I have a Yamaha P-85 that I bought secondhand. It didn't come with a music rest, which means that I don't have a place to put my sheet music when I am playing.
I found a replacement music rest being sold online for $29.99, but I didn't feel like spending that much. Then I thought, "Why don't I just make one?"
Design
My design was loosely based off of the original music rest. One big difference was how it was to be secured to my keyboard. My keyboard had two slots so that the music rest could be clipped inside them. The slots were slightly curved, and I could not figure out how to measure it. This is why I decided to create two small pieces that would fit into the slots instead of one big, curved piece.
Clips
Prototype
I am not sure what to call each part of the clip, so I will the front part the "front support", the back part the "back support", and the part that clips into the slot the "leg".
I knew that I wanted the clips to look like a football goal post when examined from the side. I created a prototype of the clips using cardboard. I realized that if I made the front and back supports perpendicular to the keyboard, the sheet music would fall forward. I also thought that I needed to increase the height of the back support so that it could support the weight of both the wood and the sheet music.
Trial 1
I used Tinkercad to design the clip so that I could 3D print it. I was picky about the way that it looked. For example, I didn't like that a part of the design had a triangular prism that was sticking out as a result of making the front and back supports slanted. I also didn't like that the tops of my supports weren't parallel to the keyboard. In order to fix these issues, I needed to use trigonometry. I created a triangular prisms that matched the parts that were sticking out, and then I subtracted that from the design.
I thought I made the correct measurements, but the leg was too big to completely fit into the slot. I also thought that the whole clip was too big. However, the slanted supports looked good.
Trial 2
For the second trial, I made the width of the leg smaller and cut the size of the clip in half.
The width of the leg for this clip was still too wide, but it still worked!
Wooden Music Rest
I created a design for the actual wood piece that would be put into the clips. It was going to be 12"x20". The blue parts were to be cut, and the red parts were to be etched.
I bought a 12"x24" piece of birch wood thinking it would be fine, but it turned out that the laser cutter that I was going to use could only cut materials up to 12"x20". I had to cut it with a table saw in order for it to work. I also had to adjust the width of the board because the machine's cutting size was actually less than 12"x20". I first cut out the shape of the board and the arc in the middle.
After I confirmed that the size of the music rest was good enough, I went back to co.lab and etched the floral design. Because it was so detailed, it took an hour and one minute to complete the task.
Although it was a long process, it was very rewarding. I love the way that it looks!
Reflection
When I look at how I worked on this project and compare it to how I created things before, I can definitely see growth. I always used to jump into working on the actual product with little planning. However, I have accepted that making is a process, so I created a prototype to make my thoughts into something tangible. I am glad that I created a prototype for the clips because it showed me that my original idea was flawed. The back support would not have been able to hold the weight of the wooden music rest and sheet music. Jumping straight into 3D printing would have been a waste of time and resources.
Although I still do not have clips that work exactly the way I want it to work, I am not disappointed. I know that if I keep adjusting my design, I will eventually find one that perfectly fits the slots on my keyboard. I feel the same way about the wooden piece also. It doesn't look exactly like I wanted it to look, but the music rest does what it is supposed to do, so I am happy. I can confidently say that from the moment I started this project, I embraced a maker mindset.