Street Organ

Where are the base pipes? I can hear them but not see them.

2009-04-28T04:11:00.000-07:00

The base pipes curl up inside.

The C pipe is attached to the bottom of the presure box.

Making it look great.

2009-04-28T04:03:00.000-07:00

I put bees wax on the base pipes to seel them and stop them from going out of tune. I will wait to do this to the other pipes closer to the show.

I mitred moulding round the outside box to make it look neater. This also meant that I could then slide the back in and out using the moulding as a runner.

Sand sand sand. Then varnish to give a good finish.

I covered the back of the peacock front with green felt to hide the fibre glass back.

A good wealth of imformation.

2009-04-21T10:06:00.000-07:00

This is a blog which I'm following. Its full of great information check it out:

http://tracker-bar.blogspot.com/

He's also given many useful tips on this blog not to be over looked.

Drilling holes in your work.

2009-04-20T12:25:00.000-07:00

I had to cut holes in my work so that I could screw into it. This was to attach wooden blocks to the back of it.

Test test test.

2009-04-20T11:27:00.000-07:00

To test whistles for tuning and air pressure you can cover some holes with tape.

A little short.

2009-04-20T11:25:00.000-07:00

I've found that it would be more helpful to have a slightly larger handle so that its easier to pump the organ quicker.

Get a handel on it

2009-04-20T11:02:00.000-07:00

I really liked these gramophone handles. So I chose to use them as the handle for my street organ. I had to work out a way to make the chosen handle the right length and attach it to the Organs crank mechanism.
I used this oil to help the drill make a hole in the handle.

After drilling a hole into the handle I could then screw into the crank mechanism and handle so that it would stay in place.

The First Play

2009-04-19T15:21:00.000-07:00

After spending some time trying to tune the whistles with a piano I went out and brought a tuner which I found much more accurate. This is the first play of the organ.

The Front Cover Shuffle

2009-04-19T11:16:00.000-07:00

It is important to wait until this stage to place the front covers on. This is because they should be put in slightly different places if the bellow pressure is different. You must wind the handle and find the place that the pipe plays best. You should also remember to tune the whistle which I forgot to do!

You spin me right round,... (take up spool... right round)

2009-04-19T11:13:00.002-07:00

The spool which takes the music. The take up spool. Came unstuck. Due to the difficult position of this spool it was impossible to put a screw in on the outside. So originally I just used Araldite but I've found it doesn't stick so well to brass. So at this stage as its all inside I had to drill a large hole into the spool then get a screw into the axis. Carnage! But it now works. I think it is important to take these risks to get the best results.

Connecting pipes to board

2009-04-19T11:13:00.001-07:00

I decided to use a very dark wood dye to colour the board which the pipes go on. Its not completely black but very dark brown. This makes a really nice contrast.

All the holes had to be put in exactly the correct place. I placed the peacock visaed on top of the pipes and pipe board to get the pipes in the right place so that they followed the shape of the peacocks. I considered using metal inserts in the pipes to reduce kinks in the pipes when connecting them to the tracker bar.

In the end I decided to not use the metal inserts as I didn't find it hard to gently bend the pipes to the tracker bar. Its like a forest of pipes down there! It is now almost impossible to get to the pipes at the back so I hope its right.
This pipe kept knocking against the connection rod so I attached a screw and an elastic band to keep it out of the way.

Do the twist

2009-04-19T11:12:00.004-07:00

These are the mitered pipes which fit into the organ casing. Its a bit of a shame really as they are so pretty.

The tone is very slightly different after they are mitered. I think they look great and would like to experiment making more shapes in the future.

All together now

2009-04-19T11:12:00.003-07:00

These supports are to hold the pressure box at the top and the bellows at the bottom. The section which is cut out in the corner is there so that the pressure lid can open easily.

