All About Rimbu_MOC 8
cla, Jan 19, 2017
- Description:
- Journaling: Max decided in 2015 that he wanted to build a PVC Pipe instrument like his friend Aaron. There were some things he wanted to change though. Aaron’s was huge and difficult to move with a wood frame and painted PVC. Max wanted his to be lighter and more portable. He also wanted it to fit in our minivan since we don’t own a truck and didn’t want to have to find a way to move it using someone else’s vehicle.
First, we measured the back of the van and Max, with a lot of help from his Dad, built a template frame out of 2x4s. Max drilled all the holes in the wood strips (40 total!) and started fitting pipe. We decided to go with black ABS instead of the white PVC for two reasons 1) color and 2) weight. ABS is a bit more expensive but much lighter than PVC.
The rimbu keyboard is set up just like a piano with the lower row of notes representing the white keys and the upper row the black keys or sharps and flats. The keys or pipes are hit with a foam paddle pushing air through the pipe creating a note. The value of the note is determined by the length of the pipe. The longer the pipe the lower the note. The lowest note is 106 inches long and the instrument is around 4 octaves. You can’t go much higher because the higher frequency notes become non-notes, meaning you can’t tell what tone they are. He could have gone a couple of notes lower but those notes would be exponentially longer requiring a lot more room. The instrument would be much heavier and the frame too big to fit in the minivan.
Constructing the notes was much more difficult than anticipated because no one in the family has big enough hands to twist the pipes on and off the couplings except for Scott. Each pipe had to be cut to a certain length, attached in its correct spot, played while we held a phone with a tuning app next to the hole where the sound comes out, and then, more often than not, taken off and re-cut in increments to get the correct pitch. The lowest notes were a nightmare in engineering because of all the bends required to get the correct length and still fit into the designated frame size. Yay for a Dad with tremendously strong wrists!
The mock version was ready for the Diversity Assembly at school in January 2015 but was terrible to move with no wheels, heavy wood frame, and the pipes not properly glued together. We had to bungee cord each section so they wouldn’t vibrate too much. After the school event, it was time for the rebuild into an aluminum frame with custom cuts lengths we ordered from a company called 80/20. Cool stuff but $$$. We had no metal replacement for the boards that hold the pipes so Max painted them a silver and they look great with the metal. As we assembled the pipes this time we glued them together and zip tied them in place so they wouldn’t vibrate against each other while being played. We had to bring the instrument in from the garage before attaching the final pieces to allow it is warm up and be re-tuned to indoor temperatures so the final assembly was quite a lengthy process. In the end it turned out really well with the minor hiccup of the whole instrument being a bit too tall for Max because of the frame size.. We solved that problem by building a bench out of an old cut down door and some 2x4s. Now he can play away!
Created Using:
Papers from Shabby Fair and Musings;Ruler and button from Musings;Tape measure and star from Shabby Fair;Viewfinder from Messy Bun Kind of Day all by Etc by Danyale
Bead spill and Sequins from For the Record by Valorie Wibbens
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- Category:
- Month of Challenges 5
- Uploaded By:
- cla
- Date:
- Jan 19, 2017
- View Count:
- 395
- Comment Count:
- 4
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