Spent much of the day finishing the music stand, here's a look:
The bolt there is a test bolt. I'll be fitting one with a handle and make a flat stopper for it to form the clamp proper.
There was a hitch. The MODX has a deep hole in the exact place were the bolt was/is due to clamp, this houses the case screws. This was hidden and unexpected, I'd have had to turn the MODX upside down to have noticed it. I'm reminded that all problems in engineering are that which is unexpected. My options are:
1. Use a longer bolt to clamp deep into the hole. Not ideal, as it's hard to get a bolt long enough, it would ideally need to be 70mm, and I wouldn't want to damage the screw with the tip. Also this would prevent moving the stand left or right to a place where there isn't a hole.
2. Put something like a 'plank' over the hole and grip into that. This works, but it can't be fixed anywhere and so could fall off and go missing easily when the stand it removed. Also the gap between the clamp and the MODX is only about 2mm, so this would needs to be very thin.
3. Shave into the stand itself to add a 'plank' of sorts there, and somehow attach it. It can't really be attached though, it shouldn't really bulge (although this very bulging strip is how my old easel connector worked). It should be a wide strip, about 10x70mm, moving perpendicular to the bolt.
4. Fill the hole in with something I can remove in future.
This isn't a serious problem as all options will work. Option 2 works well enough, but I'll have to be careful not to lose the piece of plastic I'm using to cover the hole.
When fixed, it holds the stand really tightly, and is definitely an improvement on the Mark I. I have a few ideas to improve it for a Mark III. The clamp issue aside I could make the main sheet holder pivot so that it can tilt at any angle, using a toothed gear to lock and adjust it (never friction! Those cheap mic stands which use friction never work). That would avoid the need for the long V extensions at the back, making it all smaller and more flexible.
After that I spent some time updating the Steam stores for my software, which were a little out of date. The admin with a game catalogue never really ends.
Then I started work on some backing for 'Excessive Consumption Has Laxative Affects'. It sounded rather good from the outset, but is all sequenced and I'm wondering if it needs more feeling, live play. It sounds very different from the version I played at the open mic; well, it would, I now have bass, electric piano, drums.