The pressure box should fit inside the side panels. The pipe board should then also fit into the side panels. I noticed that the pipe board was wider than the pressure box. I didn't want to sand down all the pipes to fit in so I chose to redesign the casing. Now instead of the pipe board fitting inside the side panels, the pipe board goes on the front of the side panels.

This baton supports the pipe board.

The pressure box is put in. As everything fits in tight I found that as I put things together things got harder and harder to fiddle with and fix. I learnt that it is important to test everything as you go.

You can see here that I tried to make a make shift handle just to test it. This came apart quite quickly. You can also see that there is very little space to play with.

Bellow pressure 4

2009-04-19T11:12:00.001-07:00

I used talc powder inside the bellows to make them rub less against them selves. I was also recommended to paint shellac carefully down the creases of the bellows between the card stiffeners to minimize air gaps.

This is the wooded block which used to connect the bellows to the pressure box. You can see why I replaced it!

I used contact adhesive not PVA this was must better.

Bellow pressure 3

2009-04-19T11:11:00.006-07:00

I received many recommendations from fellow organ builders. See the comment section on this blog post: http://tracker-bar.blogspot.com/2009/04/april-showers.html

I also was very kindly offered a 2 part DVD from a man in Australia on how he made his organ. So I wasn't alone with my problem.

I decided to remake the valves to make them more efficient. I also decided to put a strip of card beneath them to make sure that the area below them was as flat as possible.

In this design there is no restrictive strap. The flap is held at each end so there is no need for one.

This is the remake of the card stiffeners. I think the card will stick better and rub away at the fabric less.

I took away the wooden cube that connected the bellows to the pressure box and used a pipe instead. This looks allot neater and should be more effective.

My final touch was to add a strip of leather accross the part of the organ that folds. This should strengthen this delicate area.

Bellow pressure 2

2009-04-19T11:11:00.005-07:00

I had to rip into the bellows. This really set me back. The bellow cloth was compleatly destroyed. I talked to many organ builders on the internet to get there advice and was told this was the best action to take after cheacking everything. I had to buy new bellow cloth. I couildn't order the stuff I did before as it would take to long. Luckily I was told I could find and use black out cloth from most fabric shops.

I found that one of the valves had been stuck under the reservior.

Some of the styrene stiffeners had come off. I didn't want to take any chances so I set about making all new card stiffeners which would stick better and be less likely to rub on the fabric. I also desided to re make all the valves using a new method I had learnt.

Bellow presure 1

2009-04-19T11:11:00.003-07:00

By using the water presure gauge I made I realised that the bellows were below presure. I did everything I could think of to set them right. This was a big problem.

I rearranged the pressure spring to see if this was the problem.

I cheacked for air leaks by putting a tube in my ear and feeling round for any leaks I could hear. This aplifys the sound of air escaping.

I put patches on any areas I thought were trouble.

I put sillicon every where.

I modified the spill valve by using springs to keep the valve down. I also replaced the wire at the back with springy piano wire.

Water presure gauge

2009-04-19T11:11:00.001-07:00

This home made water pressure gauge measures the air pressure. It took me a long way to work out how to make one. There is little information on them, I suppose this is because they are so simple. I was sure that there must be more too them. It is just a tube on a board with markings up the side. You put water in the U bend and mark the place that the water falls as "0" You then measure and mark out notches up the side every 1/2 inch. You label them 1,2,3 etc.

To start with I thought that the end of the tube needed to be blocked to get an accurate reading. This was incorrect. More research unveiled that it should be unblocked and the u bend should be slightly deeper.

This is taking a pressure reading.

Putting bellows inside.

2009-04-19T11:10:00.003-07:00

I attached a metal bracket to the bottom of the bellows so that I could connect them to the connection rods that connected them to the crank shaft.

I used two leather washers and a metal washer to allow the connection rod better movement and less noise.

The reservoir box should only be allowed to open up to 40mm so a block must be placed at this distance to make the spill valve open when they inflate 40mm.

Colour.

