Mic Stand Repair

[adamburgess]

https://www.k-m.de/en/products/mic-stands/floor-stands/26085-one-hand-microphone-stand-black/26085-300-55?c=178

Friend of mine just gave me one of these to fix. It's locked at the lowest position. I would love any ideas!

Looking inside the handle area, all looks ok, nothing snapped and the handle looks like it's connecting with the the centre rod no problem.
All went back together fine.

Just finding it impossible to get the top half out of the bottom tube. I can unscrew the collet at the top of the lower tube.
 I'm guessing the clutch/adjustment screw stuff at the end of the rod has come out of the bottom of the top/inner tube and therefore the handle not doing anything useful. Tried much brute force and nothing moving an inch. It is slightly bent, too, but not enough to make a difference, I don't think! There's no impact marks that would suggest the whole thing inside is being pinched…

The bottom of the outer tube is solid where it screws into the base. Anyone think it's worth drilling a hole in the bottom of the fitting? Will I get my fingers or anything in there to help get the clutch back in the tube?

https://imgur.com/a/9v0aG (Not my pics, but it's an easy fix if I could just separate the two tubes…!)

Cheers for any ideas, Adam

[sunray]

I've repaired one but it was not locking and simply adjustment and I didn't pay too much attention to the workings. To be honest I can't even remember which way I had to turn the nut and whether the handle pushed or pulled the control rod.

Is the control rod  still connected at the bottom.

[adamburgess]

2 hours ago, sunray said:

Is the control rod  still connected at the bottom.

Don't think so. That's why it won't budge.

The clutch must have dropped out the end of the middle tube - and is fully opened so there's no chance of it ever fitting back trying to pull it upwards.

Maybe I'll drill through the bottom and see. 

[sunray]

I'm really annoyed with myself for not paying more attention when I worked on it.

IIRC the fingers are plastic and I'll make the guess the the clutch locks by pulling the plunger up/into the fingers and spreading them. I'm assuming the handle allows a spring to push the plunger down/out of the finger allowing them to close/shrink.

Therefore I'm guessing you have the opposite problem to your current assumption and the inner part is stuck inside the fingers rather than dropped to far out.

You mentioned you dismantled the handle (something I got nowhere near to doing, IIRC it is riveted or something), from the handle is it possible to release the control rod to allow it to drop further down?

Of course I may have this completely round the wrong way and the fingers are spread when the inner part is pushed down/out. I doubt this as I don't think the nut was captive on the inner part.

 

Do you know the symptoms of failure? was it a 'gradual getting harder to operate' or a 'sudden failure'?

Edited May 25, 2023 by sunray

[sunray]

have you seen this:

 

k&m one hand mic stand repair - Google Search

 

Shows how it works.

Edited May 25, 2023 by sunray

[adamburgess]

11 hours ago, sunray said:

I'm really annoyed with myself for not paying more attention when I worked on it.

IIRC the fingers are plastic and I'll make the guess the the clutch locks by pulling the plunger up/into the fingers and spreading them. I'm assuming the handle allows a spring to push the plunger down/out of the finger allowing them to close/shrink.

Therefore I'm guessing you have the opposite problem to your current assumption and the inner part is stuck inside the fingers rather than dropped to far out.

You mentioned you dismantled the handle (something I got nowhere near to doing, IIRC it is riveted or something), from the handle is it possible to release the control rod to allow it to drop further down?

Of course I may have this completely round the wrong way and the fingers are spread when the inner part is pushed down/out. I doubt this as I don't think the nut was captive on the inner part.

 

Do you know the symptoms of failure? was it a 'gradual getting harder to operate' or a 'sudden failure'?

Sudden failure, apparently!

Yes, behind the handle (just has a pin keeping it in place), there's a nut and spring on the rod. Just not much room to manoeuvre. No chance of a spanner in there - I might have some pliers skinny enough… Even then, I don't think taking the top off will do much good!

Anyway, wherever it's stuck - it just isn't budging! 

Thanks for your time! Got to go and do some actual gigs. 

[sleah]

Sorry if this is egg-sucking advice - but have you tried being quite brutal with it? With the collet unscrewed fully - a good jiggling and banging it on something hard (not enough to do serious harm of course). It might loosen something and allow the tube to be extracted. 

[alistermorton]

From the video, maybe you can loosen it by twisting to unscrew the lock nut at the bottom - maybe that's why it's jammed; someone has twisted the top, tightening the clutch so it won't release.

[adamburgess]

1 hour ago, sleah said:

Sorry if this is egg-sucking advice - but have you tried being quite brutal with it? With the collet unscrewed fully - a good jiggling and banging it on something hard (not enough to do serious harm of course). It might loosen something and allow the tube to be extracted. 

Yeah - I'm 6' 6" and 125kgs haha. I was quite brutal after spending an hour being methodical.

[adamburgess]

21 minutes ago, alistermorton said:

From the video, maybe you can loosen it by twisting to unscrew the lock nut at the bottom - maybe that's why it's jammed; someone has twisted the top, tightening the clutch so it won't release.

I tried that for ages and just seemed like it was just spinning… Maybe I was going the wrong way…

When I get a min, I may just drill the bottom out and get a socket in to see if I can release the nut on the end of the rod, and hopefully reassemble…

Not the end of the world. Just really annoying!

Thanks, everyone!

[sunray]

I've spoken to a rival colleague who I know uses them...

"Oh I got rid of those ages ago, not worth the effort of keeping them going."

He described a problem of locking in the fully down position as; with the top section up, squeeze the handle and push it down quickly (typically happens at the end of a show when packing up), the control rod hits the bottom and the top section keeps going making the fingers jamb between the lower section tube and the centre part (described as hitting a chisel into masonry and getting stuck.

He says if you are lucky the lower section will unscrew from the base and once done the mechanism should work properly but may need a few bangs to get it going, but not all were made this way.

If the base won't unscrew drill a hole dead centre of the tube (may not be the dead centre of the base he warns) the hole only needs to be big enough for the control rod to pass into, and mechanism should then work  as above. He also warns that the rod may foul the drill and snap adding more problems. If you drill , he warns the piston effect sucks dust in and causes problems, also the control rod may now pass through the hole during use so drills and taps at M8 or M10 and adds a very short bolt (sump plug) but again warns not all bases have the same clearance to allow a standard bolt head.

 

Hopefully that makes sense, I think I've precised his diatribe correctly.

It sounds like a real ball ache if this is a regular thing.

[adamburgess]

Thanks for the comprehensive pain story that's obviously happened many times before! 

Yes. I thought that drilling the bottom out was the only way to try and find out what's up. It'll be a few mins doing or dying. Whatever 🙂

Just a crappy design (but she likes it…) so not too fussed if it all goes pear shaped! If it's broken now, it's not gonna get any worse. I may mail K&M as this is the third one she's had. One got left at a gig, but the second one did the same thing, apparently 😞

Used loads of K&M stuff, and always recommend - but this is maybe just a bad design that can't be improved as is. Dunno!
 

[sunray]

shortening the top section (or lengthening the bottom) would prevent the control rod bottoming.