Here's another Plexiglass item that Sylvia and I created a few months ago.

This "Drumstick Painting Box" started out as an Earring Display. A company was throwing it out, so we told them we could make something out of it.

"Plexiglass" / "Acrylic" is a very different type of material to work with. Whether it's "thin", as with the material on this Display Case, or "thick" like the pieces we used in our main shelving unit, this stuff is just not what I'm used to. Granted, I'm not very handy with "Power Tools" and barely know how to create things with "Hand Tools" but this clear plastic doesn't behave like "Wood" or "Metal". (Not that I know what I'm doing with those materials either.)

• If you cut Plexiglass / Acrylic too fast, it will melt. Even if you use a "Scoring Tool" to hand-score (etch) into a sheet, in order to "cut" it, dragging the Scoring Tool too quickly across its surface will cause the plastic shavings to become very hot and actually "stick" or "bond" to the metal part of that Tool.
• Sawing or Drilling into Plexiglass too slowly will cause it to crack, splinter and shatter.
• If you're using a standard Drill Bit, you really do need to start with a very narrow diameter Bit and work your way up to the size you ultimately need. I've found that the best Drill Bits are not the standard "spiral" type. Instead, use the "flattened-V" shaped Bits.
• Using "Acetone", you can actually "bond" 2 pieces of Plexiglass together. This is how I added the back edge to the UltraNova's dust cover.
• Acetone will also "un-bond" 2 pieces of Plexiglass from each other. However, this is not a perfect science. In my experience, one or both pieces may simply break in the process.

Below, are some photos of a "Drumstick Painting Box" that we created…

For this project, Sylvia and I used another Retail Display item — a chrome stand. I don't know its original purpose but it's heavy enough to be a Drumstick Holder, it's adjustable and it's chrome.

The "tray", holding the Drumsticks, was some type of "L-shaped", display shelf, which we modified slightly.

I want to share this because I couldn't find a solution to this problem online and thought others would like to know about it…

Quite a while ago, we purchased a "Tama Speed Cobra", single, Bass Drum pedal for my electronic drumset. Earlier this year, the felt pad on its Beater Head (see image on "left" below) had come unglued. In my opinion, this happened because of "poor design". I had positioned the felt pad so its point was making contact with the rubber, electronic, Bass Drum pad but there must have been enough "angled stress", while playing, to cause it to slide up and break-away from the glue holding it in place.

I never noticed when the felt pad initially came off. One day, though, I happened to look down and noticed that the hard-plastic Beater Head was now making direct contact with the rubber pad. This was not good. The rubber in that area was now indented and the hardness of the plastic and force of my playing could have damaged the Piezo Sensor inside the pad. It didn't but it could have.

Although I could have glued the felt pad back on, Sylvia and I thought it would simply detach itself again. So we decided to buy a replacement Beater. We bought the "Tama CB90F" (see image on "right" below).

​This replacement Beater is sold just as you see it in this image:

• Shaft,
• Balancing Weight,
• Beater Head, etc.

I simply removed the old Beater and installed the new one.

Within a few minutes of playing, I noticed that the Beater Head had pivoted up — forcing its felt pad to no longer make contact with the drum pad. So I rotated the Beater Head back into position and played the pedal while watching the new Beater. Within just a few stokes, I saw the Beater Head turn upwards again. I tightened everything but this continued to happen.

I went online, to see if anyone else had this same problem and how they fixed it. Lots of people had the same issue but I could not find anyone who successfully solved this problem.

I then got out the old Beater and removed the Beater Head. I immediately noticed that the cylinder, which holds the Beater Head is "knurled" — there are "X" patterns etched into it. I then looked at the same portion of the new Beater and saw that it was shiny-smooth. It's no wonder why the new Beater Head won't stay in position. There's nothing for it to grip to.

So I swapped-out the Beater shafts… placing the "old" shaft on the "new" Beater. This solved the problem.

Here's the link to their product page:
​www.tama.com/usa/products/hardware/accessories/pedal/index.html

Earlier this year, I had Posted several images and a video of the Synthesizer shelf Sylvia and I had created out of Plexiglass. Since then, I modified it a bit:

• I pulled its back panel in about 2-inches, in order to leave room for the cables to drop down between the back panel and the wall behind it.
• In looking for a way to see the contents of this shelf but also have those items protected from dust, we decided to use a sheet of "Storm Door Screen". The "width" was about 2-inches short but we used it anyway. Although we do have a sheet of Plexiglass that we could have used as a front cover for this shelf, at 3/8ths-inch thick, it would have meant taking off and putting on a 20-to-30-pound sheet each time we wanted to access those Synthesizers. So now, we simply and quickly roll-up the screen and it can tuck-away in the top-back part of this shelf. (Another modification I made after uploading those previous images.)
• Although this 3/8ths-inch-thick Plexiglass is very strong, the top and middle shelves had so much weight on them those shelves were sagging a bit. So back to Lowe's (hardware store) where we purchased 2, "U"-shaped, aluminum bars. I cut them to the width we need and simply placed them over the front-edge of those shelves. They still sage a tiny bit but they're now supported with a metal strip.

Since we still had more Plexiglass, and because we like the look of "clear" shelves and stands for our Synthesizers, Sylvia and I created a few more stands and dust covers a couple of months ago.

Here's a Slideshow of the photos showing the various shelves, stands and dust covers Sylvia and I made out of Plexiglass…