2009-04-19T10:38:00.002-07:00

I have many references to how artists have represented peacocks in there art in my file, on cd. also in my sketch book. I saw this lovely carpet and really liked there use of colour, although it is a different style.

Looking at peacock feathers themselves was a useful reference.

I found it hard to get a really good brown that wasn't too dominating. I found that in allot of the art novou pictures the beautiful faded browns seamed to look rich but fade into the background.

The body of the peacock being all one coulor didn't look so fantastical so I added some different shades.The brown at the side was too dark. Adding yellow parts over the top was very hard so I painted them all yellow planning to start that part again. I tryed out highlighting some feathers with green which looked very horrid. I experimented adding slight shading to bring out the design. I found painting this very challenging. I havn;t done much painting this detailed and found it very hard to look professional.

sculpting 2

2009-04-19T10:38:00.001-07:00

I had allot of problems designing the street organ in the first place. I was very stubborn that I wanted to make something of my own design so this took time. Time which I didn't have. After a long run of blobby bad designs I realised I needed a change of tactic.

Bellow was the fruit of my labour after many times of designing along the art novou swirl meets psychedelic disaster. And it was rotton. I also relised that the cart wheels I'd found just didn't match.

This is how the sculpt progressed. I found it all a challange to get the right look. I found it difficult to work out how to interprat the stylised peascocks feathers.

I had to make progress fast however as I had little time for this part. I sculpted it in a week though so all was well.

Sculpting the Front

2009-04-19T09:43:00.002-07:00

This is the sculpt before it was moulded. I looked at it and decided that I could make a block mould.

I made an MDF wall around the sculpt and blocked out the middle to save on using too much silicon.

However it used half a whole tin of silicon! This was a major use of expense materials. I now realize that the wise thing to do was use the method which I learnt earlier in the project. Previously I thought that this could only be used when moulding hard objects. I now know that you can cover your sculpt in cling film to stop it getting damaged and then fiber glass on top of that in the same way as my test mould before. This would have used allot less silicon.

I used this osolating saw to cut the majority of the waste fiber glass from around the edge. It was very hard to get into all the tiny gaps. Allot was done by dremal or by hand.

Lid closing mechanism

2009-04-19T09:43:00.001-07:00

The lid didn't close tight enough on its own to keep the pressure in. I made the wooden clip on the right to keep it closed tight.

It was too stiff, I wouldn't have been able to open the lid agin. So I took an old ruler and made a lid close out of that.

By that point I had already put the side panels on the pressure box. So I had to saw a large hole in the side of the panel so that I could attach this lid clip!

connection rods.

2009-04-19T09:42:00.000-07:00

The connection rods attach the crank shaft to the bellows. This means that when you turn the crank handel you are also pumping the bellows. From the diagram I was working from I origonaly thought that there were two different designs for each connection rod. After making the two I reliesed that it was the same connection rod viewd from two different sides.
This was the final design of the connection rod. It is so shaped to reach the middle of the bellow which it is deigned to pump. The split at the end is so that it can slot onto the crank shaft. Strong carpet thred was added to stop the rod from splitting under the strain of being cranked.

Clutch mechanism

2009-04-19T09:41:00.001-07:00

The clutch mechanism took me a long time to understand. I didn't know organs had a clutch. I couldn't understand how the idler wheel (the wheel between the take up spool and the crank mechanism) could spin and be disengaged from the crank mechanism. On top of that for a long time I didn't understand that the job of the clutch was to remove the idler wheel from the crank mechanism. To be honest I had no idea why it was there or what it did. These progress photo's really helped:

http://members.cox.net/felipe.mello/

Once I understood that the clutch was there so that you could rewind the organ I then realized that the axis of the idler wheel didn't move. This was a big realization. There is a handle which you push down to move the idler wheel and a spring to keep it in place while the organ plays.

