Heavy metal flute stand

Following on from my iron work guitar stand, here’s a similar thing I’ve just made for Karen in King Alfred’s Cakes for her flute:

This one is made in the following way:

1. The legs are made from three old drill bits, welded together in a triptych of 120 degrees.
2. These are then welded to a base assembly, formed from an old Ikea candlestick (bought from a sale bin for the grand sum of 30p!)
3. The metal upright, which slides into the barrel of the flute, is made from another old drill bit (a differently patterned bit, possibly for wood?) with the end point filed away. This is secured into the candle holder base (in the place/position a candle would normally occupy) with some judiciously poured melted lead (which also adds a nice bit of stabilising weight)
4. A coat of matt black paint finishes the whole thing off. . .

Here is a Work In Progress shot, as well as the finished (or so I thought!) item.

flute stand in progress

first version completed

When I showed it to Karen she was worried that the sharp drill bit may scratch the inside of her flute, and also that the bottom resting area was not quite wide enough. Taking these iterations on board, here’s the second/final version – I welded a much wider base plate (made from an old washer) in place , and I found a transparent plastic sheath to cover the drill shaft. It’s not quite as attractive with this sheath in place, but it is removable and I may be able to find something better to cover it with in the future?

Here’s the second iteration (minus the sheath) – below that is a comparison shot showing how it looks with the protective sheath removed/in place

Second version completed

Side views

It’s not exactly portable (most flute stands unscrew into manageable pieces) bit I hope it adds a bt of old world character on stage!?

Now I just need to make something for Carol the cello player – stay tuned for when inspiration hits me!

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Ikea Hacker article

Was delighted to see my ‘Victorian candlestick’s poor cousin‘ post got accepted for  a little mention on the excellent IKEA Hacker blog…

Click here to see it, along with a few work-in-progress shots that wern’t on the original post.

IKEA Hacker post

Many thanks to Workshop Shed Andy for the ‘heads up’ on the site!

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Occasional Table Number 1

In the never ending task that is the re-vamp of my living room (see lots of previous posts for endlesss referencees to this Herculean endevour!) I’ve been making some small tables for such essential items as cups of tea, tea pots, mobile phones and a variety of remotes for the television I never get a chance to watch!

I thought I could get away with just one such table, but as always the project has become a self-propelled monster and I’m currently up to a total of three (and counting!).

So here’s the first one – it’s based on an AVSATS tray from IKEA, but which I found brand new in a charity shop for £1! It’s just the right shape and size for bringing a pot of tea, milk jug and two cups into the sitting room, and I thought it would be really nice to then put it down on to it’s own set of detachable legs to form an instant table.

Occasional Table Number 1

For ease I’ve put a few photos on my newly created Flickr steam which show the basic stages in construcion – it’s little more than a framework of metal legs (made from worn out drill bits – very long ones, the kind one uses to drill holes straight through the walls of buildings and out the other side), welded together and painted black. I made some feet from sections of copper tube filled with lead, and added four copper tube ‘sockets’ onto the base of the tray into which the legs simply slot. Job done!!

It’s proved really useful already and well worth the £1 investment! 

A reader of a previous blog post of mine (thanks Andy, of the excellent Workshop Shed site!) told me about the IKEA Hacker site and I think this new project maybe fits the bill of the kind of things they feature – I’ll write in to them and see what happens!?

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Victorian candlestick’s poor cousin

I was mooching around IKEA the other day (like one does!]) when I came across the following candlestick, reduced from £8 odd to only £2.40! It’s not the sort of thing I’d usually buy, but I instantly thought it looked spookily akin to my newest candlestick creation (albeit in miniature) and that it would work really well placed alongside it as a sort of ‘set’.

Here it is in its original form:

Small candlestick, original form

To make it fit a bit better with the prototype, I sprayed the silver bezel on the top black, added  a larger black disk (made from an old tin can lid) to catch the drips, and added a spike made from a large screw. Here it is in the finished form:

Small candlestick, new form

And here ‘s the large and small versions together – voila, a perfect companion! How they do these things for the price, I’ll never know (although my original cost absolutely nothing, of course!)

large and small versions together

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