foreign
hello and welcome my name's Lee Height
thanks for stopping by this video is
about how to make wind chimes and the
decisions that will be useful in adding
your creativity and Ingenuity to the
design a set of wind chimes is really
very simple you can add to it your
creativity for how you support the chime
the type of tubing you use the size the
line you use to support it the striker
and the elements in designing that along
with the windsail so before we get
started with the construction techniques
we need to make some decisions about the
type of metal
and the notes and the link and now we'll
go to the computer and figure out the
links for the tubing well while we're
there we'll also figure out the proper
diameter for the striker in addition to
that we'll determine the proper layout
for the Chimes on the support plate the
distance between them and the sequence
of chimes in the circle
so before we can go to the calculator
one of the questions most often asked
from the website is what metal sounds
best and the answer is they all sound
good as long as we properly support them
and properly strike them all metals
sound good and I've got a little
demonstration set up here where we've
got five different tubes four different
Metals I've got an aluminum tube a
titanium tube a steel EMT referred to as
conduit electrical conduit tubing this
is galvanized steel pipe and this is
just copper or water pipe and what I'm
going to do is go down and strike each
one they've all been cut for the musical
note C4
so just notice that they all sound very
similar I'll point out some differences
after we do this so here we go we're
going to start with aluminum which is
the least dense and I'm working from
least density to the most density
with copper being the most dense and
then we work on down from there so as we
strike these you'll notice that they all
sound pretty much the same they're all
cut for C4
[Music]
do it and we'll do it again
[Music]
foreign
so they all have pretty much the same
sound
they're all precisely cut and tuned for
exactly C4 there's slight differences
between them and the differences has to
do with the thickness of the wall I want
to point out the differences between
these two tubes this is electrical steel
conduit and this is Galvanized Steel
different wall thicknesses this is a
normal thickness of EMT conduit 5 8 inch
and this is half inch galvanized steel
pipe and and listen for the sustained
time
foreign
[Applause]
you'll notice the galvanized steel pipe
has a much longer sustain time it has
more mass can hold and release the
energy much longer so in a quick look
see at the type of metals some of the
concerns would be the economics what
does it cost titanium of course cost
more aluminum is lighter weight and so
the weight of the chime set might be an
important factor if it's not a
galvanized steel pipe would be the
heaviest but might be the better choice
because and in some case you may want it
you may have some scrap copper or you
want to use copper Chimes for the
aesthetic appeal so properly tuned and
properly supported they're all going to
sound quite good
so to begin collecting your resources
that you'll need for design and
construction go to the website and
scroll down you can download pretty much
the entire website in this handbook here
here you can download plans for a chime
set that uses Chrome plated shower rod
curtains very economical and very good
sounding set of chimes in four different
sizes and all of the measurements are
included in these plans if you're
designing your own you'll need a support
disc and a striker and you may need some
cutouts for the wind catcher so scroll
on down to the chime length calculators
and in our case we're going to use the
musical notes from the C9 chord so
download this calculator here the C9
chime tube calculator and also download
the support disk calculator if you're
not going to use a predetermined pattern
on the other hand scroll down a little
bit more and we have a set of
pre-calculated chime tube Dimensions
click on that and it will take you to
this chart where you can select the type
of battle aluminum up here at the top or
copper or brass or Steel in various
different sizes here so say for example
you want to do one inch aluminum with a
wall thickness of 0.05 you would select
here download that chart and you have a
set of predetermined links
to use the calculators very simple you
need either Microsoft Excel or the Excel
reader accelerator will work just fine
we're going to enter three parameters
the inside and outside diameter and the
type of metal so in the case of these
titanium Chimes we'll click here on the
outside diameter and enter 0.625
and the inside diameter is 0.555
and click on the metal tab that now says
aluminum pull down this arrow and we'll
select titanium and as soon as we do
that the calculator is done we're going
to select the C5 chord for our chime set
and I'm going to I'll highlight it here
you can either copy this and paste it
into a Word document or print out the
entire sheet but what we have are the
five notes listed here the length of
each chime in this column and the point
at which you drill the Hang point in
this column in inches the Orange is in
inches yellow is in millimeters also at
the very bottom of the chart is a handy
calculator to convert between English
