Lessons from a Piano Stand

We need a place for the keyboard. We found this stand while looking, liked it so much, and decided to make one our own. We of course adjusted the dimensions to count for difference in geometry (the person, the keyboard, ...). This is the final product.

We borrowed from our earlier experience in building our deck, by mentally going through each step first (actually multiple times). For example, we realized that when assembling the sides of the stand, the two horizontal pieces need to go in after the diagonal pieces, so there is no need to tighten them, just enough as a place holder.
But we still came out with many "unexpected" things. The most ironic is the wrong assumption of proper sitting posture. As we do with computers,  we assumed the upper arms down along the side of the body AND legs halfway under the keyboard, with the upper leg generally horizontal. This lead to the conundrum of  inadequate vertical space for the table top and keyboard.  After realizing the upper arm should be slightly in front of the body, and the knees (not legs) to be just under the keyboard, we found the bench can be raised for more comfortable arm positions.

• But that was after everything was made and finished. So for now, we use a pillow to make up the difference. This is annoying, since we cut the bench legs by about an inch during one of the checkpoints. However, we are very lucky the mistake is on the bench, not the stand itself, which will be much harder to compensate. Not all errors are equal.

And there are more things we could have done differently ...

Where to start? 

We normally start with the item(s) most prominent in our minds, which is the stand in this case. That is a mistake, since any errors we made had more significant impact (appearance, cost or effort to correct). Instead we should have started with the bench, so we could apply the lessons to the stand and made it better.  We did learn the lesson onward, and started with the bench during staining and finishing. Similarly, we worked on the less conspicuous sides first.

Check Points

After the parts for the stand were made, and BEFORE final assembly, we propped them together and put the piano on it to try. It became obvious that there wasn't enough room for my legs. So we raised the stand by 1.5", and lowered the bench by about an inch. This is both good and bad. On one hand, we are happy to have raised the stand so there is adequate leg room. On the other hand, there was no need to cut the bench legs (misguided by wrong assumptions).

Warped Legs

The legs came out crooked when the pieces are fully assembled. Since the left/right support are doweled and glued to the two horizontal pieces in the back, there was limited time to identify the issue and come up with any resolution. Then it dawned on us that we did find the legs were somewhat warped, but didn't realize it would matter.

• Later with the bench legs, we paid more attention to the blind holes making sure they are straight. When the legs still came out to be warped, we were more mentally prepared, and were able to force them to be straight.
• At the end of the project, we concluded that all lumber (natural and manufactured) are warped, PERIOD. So being prepared for warped surfaces is an essential element of woodworking. We could make perfectly angled blind holes for the dowel binding, but that alone would never produce un-warped structures.

Standards We can Trust

How do we determine that the table/bench legs are on the same plane? The workshop floor is a poor measure. We tried another table (looked shiny and felt smooth), which turned out to be warped as well. We finally settled with the straight edges of two levels -- as we can confirm the edges are straight, and two straight lines make a perfect plane.

Wish Knew it Earlier

We diligently sanded the outside surfaces to they felt smooth. It wasn't until staining we realized that the insides of the legs should have been sanded as well, so they would look better after staining. But it was too late, and may not be noticeable to the untrained eyes. So that is one corner we can be cavalier about.

On Dowel Joints

We opted for dowel joints (vs pocket hole joinery). Initially we eye balled when drilling, and found out the holes were absolutely not of the same depth (making it more difficult to cut dowel pins). Later we learned to mark the depth with duct tape on the drill bit. We also realized the importance to make the holes perpendicular to the suffice so the dowel pegs are easier to get into the holes and the assembled parts are less warped. This picture shows all the pieces to drill a dowel hole (see the duct tape on the drill bit?). Honing on specific skills helps us getting better.

Know Thy Tools

A family friend kindly showed us how to calibrate the table saw (we didn't even know such a a thing to even google). Exhilarated with our perfectly calibrated table saw, we planned to do most the cutting thence. It turned out the table saw doesn't work well to cut long pieces, so we ended up using the circular saw for most of the cutting.  After learning how to make a guide, the circular saw cuts came out perfectly every time.

Closing Thoughts

The final product actually came out better than we anticipated, and nothing we could buy at similar (or much higher) price point would come out as good. The effort is very worthwhile.

Of course, we will do things somewhat differently the second time. On projects of larger scale, a prototype would be very worthwhile. In the real life of making one time objects, we consoled ourselves with the epiphany that all artists make mistakes. Stupid ones either ignore the mistakes or get upset. Good artists do a better job to hide the defects, and great ones make the defects shine. We aspire to be nothing short of great artists.