Greetings,

I recently came across some older cymbal stands that I picked up. They use the "dog ear" carriage bolt/wing nut assembly that squeezes the dog ears together and holds the tube above it in position, much like the base section of original Ludwig Atlas stands from the 70's.

However, on the Ludwig Atlas stands, when the dog ears squeeze together, it just holds the middle section above it in place by collapsing the top of the metal tube of the base section, metal on metal. On the stands I picked up, there is a nylon bushing insert, so when the tube is collapsed by the dog ears, it in turn collapses the nylon bushing to hold the tube above it firmly. The problem is, one of the nylon bushings has cracked and is half missing, and I am having trouble finding a suitable replacement at my local hardware store or online. The tube diameters are different enough, so that the nylon bushing has to be present, otherwise, no matter how tight I squeeze the dog ears, the tube that it is supposed to be holding above it still moves freely. So unfortunately, using the stands without the nylon bushings is not an option.

Anyone have any workarounds or tricks for this? If it helps, for the tube that needs the bushing replaced (middle section), the inside diameter of that tube is 5/8". The outside diameter of the next section that fits into the same nylon bushing (top section) is 1/2".

Photo 1 shows the bushing fully intact on Stand 1. Photo 2 shows what's left of the bushing from Stand 2.

Thanks,

V