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.)
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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. A couple months ago, the company Sylvia and I work for was throwing out some old Retail Display Cases. Some of them had Plexiglass (Acrylic) sides.
They were also throwing out some other Display Cases, which had thinner sheets of Plexiglass. Some of those pieces were "corners" (right-angles). So we took home a few sheets and some smaller pieces. We didn't know what we were going to use these materials for but we've always liked the clear, revealing state of Plexiglass. After we got everything home, Sylvia mentioned that I've never like our current Synthesizer setup. Although it's a simple, "3-boards held up by some bricks" arrangement, we keep everything covered with a bedsheet, in order to keep the dust off of our music gear. So Sylvia suggested we build a clear, Synthesizer shelving unit. It took about 5-weeks, a LOT of work and a handful of trips to our local Hardware Store, to buy some tools that we needed.
That was 1 of the 1st things we learned… Cutting Plexiglass too fast will melt it. We also learned that if you cut it while too much vibration is being created, by "hand tools" or "power tools", it will crack. After spending about $230 for the following tools, our "free" Plexiglass turned out to be not so "free"… and that's not counting our Time and labor:
While designing and building everything, I did remember the Saying:
In my case, though, this didn't help a lot. My Dad still laughs at me (in a good way) for not being able to cut a straight line or hammer a nail properly. So after everything was cut, drilled, filed (for large sharp edges), sanded (for smaller rough edges), we disassembled the old shelves from the top of my desk and disconnected the 60 or more cables.
So, after the new shelving unit was assembled and ALL the cables reconnected… the shelving unit is about a quarter-inch off. The top of the back-right corner of the back panel is about a quarter-inch higher than the side it's connected to. (I just checked and the back of the side-piece is not touching the desk.) We didn't discover this until everything was finished. Since it took over 6-hours to assemble everything, we're not about to take it all apart, just to fix a quarter-inch slant. (If you look carefully, you can see the curve in the center shelf, just under the black & green Synth that's sitting on a purple board.)
The top shelf has a large empty area on its left side. This is where our new Modular Synthesizer will be placed. (Sylvia and I went to our local Guitar Center last week and ordered the "case" for the Modules but it's on back-order.) The case we bought is the "Structure 270", made by "Pittsburgh Modular". Here's the link: http://www.guitarcenter.com/Pittsburgh-Modular-Synthesizers/STRUCTURE-EP-270-ENCLOSURE.gc These are the pieces of music gear we currently have in this new shelving unit:
Anyway, for those of you interested in this, here are some photos of what Sylvia and I created and how we're using it: |
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