Im new to the flute and Im trying to settle into playing. I am wondering if storing my instrument on a stand till the next day or time I pick it up is desirable or not. Putting it together every day seems unduly harsh. Can I get some comments please.
fyi…stands for wooden flutes
http://home.earthlink.net/~migoya/id47.htm
I love them.
Last I saw, Kevin Crawford was using one (a double stand).
Thanks, those are the best looking stand I have seen. Ill bet if you wrap the pole with gauze it would help suck the moisture from you pipe. I guess you have no problem with using a stand as daily storage.
If you are not afraid that your flute will swell and freeze the joint together, I would suggest the ones that make the flute stand straight up and down. Ever see a pool cue that was left to rest against a wall? Eventually it sags and you have a worthless cue. Might happen with any wood.
Better to lay it flat on the floor than leaning. Also, keep it out of the sun if you leave it out for a long time. In addition, when placing it on the steak, be careful not to damage the opening of the bore. Hope you don’t have any cats to knock the stand over. Good luck.
If your flute’s joints are corked, be aware that leaving the instrument together for long periods of time (days on end) will compress the cork past the point where it was intended by the maker, thus shortening your cork’s working life.
Loren
maybe Im on the wrong board. I have a FE Olds Custom flute which is silver plated brass alloy or something. I think its in the key of C but Im not sure. Im trying to figure out all this basic stuff. Im just starting to learn to blow with the body assembled and hit the higher notes. Im real new to it but Im excited.
It’s considered good practice to take the flute apart and clean it. But if you’re going to leave it assembled for periods of time (e.g.: take a 1-hour break between 2-hour practice sessions), then a stand that has the flute vertical is a good way to go, especially for wooden flutes.
The stands that D. Migoya has in his site are very good for metal or wooden flutes. You don’t need to wrap the pole in gauze; it’s made of delrin, which is very nice for drawing the water down and out of the flute.
g
Where did I hear leaving the flute assembled (wooden only, of course) for more than, say, a day can crack it or its tenons? Wherever it came from, it scared me enough that I even take the Teflon tape off the joints every time I quit for the night.
I notice that after I play for hours, within 20 minutes
the flute is dry. So, to ask an unorthodox question,
what’s the point of swabbing? It seems unnecessary,
as the flute dries quickly without it. As it’s been
soaked for a long while, ten minutes more of moisture
aren’t going to hurt it.
I will admit that my keyless Olwell remains assembled always (it’s my practice flute)…
is on the stand always…
has no cracks…
has no issues of any kind…
the corks are compressed a tad, but after 3 years, they are not loose or stuck together.
For what it’s worth.
Hey, thanks, guys – maybe it’s just something I made up, although the one flute I did leave assembled (admittedly a relative cheapie) cracked something fierce. Although maybe having it on a stand (as opposed to horizontal where stray condensation can “pool”) is what makes the difference?
Jim, I’m pretty sure I recall reading on either Hammy’s website or in Patrick Olwell’s handout that if the humidity’s low where you are, just shake the flute out after playing instead of swabbing. ? I suppose a lot of it depends on how “well-waterproofed” your flute is (i.e. residual oil, etc.). I suspect on a keyed flute swabbing helps preserve the pads (altho’ since a lot of them are synthetic anymore that may now be a quaint notion), but I don’t know. I shake or swab as the situation seems to require.
But leaving it together? 
Guess I need one of David’s cool stands before I’ll even consider it. Oh, dear. And then I’ll have to build some kind of humidified box around it.
Sheesh. My horses are lower-maintenance! 
i’ve read a bit somewhere about leaving a flute assembled over a long period possibly distorting the bore.
Rod Cameron once told me that it only takes 2 days for a flute in open air to dry out completely. also that oil molecules are so large water molecules go right through them.
fwiw /dan
If it gets real wet, when you store it in its case, the water will accumulate on one side (due to gravity), and one side of the flute may suck in more moisture than the rest, resulting in distortion and crack.
I cracked a wooden headjoint once, doing exactly this. Left it unplayed for a few weeks, then played for 3 hours straight, and left it wet resting on a table, instead of a stand. 
Bad glauber.
I was at “Lark of the Morning” in SF, the flutes are stored assembled on a display rack horizontally, all the flutes were warped…
Jon
That’s a common problem with historical flutes in museums too.
For a stand, I bored a hole in the top of a dresser and stuck in an eight inch length of dowel. Works great when I have to leave the flute unattended for a time (keeps it out of the elves reach).