[difalkner]

Hi - first post here and first woodworking project in many years. My wife and I are in the process of converting our two-car garage to a woodshop and we've made progress (that would be another post in a different area). Briefly, though, we've insulated, added mini split and lights, and we've about finished a climate controlled room in the attic above the garage so we can move things out of the way of woodworking.

I'm restoring my PM66 (loaned out, came back rusted, trunnion locked, motor burnt out, etc. - NEVER loan a tool), a Delta scroll saw from the 40’s, and I've already restored my DJ-15 (loaned along with the table saw – came back the same way). These restorations will be another post in a different area, as well.

On to the monitor stand –

A friend and I play guitar in our worship group at church every Sunday and he left in June to fill in at another church while they looked for a music minister. When he left we were using printed sheets for all our music. I have switched over to my iPad using OnSong, an excellent app for this purpose, btw. However, last week when we were discussing his return he pointed out that he can’t see my iPad unless it’s fairly close and he didn't feel comfortable being the one to ‘drive’. So, I decided Wednesday before Thanksgiving to order a VGA cable for my iPad and mirror to a 22” monitor I had but wasn't really using.

I started thinking about how I was going to mount the monitor to a mic stand and figured that wasn't going to work. I also didn't know if the display needed to be landscape or portrait so I had to wait until the cable came in from Amazon Friday afternoon. Found the display requires the monitor to be landscape and headed to Lowe’s to buy one 5.5” by 6’ Aspen white wood board. Man, prices have gone up on wood since I last did some woodworking over 15 years ago. About $12 for one plain white board – wow!

More to come, I'll post the rest in a sec...

Since I didn't see a way to arrange the photos I just numbered them -

 

[difalkner]

Monitor stand for church 2

Anyway, I thought for about 30 minutes on what I wanted the stand to look like and began laying it out Friday evening, keeping in mind that I basically have a 12” bandsaw as my main cutting tool and everything had to come from the one board. I like asymmetry so doing the base in an offset design just came natural. Of course, that complicates the design since I now have to tilt the column forward and get the balance right (don’t want the monitor falling over during a service!). I toyed with the idea of a solid base with a 10 lb. weight hidden underneath just to make certain but ultimately decided to keep the lines clean. I did drill some holes under the legs and pour in almost a pound of lead, though. Don’t know if it helps but I did it anyway.

Originally I planned to make a platform for the monitor base to set on but then noticed I could get to the actual mounting bracket without destroying anything and that made my design much cleaner. Also, because I had about one day to build this I decided to use fasteners rather than glue since I had to allow time to get at least one coat of paint on in time to dry for use Sunday morning. All the mic and music stands are black so I just decided to paint rather than stain and finish.

The column angle is 5 degrees and that places the monitor just a hair past center of the forward leg. It seems balanced enough with the monitor mounted and I can rock it a fair amount in every direction and the stand returns back to all fours without ever looking like it’s going to fall over.

I started about 7:30 Friday evening and worked until about midnight to get the base and column complete. Then Saturday morning I made the monitor mounting block out of a piece of oak because I thought the Aspen wood was a bit soft. Also, I decided not to paint the oak mounting block – just like the way it looks against the black paint. The shelf for capo and picks was an afterthought and is the only place glue was used. Once I mounted the monitor it just looked like it needed something so I made that little shelf. I think it really adds to the overall look now that it’s on there.

More to come...

 

[difalkner]

Monitor stand for church 3

The tilt mechanism is mounted to the oak block with 8-32 screws and nylon lock nuts and the pedestal half lap is secured with a 5/16 SHCS and nylon lock nut. All other fasteners are drywall screws.

Took it to church this morning and it was well received – had a dozen or so people come look at it and all had positive comments. Now several have challenged me to build one for my iPad. I doubt I will but we’ll see. Other more pressing projects are ahead of that. This one had to be completed or go back to paper chord sheets and that’s something I didn't want to do.

The photos of the stand setting on the PM66 table are before final sanding and just dry fitted to check my work. Joints are tight and it actually held the monitor with the entire unit dry fitted and no fasteners except on the oak block.

One more...

 

[difalkner]

Monitor stand for church 4

I've included a photo of us playing yesterday morning – I’m the old guy playing the Koa Takamine. If you’re interested you can hear the song we’re playing here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0n175BeeQc

 

[Carvel Loafer]

Cool! A worship telepromter. Looks good. :thumbsup:

 

[johnnie52]

I like your design.:thumbsup:

Did you make it without glue for a reason? Screws do work loose and can cause issues down the road.

 

[Chaincarver Steve]

I really like the design of your stand. It came out looking very classy. Well done! :thumbsup:

 

[difalkner]

Thanks for the comments - it was a fun quick build. I used screws because I needed enough time to paint. My choices were to use glue and take it to church as white wood or use screws for quick assembly, paint it, and take it to church as a match to the mic and music stands. I'll see it several times a week and 'monitor' how tight it stays. I can glue it up later if I really need to.