![]() ![]() The next step will describe the basic theory and mathematics behind the project. Optional: wood glue (I used Titebond II).flat file or other sanding/trimming tool (belt sander, disc sander, bench grinder, Dremel, etc.).pipe cutters (we were cheap and used our hacksaw-that was a ton of work, and messy).a phone, tablet or computer with an app that calculates the peak frequency of sound coming in through a microphone we used an Android mini-tablet and found that the free Fourier application was best, though some of the fine tuning was double checked with gStrings you may find that some specific music tuning applications don't work very well for this, because your initial tuning will be quite far from an official note.wood for one or two hammers we used about 8" of 5/16" dowel for the handle and about 1.5" of 7/8" dowel for the head.20 rubber bands, approximately 6" circumference.Drill and drill bit for pilot holes for the nails a drill press can make life a bit easier.15" of some sort of tubing that can loosely fit over the bottoms of the nails to keep the rubber bands for sliding down we used heat-shrink tubing (but didn't shrink it) in a pinch, you can cut up drinking straws or you can go to Lowes or Home Depot and pick up two feet of some cheap plastic tubing.20 to 28 nails, approximately 1.5" long and 1/16" in thickness (20 nails if the wood is joined with glue, 28 if the wood is joined with nails, in between if both are used).The 3/4" is best left as is, but the 2" can be varied from about 1" to 3" with no harm. About four feet of approximately 3/4" x 2" wood.(Our Lowes sells 10' for $12.) Note: If you combine pipe from two sources (as we did-we used some old pipe that was lying around and some pipe we bought), you will have to make separate calculations and measurements for the two pipes, in case the dimensions are not exactly the same-the tuning is very sensitive to the dimensions. This is the expensive part of the project. You need the total length of your pipes (see Step 2 for pipe length calculations) plus about an inch per pipe to compensate for mistakes and to allow tuning. Despite being called 1/2", this has an outside diameter of 5/8", and a thickness of about 0.03". About eight feet of type M 1/2" nominal copper pipe.The amounts of material below, and measurements mentioned later, assume our nine-note range from C6 to D7. The hard work is making sure the pipes are the right length and held by the rubber bands in the right place. ![]() The rubber bands hold the pipes in place while giving them a lot of freedom to vibrate. The basic idea with this glockenspiel is that there is a wooden frame with two rows of nails sticking out of it, and rubber bands joining neighboring nails in each row. On the other hand, the higher the notes, the more precisely the cuts will need to be made. ![]() The lower the notes, the longer the copper pipes will need to be, and hence the more copper pipe you will need. After consultation with my nine-year-old daughter as to what music she wanted to play on it, I opted for nine notes, covering a C-major octave, plus an extra D at the top, namely from C6 to D7. The exact amounts of material you need depend on what musical coverage you want the instrument to have. I built this project with my six-year-old son.
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