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bloke wrote: Tue Apr 05, 2022 11:21 pm Maybe I should create a stand that has a garden hose attachment, and call it a “tuba cleaning stand”.

Build it, and they will come.

bloke wrote: Wed Apr 06, 2022 7:01 am.

bloke “20 inch square carpet remnant for the floor, and old washcloth for the wall”

Yeah, but that doesn’t look as grandiose and I buy tubas to look at rather than play (less wrong notes that way)...

bloke wrote:If a tuba bell has a wide “pancake“ and is a bit thin (say: .5mm vs. .6mm), I might imagine it could be creased by setting it down too quickly, too carelessly. and on one side of the bell - rather than straight down, but the person - above - who stated that they have a tuba like that - and that they would never set on it bell - is not a careless person. That person has a lot of mechanical knowledge/experience, and I would’ve thought that they knew better.

As far as something that I would hesitate to do, it would be to set something that’s about 3 feet tall on a short stand - whereby walking past it and bumping against a wide-flaring top shape could knock it over… whether that stand were some $300 German-made stand, or some $125 Chinese-made stand of equal quality.

bloke “20 inch square carpet remnant for the floor, and old washcloth for the wall”

I can set it down carefully enough and have done. But I can’t completely control the world around it. Even I might absent-mindedly lean on it, and I’ve seen too many others stand close with their fat feet on the edge of the bell. I may have care and mechanical knowledge, but I can also be clumsy and a pancake bell is loaded in bending and doesn’t benefit from support of the flare or from hoop tension as does a bell without that wide pancake section. I’m careful with that instrument precisely because I do have mechanical knowledge.

It’s fine until it isn’t.

Rick “and then it’s too late to be careful” Denney

Assuming that much clumsiness, have you considered surrendering your drivers license?

A repair of a flat concentric place on a bell flair is sure less noticeable than a repair of a tuba that’s been knocked over.

bloke “”

This:

As far as something that I would hesitate to do, it would be to set something that’s about 3 feet tall on a short stand - whereby walking past it and bumping against a wide-flaring top shape could knock it over…

vs. this:

I’ve seen too many others stand close with their fat feet on the edge of the bell.

Both sound like an equal risk (i.e. probability * cost of occurrence) to me. I've done both (jostled and misstepped), although I've never fully knocked a horn over (the stands were better than that) nor have I fully bent a bell (the bells were better than that). I prefer stands since my family seems to treat them with a greater degree of avoidance. Not sure why, but that's been my experience. Your mileage may vary.

Looks like where the Wessex stand started. Still some design issues that I can see. I'll likely end up building something else, but thanks!

In symphony orchestras, I set my tubas to my left, and pick them up before breaks or dismissal (though cellists - as a group of musicians - are extraordinarily careful when walking past others’ instruments).
I never leave them on stage when I’m not there.
During breaks, they are laid on top of my bag on top of one of the backstage tables, and after dismissal, they are back in my vehicle.

If I’m recreationally playing in a community band – or hired to fill in for a band concert, due to an epic number of their players being absent, I never set my instrument on the floor…and certainly not on a stand, and make certain that the chair spacing is quite wide between me and anyone else. (That having been said, the function of the tuba in a concert band really doesn’t allow for any time to set the instrument on the floor, anyway). All of that having been said, there’s one community band comp. E-flat player (who is a doubler - primarily: bass trombone) who I’ve worked with in Broadway show pits for decades. I have absolutely no expectation of that particular person bumping their instrument into mine - nor stepping on my bell.