and Metric you enter the English value
here
it'll give you the millimeters or the
metric value here and it'll give you the
inches also in case you didn't happen to
notice that the bottom are nine other
tabs one tab is for ratio calculator
that you do not have to know the
specific Insight or outside diameter but
if you know the outside diameter and the
note that it chimes at you can ratio
that to other chime links in addition
there's a tab for the engineering data
that's used to make the calculations
also a tab for the musical notes with
their Associated overtones one through
four and a series of tabs with the
standard dimensions for the various
metals also you may want to use your own
design for top support plate rather than
using a predetermined pattern for that
we have a support disk layout calculator
the steps are listed here that you need
to complete in order to use the
calculator calculator will give you the
outside diameter of this disk it will
give you the diameter of the striker
this blue circle here also will give you
the location of the chime centers here
in in this example it's a five chime set
give you the center to Center distance
and you mark those out and they will be
equally spaced Five Points around that
Circle we're going to use the calculator
using inches so we'll use the orange
area in this column we're going to ask
for five Chimes so the pull down menu
you can select the number of Chimes you
can select the outside diameter of the
chime which in our case is 5 8 of an
inch we're going to ask for three inch
diameter Striker which is an inch and a
half radius
and we're going to ask the Chimes be
separated from the striker by a half
inch once you enter those parameters
then the answers in inches are in orange
down here three parameters that you
selected are in blue and the four
calculated values are here in red and
when we get to the shop we'll explain
how you use these
now that we're done with computer work
we can begin construction and we've got
the printout all the dimensions and
layout patterns that we'll need we've
got the length for each of the chime
along with Where to drill the Hang Point
we've also got all the dimensions for
the sport plate and the striker and how
to lay that out of course we'll need to
cut the tubing if you have thick walled
pipe like steel pipe hexall blade or
chop saw works good thinner wall tubing
a tubing cutter of course works good if
you have a metal cutting blade for the
chop saw of course use that a few files
will be handy I have a round file that
we'll be using to deburr the inside of
the chime along with a half round file
for the inside of the chime and a flat
file for the edge of the ends it's handy
to have a lighter handy for our set of
titanium Chimes we're going to be using
braided 50-pound fishing line and it's a
much cleaner cut if we use a flame to
cut it rather than side Cutters we get a
very nice clean trimmed Edge that way of
course we'll need some method of
drilling either a hand drill or a drill
press with the appropriate size drill
for the hang Point hole in addition
we're going to need a section of coat
hanger wire with a 45 degree bend on the
end and I'll show you later how to use
that to debur the inside of the tubing
and we've got the diagram for the layout
of the support plate in addition to the
strikers we've got two choices for
Strikers a circular Striker or a Star
Striker like this
and we've got the location the center
point for each of the Chimes and the two
support holes right here for the lines
that support the side of the chime if
you choose that method of support for
measurement I use a tape measure that
has both English and Metric that comes
in very handy we'll need a set of
Hardware you can either buy kits of
hooks like this or individual hooks
based on your choice for how you're
going to support the chime maybe an eye
hook of some sort it's important to hold
the striker Plumbing level so the wind
does not blow at a skew and for that I
like to use a turnbuckle you can thread
it through the striker like this it
provides a hook on the bottom to connect
the string for the windsail and a hook
on the top to connect to the top support
plate if for some reason you're not
going to use the pattern for the layout
of the Chimes and the striker it's handy
to have a compass handy because we have
the dimensions on the location between
each of these chime centers and the
location for the holes on each side of
where you'll drill the support line
also you need a little strip of paper
we'll show you how to use that later and
for the most part this is the complement
of tools that we'll be using
whether we're using a hacksaw blade to
cut it right here
or if we're using a tubing cutter we
want to position it just about an eighth
of an inch Beyond The Mark put the knife
edge right there and tighten it up if
you've never used a tubing cutter before
you tighten it up thumb tight and then
rotate it and then on every rotation
give the knob about a quarter turn
and keep doing that
and after a few turns it'll cut right
off now we need to dress up this Edge
and now we'll make an exact Mark where
25 and 7 16 is which is right there
and now we'll go to the bench grinder
and grind this to the final value
whenever we use a power tool we need to
take caution to protect the surface of
the chime tube in this case here we put
