our two-year-old quite likes percussion or
at least he likes to hit things that make us sound so I'm thinking of making some kind of
xylophone like thing using some flooring scraps now this sounds a lot better if there's some
kind of cavity underneath it so I've got two supports worth favorite bands on top and then
if I close that cavity a bit more and if I use a softer mallet and then I've been watching some
which we've got on talking about this vibraphone and the pedals on his are sort of more of this
shape although they're made out of metal and I think that aside from lowering a pitch might
actually make it sound a little bit better too here's a shorter one I think I got too much out
on this one piano tuner app seems to be able to pick up the pitch of it so I'll be able to
tune it to so then I got all carried away trying to make plates that are actually tuned
to it this affects scale and I was having all kinds of difficulty because these things are
actually much more sensitive to tuning than I thought they would be much harder to tune than a
pipe organ eventually I just gave up on that and decided to just go for a series of sounds that
kind of sounds well together I think I need to shorten this one of it I want to make a box for
this telephone roughly like this and I've marked were the nodes of vibrations are for the various
plates and I placed these sticks on top of roughly where I marked in nodes of vibrations and that
tells me what angle I need to join the case at I placed all the ends in the jig the same
way and started a quarter inch from the edge which is from here and from here so that
is unfortunately asymmetrical because the thick part is here and here so I'll have to
cut the end pieces asymmetric the same way I kinda ran out of clamping options for this
last piece so hopefully this carriage bolt clamped in with a wingnut it goes through
a hole in here will hold it without falling down maybe that came out a bit too heavy
so I'm cutting away a bit on the bottom sorry for getting out of frame on
this one but the priority is just get it together before the glue sets and now
it's time to add some retroactive precision so I still need a good way of supporting these
things that doesn't dampen the vibration on the real marimba these things are supported with
strings that go through the sides but that will do for a kid's toy it'll get destroyed
in no time so I've been experimenting with supporting him from below this is felt from what
used to be a world pillow that we accidentally put through the wash I also tried rubber
bands and thinner felt this sounds by far the best but it's a little wobbly this was not
felt before I drilled holes in these things I want to fine-tune where the nodes are this
spot is the deadest in terms of fundamental now how to screw those down without screwing up
the sound I think some washers like that work okay but I think the kids are just gonna pull them out
like this so if I set these in a much deeper hole that will make them relatively inaccessible
so that still sounds pretty acceptable even with the screws in I still needed some sort of
xylophone hammer for that and I made that so it's all site great on the striking surface
and they're shaped just on the belt sander
