Storing your didgeridoos with a broomstick?!

Once you start owning several instruments, the question of where to store them quickly comes up. A single didgeridoo can easily find its spot in a corner of a room or in a cupboard. But, more often than not, the number of didgeridoos grows with the passion. Then you need to find the right idea to store them while keeping them close at hand to play.

Store-bought didgeridoo stands

First of all, you should know that some makers now offer solutions. You’ll find them at Pivert Didgeridoo or Didgeridoo Passion with their take-apart models that stand on the floor, or at DidgElement which offers wall mounts to hang them horizontally (made to order).

Didgeridoo stand by Pivert

That said, none of this existed when I started thinking about getting a stand. So the only option left was DIY. And since I didn’t have a wall long enough for a wall-mounted setup, I naturally went for a vertical stand sitting directly on the floor. So here is my homemade stand made with… a broomstick!

Make your own didgeridoo stand

The tools you’ll need

To make this stand, you’ll need:

• a saw
• screws (about five to six centimeters long)
• a screwdriver (or a drill/driver)
• a wooden board
• a broomstick
• optionally, sandpaper and oil to refine the look of the whole thing

The base: a melamine board

To do this, let’s start with the base of the stand: a melamine board (or any wooden board) will do the job. Be careful though, it has to be wide and long enough not to tip over under the weight of your instruments (the risk is even greater if your didgeridoos are curved). To give you an example, my board is 70 centimeters by 30 centimeters and a good centimeter thick.

Cut and fit the broomstick!

Now that we have our base, let’s move on to what will hold our didgeridoos upright. Cut the broomstick into different lengths; I went for four sections of 30 centimeters each. Then, to prepare the fitting, I placed my four sticks in the center of the board to mark their positions on it first. By the way, thanks to Manu aka Flyroots (didgeridoo maker) for the broomstick tip! I did think about using raw branches picked up in the forest for a more “natural“ look, but ease and the smooth finish won out, so I chose the broomstick!

And finally, fix it all together

Now we need to fix our sticks to the base. Pre-drill the marks on the base, as well as one of the two ends of each stick, to make screwing easier. Then you can fix each stick by screwing it to the board from underneath.

However, be careful, because the screw heads may stick out and scratch the floor. For this, you have two solutions:

• either you partially drill the board with a wider diameter so the screw head sits inside it.
• or you put fairly thick furniture pads under it to raise the board.

Personally, I started by putting on pads. Then recently, I widened the holes so the screw heads could sit flush inside. But I still kept the pads to keep the “sliding“ effect on the floor!

Feel free to add as many holders as you need

As my didgeridoo family has grown, I recently upgraded the board to welcome the newcomers. You can of course adapt these holders to the number of didgeridoos you have…

As for me, and to be completely honest, I still have a cupboard to store my other didgeridoos…! But thanks to this bigger stand, I have a wider choice of instruments that I keep close at hand whenever I get the urge to blow. :o)

You may notice that the length of the sticks varies in the photo. That’s because I adjusted it to the length of each extension of my EvoluDidgs (a didgeridoo made by DidgElement, made up of a fixed base and several extensions of different lengths so you can change the note).

And there you have a fine forest planted. Ready to make your trees sing?

That’s it for my homemade stand! What about you? Do you have your own tips, or do you know other makers offering other solutions? I look forward to your comments!