On Wed, 29 Nov 2006 13:35:40 +0000, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:


But it all works (so far) but I wondered if I could replace the SS bar
with *tube* (of the same diameter) and would that better / (stiffer)?


No. A tube is really just a rod with the heavy and low stressed material
removed.

Nice description ;-)

Also, if not stainless is there anything else that could be used that
would make a nice sliding 'hinge' do you think please (and I don't
really want to re-design it all. e.g. silver steel, would that go
rusty?) ;-(


You MIGHT find a carbon fibre tube is a bit stiffer..3/8" is 10mm give
or take

I did think of carbon ..

Try here..

looks about Where? ;-)

However its not a good bearing surface.

I thought of that too. How about CF rod in a SS tube! ;-)

There are custom keyboard sliding mounts and the like made for 19" rack
use..

Yeah, I bought a couple of heavy roller draw slides for the MK1
version but the keyboard needs to be quite a long way out into her
room (so they would probably need to be multistage / telescopic and
I'd have to build something to mount them on etc .. (too many bits in
the room to do that easily) ;-(

There are radio keyaboards...

And there are smaller keyboards! The idea of getting this particular
instrument:

http://www.maudio.co.uk/products/en_...88sx-main.html

is because it has it's own built in voices and audio output (so can be
played live with just an amp) and USB / MIDI for connecting to a PC /
Mac. 88 full sized semi weighted keys mean you can play it like a real
piano (without running out of notes) ;-) But it's quite long so needed
to be 'hinged' away to fit in her packed box-room (or lifted away but
I wanted to keep it plugged in and ready for use).!


For a cantilever, I'd be thinking more in terms of 1/2"-3/4" steel...

Well this 3/8" is *ok* (as in work but not perfect) and if 1/2" is 3
times stiffer (if I understood things correctly?) then that should be
sufficient. 3/4" would probably be best of course (or even 5/8") but
possibly a bit over engineered and probably would require a complete
re-work. ;-(

All the best ..

T i m