 

 ting the wood. The boards, when com- 

 pleted thus, will appear as in Fig. 2. 



Take the board whose larger dimen- 

 sions are 9" x 18" and complete it. It 

 must be dressed. The spools required 

 for it are common spools that have 

 held silk thread. These must be sawn 

 into halves, the cut made this time at 

 right angles to the hole (Fig. 3). Next, 

 with a good, sharp knife pare off the side, 

 as shown in Fig. 3, just enough to pre- 

 vent rolling. Then into some, drive 

 nails, from one side to the pared side, 

 as shown in Fig. 3. Dress the board 

 to a thickness equal to the smallest di- 

 ameter of the spool, and place this board 

 centrally on one of the other boards. To 

 do this, draw the diagonals on the under 

 side of the smaller board, and measure 

 one diagonal. Then from the middle of 

 the other board (where its diagonals in- 

 tersect) mark off on its diagonal lines 

 equal to one-half the diagonal of the 

 small board. The corner of the smaller 

 board will coincide with the four points 

 just marked. Lay the spools on the 

 larger, around the smaller board, which 

 has been nailed firmly to the larger 

 board (nails being driven from under- 

 neath the larger board). The larger 

 part of the spool is on the outside. 



