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Tri-Cymbal Tops

Wing nuts for cymbal stands are not very expensive, unless 10-15 are lost during the course of a year. This is what happened during the 2017 season of the YS. Maybe because there was an increase of touring which meant a lot of packing and unpacking, or just coincidental.  But the result was the same: time spent on budgeting and then ordering parts.
Another problem was with tightening the wing nuts. Some students felt that it should be threaded on the post until it contacted the sleeve and then add another 4 or 5 turns for good measure. This required more budgeting and ordering to replace the damaged sleeves.
Sometimes when setting up the cymbal, the wing nut would take flight and be forever lost on the floor. For some it was easier to go to the cabinet to get a new one rather than look for the original. Then there was the problem of choosing which threading was needed. Is it 6mm, 8mm, or the older 1/4" x 20 tpi (we had all three)?
I wanted to find a system that would attach onto a stand regardless of the threading or the diameter of the post. The summer after the 2017 season allowed me time to experiment with some different ideas.
The Tri-Cymbal Top

I used a 'Binder Clip' (they come in various sizes, and the 'mini' seemed to be the best choice). I drilled a hole large enough to accommodate an 8mm post in the top center, a Dremel tool was used to cut a half circle on the bottom of the clamp, I put foam on the wire handles and covered them with heat-shrink tubing. It took an hour to make 20 of them.

We now had a system in which one hand could release the clamp while the other placed or removed the cymbal without having to fumble around to catch the wing nut if it escaped. This may not work if the cymbal stand were tilted as used on a drum set, but positioned flat for concert use it was perfect.

I called it a 'Cymbal Top' and then realized it sounded like
Triceratops.
So the Tri-Cymbal Top was born.

























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