I carefully drilled and screwed a tapping screw into the axis with a bearing. I had advice to keep the idler wheel a sloppy fit onto the axis so that it would always connect with the take up spool but with the bearing it is quite rigid.
This brass bar keeps the spring which holds the idler wheel in contact with the take up spool while the organ plays.

Presure box continued.

2009-04-19T08:47:00.000-07:00

These brass rods are placed here specifically to keep pressure on top of the music. This is so that air can only get to the pipes through the holes in the music and not from under the music.
I used a combination of plain wooden bearing blocks and metal bearings. I've never used either of these items before so it was a steep learning curve. They are very important in keeping the crank mechanism in the correct place so that it connects with the idler shaft. It was difficult to keep all the items in this back section from interfering with each other.
The little white patch is black out clothe over the hole where the take up spool lives. I don't know if much air would escape from here. But I thought better safe than sorry!
This is where the music starts its journey. I mounted the brackets on a piece of hardwood to ensure that they where the right distance from each other. The holes in the bottom of the one on the right are for the air to come in from the bellows. (Wish I'd lazered out a more exciting shape now!)
At first I thought that it would be nice to dye the wood of the pressure box. I wanted it to match the outside of the box which would be mahogany or something similar. But it looked terrible. So I sanded it off again.

Presure box putting together.

2009-04-19T07:58:00.003-07:00

The Laser cutter did miss small areas. This meant carefully sanding down and prising out the parts.

All the parts slotted into each other really well. So the extra time spent cutting out card prototypes of the pressure box was well spent. It was important to stick all the parts using vices to get a good seal. The whole box needs to be air tight.

I realised that I had not cut out a hole for the clutch mechanism so I used a drill with a flexible hose end to get into that part of the pressure box.

As it was laser cut out it was good and square.

The pressure box needed to be supported with a series of wooden batons. This was to ensure that it could withstand the pressure of the air being pumped into it all the time the organ is playing.

tracker bar.

2009-04-19T07:58:00.001-07:00

The tracker bar connects to all the pipes. The air flows though the tracker bar when there is a hole in the music that relates to that pipe. The card structure shown above is stick down to a board with a series of metal tubes which are hooked up to the pipes.

Presure box 2

2009-04-19T07:57:00.002-07:00

The take up spool is moved allong by the crank shaft. It was constructed with a piece of drain pipe with two wooden incerts at each end. It then had wooden cheeks attached at either end to keep the music in line.

The first time I made it slightly too short so I sanded on the the cheeks back down to make up the extra space. I found a new tool on the band saw for cutting out circles. Amazing.

All the moving parts in the pressure box spin on axis's. The axis's need to be supported properly over wise over time they will slowly make larger and larger holes in the sides of the presure box. Or they will brake all together under the strain.

It took me a long while to figure out what bearing blocks were. I had no idea from the diagram I had. Eventually I relised they were simply hard wood blocks with holes in. They where recomended to be drilled in half so that you cound dismantle them when nessassary to make repairs. I diseided to take the design one step further and add metal bearing blocks inside to strengthen the bearing blocks and ensire the axsis turn correctly. Small holes could be drilled in the top of wooden bearing blocks to allow for oil to be put in. Or you can use graphite powder to reduce squeeking. All bearing blocks need to be placed accuratly to ensire smooth working.

Presure box one.

2009-04-19T07:57:00.001-07:00

Looking at my plans I found it difficult to imagine exactly how this part of the organ could possibly do all it promised. It wanted to be airtight. It wanted to carry the music across the tracker bar. It wanted to crank the bellows. It wanted to be able to rewind the organ. It did allot, all in a compact box. Originally I wanted to make the presure box by hand using a dark thin hard wood as this would be a nice colour to go with the outside of the box which I wanted to also be a dark hard wood. But unfortunatly it was very difficult to find such a thing. When I did spend time and effort to plain down some mahogany (whcih I was given from the workshop) I found it warped all over the place and I couldn't use it for this acurate part of the organ.

