Wind Chimes
Something grabbed ahold of me and told me to make wind chimes, so I grabbed some pipe, found a calculator, and started cutting.Â
Started with some scrap copper pipe as a test. You gotta hold the pipe at 22.4% of the length, and strike it with something like a soft piece of wood to keep the higher frequencies from being overbearing. Overall it was pretty quick and easy. I used a spectrum analyzer app to bring each pipe into tune after cutting it to the calculated length. The copper didn't sound as nice as steel, so I went to a fresh piece of electrical metal tubing (EMT) for the actual build.
I wanted to use exactly one 10 ft piece, so I calculated the length to split it into 6 pieces at the correct lengths for the chord I was going for. A pipe cutter doesn't remove any material, so it ended up working much, much better than I thought it would. Didn't have to do much tuning at all!
I had some stainless steel wire rope from a previous project so I used it, along with some 12 awg copper wire as connections. Not sure why I didn't have the wire rope continue from the pipes to the top. Probably changed my design a bunch while I was building it.
Sometimes it's fun/easy to build something using whatever's in reach; changing the plan as materials present themselves.
I wanted to use the same cedar plank as the spreader for my striker, and I thought a disk made the most sense, so I threw it down on a nail and spun it through the table saw.
The sail was a piece of aluminum flashing from my shed. I tried to make a swivel so it'd spin freely. Kinda worked.
Finished! This was in 2019, and I'm writing this up in 2023. It's still going strong, though I've since replaced the sail due to it being a bit too light and large; so it'd whip around like crazy when the breeze kicks up.
I lucked out with the cedar striker and steel pipe: the sound is great.
2019