Plastic hardware?

Larry

Larry

"Uncle Larry"
Just spitballin, I think plastic hardware could work.

Metal for the critical parts like where things tighten up, tilters, boom arms perhaps...maybe not...but all the tubes and legs, could be chromed plastic like you see on automobiles.

Chromed plastic is less expensive than aluminum I'm assuming, and probably lighter. This is where you guys come in, I don't know.

Plastic that is as thick as a double braced leg segment should be plenty stiff enough to do the job, right?

Looking for your thoughts.
 
AzHeat said:
Surprised we don't have carbon fiber hardware already.
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Carbon fiber sounds pricey. I don't know.

I would think that reasonably priced stiff plastic is strong enough.
 
Just referring to the tubes and legs and non critical parts on cymbal stands, snare stands and even hi hat stands.

No lugs, pedals, thrones, tom trees. Just where plastic would do the job without failing.
 
Yeah that’s a tough one. Metal and plastic don’t really see eye to eye. I could see plastic cracking easy ( cold to hot and all that ) plus vibration.
I’m sure it’s been tried before.
 
I dunno. Plastic is flexible, it has to be. If it was rigid it would break too easily.

Think about a cymbal stand with schedule 40 PVC for water lines. It would flex like crazy. I'm sure it would hold up, but I'm also pretty sure your cymbal would move all over the place.

Weight might be an issue also. A plastic stand might not have enough weight to keep from tipping over.

Plastic car parts dont always work. Plastic intake manifolds melt. Plastic valve covers crack. Plastic intake tubes dry out, crack, then cause vacuum leaks. Plastic door handles break, as do plastic knobs, and wiper/turn signal arms too. Plastic dashboards crack. Plastic pedal boxes break, as do plastic shifter housings.

I dont like plastic for important things. Metal is the way to go for structure and stability. Now a drum shell might be a fabulous use for plastic in a drum set. Acrylic is a plastic (yes I know not all acrylic is a plastic, I'm pretty sure the drum shells are), and we all know how well they work. This might be a good idea actually. How much wasted plastic is in landfills and the ocean? Melt that stuff down and recycle it into drums.
 
It's surprising just how little stress it would take to break plastic hardware.

Manhasset makes a version of their standard music stand with a plastic tray and plastic feet, but the adjustable tube is metal . On paper it makes sense since you wouldn't expect something that just sits there holding some music really needs to be all metal.

But in real life they just don't hold up. The feet crack unexpectedly from relatively minor impacts and even the trays crack from repeated movement.

I couldn't imagine how I'd feel if I got to a gig and my bag of plastic stands had self-destructed on the way to the show. Well, actually I can: stupid.

I'm all for single braced hardware, and Yamaha's use of aluminum in the crosstown hardware to lighten the load seems to work pretty well, but I think incorporating plastic is adding an inevitable failure point that's unnecessary.
 
MrInsanePolack said:
I dunno. Plastic is flexible, it has to be. If it was rigid it would break too easily.

Think about a cymbal stand with schedule 40 PVC for water lines. It would flex like crazy. I'm sure it would hold up, but I'm also pretty sure your cymbal would move all over the place.

Weight might be an issue also. A plastic stand might not have enough weight to keep from tipping over.

Plastic car parts dont always work. Plastic intake manifolds melt. Plastic valve covers crack. Plastic intake tubes dry out, crack, then cause vacuum leaks. Plastic door handles break, as do plastic knobs, and wiper/turn signal arms too. Plastic dashboards crack. Plastic pedal boxes break, as do plastic shifter housings.

I dont like plastic for important things. Metal is the way to go for structure and stability. Now a drum shell might be a fabulous use for plastic in a drum set. Acrylic is a plastic (yes I know not all acrylic is a plastic, I'm pretty sure the drum shells are), and we all know how well they work. This might be a good idea actually. How much wasted plastic is in landfills and the ocean? Melt that stuff down and recycle it into drums.
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Not thin PVC like in water lines. I'm talking tubes with plastic walls about 1/4 to 3/8's of an inch thick, and leg segments the same. Like Schedule 40 PVC electrical conduit thickness. (way thicker than water lines)
 
AZDRUMZ said:
maybe for feather touch players but hard hitters like me would probably knock the stand over.
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It's not the weight of the stand that keeps the stand from tipping over it's the stance of the legs.
 
Maybe I'll experiment with an old stand and some PVC conduit I have laying around
 
larryace said:
Not thin PVC like in water lines. I'm talking tubes with plastic walls about 1/4 to 3/8's of an inch thick, and leg segments the same. Like Schedule 40 PVC electrical conduit thickness. (way thicker than water lines)
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Is that the black PVC? I've not had to bury an electrical line yet, so have no experience with electrical conduit.
 
I think if you turned a lightweight balsam rod to fit in a PVCs pipe I bet thst would keep it light but add strength. What was that plastic NASA invented that is now commercially available and you see in products?
 
Most stands actually use a combination of metal and plastic, especially around the point where you tighten things to keep the stand at a given height. And it's usually the plastic bits that go or the thinner metal bits that break because they had to make the metal thinner to accommodate the plastic. The stands that I have that have lasted the longest are the ones made of metal. As a result I have metal stands from the 1970's that have outlasted new stands that I bought in 2010. So, I'll vote no to more plastic for drumming hardware.
 
Non-metallic organic magnetic plastics have always puzzled me-much as metal magnets in general. Man have you seen those large horseshoe magnets at machine shops like trying to lift Thor’s hammer. To bad bronze isn’t magnetic so you could invent an invisible magnetic stand that your cymbals float.
 
Cymbals stands I think all plastic could work- but take some engineering for a strong base/foundation to be supportive of cymbals weight and play. I’d wager drum companies have tried but plastics have also gotten better and sometimes the simplest innovations take everyone by surprise.
 
AzHeat said:
Surprised we don't have carbon fiber hardware already.
Click to expand...

Oh man - I know that would be expensive...but a set of light weight hardware would be worth the $$ hands down. Every night I had to carry a bag of light carbon fiber I would make that $$ back in medical expenses later haha.
 
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