a couple layers of tape on the surfaces
for the bench grinder to keep from
scratching the tubing in the case of the
bench grinder there's two ways to dress
up the edge of the chime tube here we
can go straight on and rotate the tube
like this as the wheel rotates or we can
come around here to the side
[Music]
I happen to like to use the side of a
grinding wheel it's a good idea not to
put a lot of pressure on the side of the
wheel but light pressure is okay to
protect the edges I've taken some
quarter inch aquarium tubing and
cemented it around this metal Edge so
that when we lay the tubing on here
we're protecting its Edge
and that way we will end up with a nice
Plum and square Edge and if you don't
happen to own a bench grinder a flat
file will work just fine lay the chime
on a towel on a surface and then just
rotate the chime back and forth as you
as you file the edge of the chime
then we want to round over the south
side edge and we'll do the same thing
just rotate the chime and
file it away and now we need to Smooth
Up The Inside Edge and we can use a
round file or a half round file and just
clean up the edge on the inside or you
can use a half round file and again
rotate the chime back and forth and
clean up that edge in there so when
we're all done we have a very smooth
outside edge and a very smooth Inside
Edge so that any support line is not
abraded by coming in contact with it
just a quick reminder that anytime we're
using power tools make sure we wear the
appropriate eye protection and hearing
protection
okay we're ready to Mark the Hang point
which is right here because the tube is
shiny and hard to see I'm going to wrap
some masking tape about where that Mark
goes so that I can accurately Mark the
location we'll put an exact Mark for 5
and 11 16 is which is right there I'm
going to take a metal punch and mark a
the exact spot where one of these holes
will be driven
and it's important that that hole go
directly through the center of the chime
an easy way to accomplish that is if you
happen to own a drill press and a B
Block you just position the drill on the
B and then when you drill through the
chime the drill will automatically come
out the other side exactly opposite the
entrance if you do not own a B Block how
do you get this exact same mark on the
other side of the tubing and I'll show
you a little trick here that works very
well in this situation now we want to
move this Mark to the exact opposite
side of the tube and we will use our
cigar band marking technique here which
is to wrap this paper around here and
then put a mark right here on the paper
where we punch the hole and then slide
it off then take that Mark and put a
crease at that Mark and then squish the
paper so the crease at the other side is
that and after we have that crease in
there in case you can't see the crease
you put a little pencil mark on the
crease okay we're slipping the cigar
band mark back on the tube and we'll
position the pencil Mark right over that
little hole that we previously punched
which is right there holding the paper
tight and the tube tight you just turn
it over and mark the exact same spot on
the other side and now you have a Plumb
and perpendicular mark on both sides of
the tubing in order to drill a hole
holding the tubing very steady with one
hand we're using a 1 8 inch diameter
drill bit and we're going to drill the
support hole
okay there's one hole we'll flip it over
the other side
foreign
exactly opposite each other but now that
we're done drilling these support holes
we have to clean up those holes and
deburr them otherwise it will cut the
support line as the wind moves it back
and forth here you can see a fairly
serious Burr at this hole and there's an
equal Burr on the inside of the hole
also so how do we get rid of that the
easiest solution is just to take a
larger diameter drill bit and by hand
put enough pressure on there and rotate
it slowly and you can remove that Burr
just like that and now it's nice and
smooth on the outside and now we have to
do the inside and the first thing we
want to do is take a long file and reach
down into the chime we position the hole
very close to the end for the purposes
of demonstration but on real chime it
will be way down on in the chime you
want to take a long round file and just
file off the inside Burr like that even
though we've removed most of the Burr
we're still left with a sharp edge on
that inside hole how do we get rid of
that the easy solution is to use this
coat hanger wire with a 45 degree Bend
about a quarter inch long at the end it
looks like this and you place that
inside
the chime like this
so it looks like that and then as you
rotate the drill and pull backwards it
will smooth out that edge and and bend
it over
now it's very smooth in there and it has
bend over any sharp edge and so any line
going through there will not abrade
now that we have all of our tubing cut
the length and the ends of Bendy bird
and the support holes have been drilled
and deburred at the proper Point 22.4
percent down from the end it's time to
begin threading the chime there's a few
techniques you can use here for this set
of titanium Chimes I'm going to use 50
pound braided fishing line it doesn't
show up real well on camera so I'm going
to use a heavier line just for purposes
of demonstration with a little bit of
