Thread: Wind Chimes

1. A prototype hanger is made from a bit of regular wire & tested on an off cut piece of tube.

2. The SS rod is cut to length with an angle grinder.

3. The finished hangers.

The next step is to polish the tube & make the hanging mount & donger.

The tube will be hung with steel fishing trace.

Watch this space.

Nice work Cliff, I guess you use the mouse to tune the tubes so you get that nice soft "flump" sound instead of an ear piercing ring.

Cliff,
I don't want to rain on your parade, but I messsed about with wind chimes a fair bit, and there's one or two posts buried on the BB somewhere on the subject.
My point is that I think your suspension system will cause a problem, well.. a couple really.
The first one relates to having loose metal anywhere near the tube, so unless your little metal hooks a tight fit in the holes you drilled, and unless you have got them exactly on the null point of the tube you will get an annoying buzz.
The second problem relates to how I think you're going to suspend the tubes.......from a steel trace wire down the centre of the tube to your bent pieces of stainless steel rod.
If I'm correct, what you will find happens is that when the wind gets up the tubes will sway around and the trace wire will come in contact with the inner wall of the tube where it exits - ( I know the diameter of your tube is quite large so it may not be a problem --- but it was for me) and you not only get another annoying buzz but it also dampens the note.

In the end I found the best method was to loop a soft nylon braided cord - a builders chalk lines is good - as per the attached pics.
Don't mind the cobwebs, it's been out there for a couple of years now and sounds very nice

Oh, one more thing.. make sure your tubes are suspended in such a way that the striker hits every one as close to it's centre as possible

Hope this helps, and when you are finished you'll find they sound infinitely more pleasant than the wind clunks you find at flea markets

Ian

Thanks Ian.

I have tried to do my home work, I have about a 100 pages of stuff off the net.

I reckon I have hit the null points, I even messed around rotating the tube & testing it at various points around the null line to find the best point with the least beat in the note & the longest ring time.

I will also hang them so the striker is hitting the middle of all of them.

The steel axle is a push fit & the steel trace will be nylon covered.
Even on the longest one, the null point is 305mm in from the top end so if the wind is strong enough to make it sway that far it touchs the side, I doubt you'd be worried about the buzzing noise or a bit of dampening.

Thank you for posting your pics, if I do have problems, I'll change my mounts to your tried & tested manner.

I was trying to come up with something that is maintenance free.

I'll go looking for your posts later.

Cliff, don't bother looking
I just found 'em but they had nothing really to do with the mechanics of wind chimes - more about how you can re-arrange your finger tips trying to round off the striker on a router table - bloody thing spun up to about 5,000 rpm I reckon - couldn't pick my nose for a week!!

You're right about the volume of stuff on the 'net - makes you wonder why the flea markets still sell such a crappy product when it's easy to find out how to do it properly

I just got a bit fussy and liked the sound of the pure tone. I was using a heavy breaking strain fishing line as the central suspension and it really did detract from the sound every time it came in contact with the tube. Anyway, as I said, your tube diameter is much larger than I was using so it may not be a problem.

Ian

Progress.
This part is not really metalwork.

I have selected a piece of mouldy mango for the hat as I intend to paint it. The donger is a piece of hardwood saved from an old sign.

1. Lay out using off cuts.

2. Blanks from my rough stack.

3. Another view.

4. Mounted ready to clean up

5. Cleaned up.

The mouldy mango looks good from some angles & bloody awful from others, here are some good views.

1. The better view of the cleaned up top.

2. The bottom of the hat.

3. Finished hat.

4. Donger mounted for turning.

5. Bottom of the finished donger. I will fill the cavity with lead later.

1. The top of the finished donger.

2. Donger in the lay out.

Originally Posted by Cliff Rogers

The donger is a piece of hardwood saved from an old sign.

.

You must be the Bionic Man?

Al

B#gga ya Cliff - now you've gone and complicated everything on me! I scored a pile of 40mm ali' tube (about 40 metres all up) a year or two back (for the 'right' price) and was planning on making some chimes but I didn't realise how bloody technical it all was. Strung one up on a bit of fishing line and tapped it with a stick - sounded pretty good I thought - got no idea what a 'G3' is. Ah well - something else I'm gonna have to study up on.

Start here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_chime

Chuck's Chimes is about the best site of the lot I reckon but it seems to be offline.

Nope, here it is, it moved....
http://mysite.verizon.net/cllsj/windchimes/home.htm

Us this calculator, http://mysite.verizon.net/cllsj/windchimes/length.htm
Select Aluminium & mm, put in the exact inside & outside diameters & have a play.

Hi Guys, I've been away so missed most of this.
I designed a playground for blind kids maybe 8 yrs ago and couldn't find Sweet FA on the net back then.
I was trying to design a linear setup (think pan pipes ) along a pathway that the Kids could tap as they walked along.
It never got built - I put in sound poles instead - doplar radar triggered electronic thingies, but I have had severel clients express interest in the original concept.
Anyone got the time to build a prototype and do a costing? I recon I could place a couple a year in playgrounds?