I made a small modification to my Hercules instrument stands so I could clip them onto my instrument cases for easier carrying.
The stands all have this same yellow sort of teddy-bear-head piece on the bottom:
Remove the nut from the center of the bear’s forehead:
I bought a handful of these. They are almost the right thing for the job:
…but they don’t quite fit: the holes are too small. The metal seemed fairly soft and not too thick, so I managed to open up the holes a bit with a handheld drill and a 1/4″ wood-drilling bit. It would probably be safer and more precise to use a drill press and a proper metal-drilling bit.
Or, even better, can anyone recommend a premade part with two 1/4″ (65mm) holes about 1″ (3cm) apart, no thicker than about 1/16″ (1mm), preferably without sharp corners?
Anyway, with the holes slightly enlarged, put the part in place and replace the nut.
Add a small carabiner.
Done:
This worked well on all my Hercules stands, with a minor modification for the bassoon/bass clarinet stand. The “forehead” bolt was too short to get the nut back on with the extra piece in place, so I installed it off-center. It works fine.
I’d be curious to hear about your favorite equipment modifications in the comments.
Have you considered something like this D-ring with clip? It has a 0.25″ mounting hole, and seems like it would protrude enough for your purposes. Not sure whether the swivel action of the D-ring would be a plus or a minus.
I hadn’t considered these, but it seems like they might work. I’m estimating based on the D-ring size, but my guess is that the hole is not quite large enough on these either (to fit over the Hercules bolt, I mean).
If you click the “Technical Specs” tab, sort of in the middle of the page, it gives plenty of measurements (including hole diameter).
Sure enough—I missed that in the link and in your original comment. Interesting idea.