practice you can thread the line
straight through the hole and pull it
out the other side and you have the
chime strung the way you would like it
when you're doing a two-point support
like this if for some reason you cannot
thread it all the way through there's
another technique you can use here and
that is take your line and cut it into
two sections like this and then take one
line and push it down and out the other
end like this
and take the second line and push it
down like that then tie a knot in this
end and pull it back inside and now you
have the chime supported the way you
normally do it if you threaded it
straight through if on the other hand
you want to bring the line out the
center of the chime it works good for
large diameter Chimes I would not
recommend it for small diameter times
but you can put a pin through that
support hole after you have your PIN
installed depending on the kind of
tubing you're using if it's copper you
could solder it and final it off and
make it very smooth and other times you
may have to epoxy it in and then file it
down and make it very smooth and not Mar
the rest of the chime but once the pin
is installed then you can thread the
line down on the bottom side of the pin
bring it out the other end flip it over
and thread it down the back side and it
will catch and pull on that PIN so
that's using so that's using a center
pin for support another technique is to
take this length of line that you want
to use and thread one end just until it
comes out the end turn it over
and push this and so it comes out the
other end this is what I call a half
wrap and the line will wrap Halfway
Around the chime tube that's what I'm
going to use for this 50 pound braided
fishing line when you bring the line out
the center of a chime it's important
that you tie these lines together tie a
knot right at the top of where it comes
out that's to keep the line centered so
it does not touch the sides of the chime
which has a tendency to diminish the
sustain time sometimes it will
completely kill a chime then you can use
this as a single support
we're now ready to lay out the striker
we have two choices we can do a circular
Striker or a Star Striker in my case I'm
going to select a Star Striker for this
particular chime set to get the correct
pattern you can download a whole package
of patterns from the website that will
give you the shape of the center Striker
or the Star Striker in relation to the
Chimes it will give you the center point
for the Chimes based on the chime
diameter and if you're going to support
it at the center of the chime here's the
support point if you're going to support
it with lines on both sides here are the
dots for the support on either side of
the chime in this case today we're going
to use the support plate calculator
we've inputted that we've had 5 8 inch
diameter Chimes we want a three inch
diameter Striker and we want a
separation between the chime and the
striker at a half inch it comes back and
tells us that we need to make a circle
this outside Circle 2 and 5 8 inches in
radius
and then the Chimes are going to be
located on a different circle called the
chime location Circle and that turns out
to be 2 and 5 16. so we'll draw that
Circle
now at this point we're going to just
select an arbitrary Mark right there and
the distance between chime Center to
chime Center is 2 and 11 16. and we set
a compass to that distance and we'll
walk a mark around we'll put a mark
there and a mark there and then continue
that Mark on around
until we have five equally spaced points
and you'll see they all came out equally
spaced and so these will become the
Chimes the center for our chime those
marks right there you might want to put
a punch Mark at each of those locations
in our case where we're going to Center
support to chime we're all done if on
the other hand you were mounting the
chime with lines coming out both sides
of the chime you need two support points
for that the calculator gives you that
distance which in this case is an inch
and eleven thirty seconds so we'd set
the compass and then just put a mark
either side of the center and that
becomes the points where we drill a hole
for the support line this and just keep
doing that the same all the way around
at that point we're done we have the
cutout pattern we'll cut this out and
mount the screw eyes at each of these
and start assembly
and now that we've got all the
components done for the chime let's talk
about some of the options you have for
assembly we've taken the support plate
with all the properly laid out five
support points and attached it to the
bottom of this little birdhouse we've
done what's called a top alignment and
because the camera angle doesn't exactly
look that way but I have a pencil here
to show that they're all evenly aligned
at the top and I removed the pencil and
I think you can see this little knot
that are tied up in here we've used the
half wrap method and brought the line up
the center of the chime and we tied a
little knot right here at the top to
force that line to be centered in the
chime before it comes up and connects to
the support point so now we want to look
at where we position the striker we've
selected a star-shaped Striker so that
it more equally strikes all five Chimes
together and we've positioned it so the
shortest chime is just below the level
of the strike it's got about another
half inch to go here
and striking in this manner assures that
we are not striking the dead center of a
chime dead center on a chime is is a
quiet Zone the good news is it's a very
narrow area so it's pretty easy to avoid
coming down here is the ideal strike
zone is either end of a chime and we're
selecting to strike at the lower end of
the chime down here we've used the
turnbuckle for the axle of the chime and
you could just as equally put a circular
striker in here
we've chosen a teardrop and we want to
position it just below the longest chime
so that the distance between the sail
and the striker is as short as possible
we want to maximize the amount of energy
transferred from the sail to the striker
and we do that by a short distance
so here's our finished up chime set
hanging out in the backyard and very
light Breeze today but one of the things
you'll notice is that windsail is not
moving very much we're getting a slight
movement in the Star Striker in a very
light Breeze and which is another reason
to use a Star Striker is it will
maximize the amount of energy
transferred into the Striker from the
windsail and I particularly want to
thank the company up in Canada called
titanium Joe for graciously providing
these titanium Chimes I think they
worked out very very well
I just wanted to quickly show that chime
set that you can download and build for
yourself made out of Chrome plated
shower curtain again we're using
top-of-a-line chimes with the striker
down just above the shortest chime at
the bottom in this case we have
stretched a rubber band around the
striker in order to mute the sounds
occasionally from high wind activity
here I want to quickly show this next
set of Chimes which is made from three
quarter inch copper pipe available in
home improvement stores and the longest
chime is cut for C3 it's a pipe chime
set using the C9 cord with C being cut
at C3 I wanted to point out this special
Striker that we're using in a long set
of chimes like this and on high winds
they tend to bang and clang against each
other and become really quite annoying
there's an easy way to quiet those down
and still have a very pleasant sound
something I call the keeper Striker it's
a mirror image of a Star Striker where
we capture the chime and prevent it from
going to the outside diameter and the
striker has a tendency to rotate back
and forth even in a heavy wind this will
be a fairly Pleasant sound also we have
a much better probability of striking
all the Chimes in the court at about the
same time
[Music]
also I want to point out one quick tip
whenever you're putting end caps on
copper tubing or any other tubing it's
important that you attach them all the
way around in this case we sweated
solder down the inside and made sure it
flowed the entire circumference in other
cases you may be using epoxy and make
sure it covers all the surfaces if it
only covers a couple of the surfaces and
there's air gaps in here there's chime
absolutely will not resonate so if you
wind up with a dead chime from an end
cap take it off and reconnect it and
make make sure it's coated all the way
around on the inside it's a very
convenient and easy way to support a
copper chime
I want to take just a moment here to
answer one of the consistent questions
off the website and that is I've
calculated and cut a tube for C2 however
it doesn't sound like C2 why is that and
the reason is I refer to a chime as
naked in that it has no amplification
help compared to a string instrument
that has a sounding board like a piano
or a guitar or a reed instrument a brass
instrument that uses a reed for the
sound generation it has a Transformer
that transforms the impedance of that
Reed out to the atmosphere it's called a
horn and that will provide the
amplification a chime on the other hand
is is naked it has nothing it has the
circumference of the tube is the largest
radiating surface so when I strike this
tube we're not going to hear C2 even
though it's a three-quarter inch copper
tube cut for C2 it's going to sound like
this
very good sustain time makes a very good
chime
but we're not hearing C2 however C2
really is there if you touch the chime
to kill it you'll feel that low
frequency vibration C2 is around 60
hertz also we can show that it's really
there by putting the microphone very
very close to it and you'll hear this
hum it sounds like home on a microphone
around 60 hertz
[Music]
but if I hold the microphone out here
you do not hear that hum so the summary
is if you want very low sounding Chimes
go ahead and make them long and also
make them large in diameter If This Were
a three inch or a six inch diameter
chime it would begin to radiate more of
the lower overtones it would start to
radiate the first overtone do a better
much better job at the second overtone
and it'll radiate a little bit of the
actual fundamental 60 hertz you'll start
to hear that a little bit so it takes a
very large radiating surface to transmit
these little sounds be very similar to a
woofer a large speaker and a sound
system you need to move a lot of air in
order to transform those low frequencies
out to the air and you can do that with
large diameter Chimes so on small
diameter Chimes we're just not going to
hear the fundamental but it will be very
melodious and sound very good