So I desided to use lazer ply. This is ply which is specially designed to go into the lazer cutter. It cuts easier and the glue used is better for the lazer cutters ventaliation system. I got my lazer ply from the following shop:

http://www.hobartlaserables.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=84

I chose them as they had the thicknesses I was looking for. They are also the cheapest. Unfortunaly it took 3 weeks to arrive which made it quite a rush to cut out. But I had plenty of things to do while I waited.

All this considered I set about making card marcettes on the lazer cutter.

I needed to work out adjustments for where the idler wheel went. The Idler wheel fits in between the take up spool and the crank sharft and needs to be able to connect with both.

I needed to adjust the hole for the tracker bar to fit in so that all the pipes coming out of it fit into this slot. It is important that the tracker bar lives in the right place so that the music goes over exactly the right holes.

This wall was compleatly the wrong size and needed to be re-rynoed.

Holding the Mitre.

2009-04-19T07:34:00.000-07:00

I needed to make gigs to hold all the miter's while they dried. Nice sunny day, the only way to work!

Shallac the pipes.

2009-04-19T06:43:00.000-07:00

I looked into several finishes for the pipes. I also considered would finish would further seal the pipes from any little air gaps. I found that waxes and wood dyes would not give any extra seal. Vanish would give a good seal but I didn't like the finish so much. I found that shellac was the perfect high quality finish and offered a bit of a seal. I also sealed the inside with watered down pva. Any air gaps where a massive no-no for a good sound. I mitered the two larger pipes. I made the mistake of mitering the pipes by making 2 cuts. (you can see the wasted piece of triangle pipe) This made the sound higher. It JUST about makes the right note now. Also included is all the pipe stoppers with French polish on. French polish is a tyoe of shellac which is designed for lighter woods.

Very useful comments.

2009-04-19T06:42:00.000-07:00

Please be sure to check the comments left by other users, there is some very useful information!

Pipe Finishing touches.

2009-04-18T15:38:00.004-07:00

These photo's show details of the inside of the whistles. I was recommended from a utube tutorial (listed on the right) that the bottom lip of the whistle should not be too sharp an angle so I sanded a flatter bottom edge.

pipe making 3

2009-04-18T15:38:00.003-07:00

The pipe stoppers were made by cutting out rectangle pieces of wood which fitted exactly into the bottom of the whistle. Then chamis leather was added in a square. A stick needs to pertrude from the stopper for easy adjustment.

This are the whistles all stuck together ready to be tested and tampered with. It is important to keep editing them to make the best sound you possibly can at this stage. The smallest air gap or bad angle on the mouth piece can make the whistle sound very fluffy.

The bottom mouth piece needs to be adjusted to make the right sound.

I really enjoyed tampering with the whistles to make nicer sounds. I found it very rewarding when I got a sound that I was happy with. I think it was very helpfull that I grew up playing the recorder.

Pipe making 2

2009-04-18T15:38:00.001-07:00

It was important to stick the pipes together very squarly but this was not much of a problem with a good jig. It was important to make sure that each edge was sealed with planty of glue so that it was air tight. When all the square pipes had been stuck together then the mouth pieces and lids to the pipes could be put in. These also needed to be square and fit in exactly. I made the mouth pieces all the same angle but using a router across all the mouth pieces before cutting them out. When all the glue was dry I sanded them down. It is important to sand the front of the whistle very flat so that all the whistels have the same gap created by the front cover. Too much of a gap caused by over sanding would not make a good sound. And not enough of a gap would make it hard of the air to escape from the top of the whistle.

The front covers were made buy sticking all the covers onto some mdf then putting the bottom front covers through the circular saw at the angle. The top front covers where given a round edge by the router.

The most important angle is the one of the mouth piece after it was routered it then had the tip sanded to a different angle. Just the top 1mm needs to have this slight angel. I did this all in one go with the mouth pieces stuck to a board.

Pipe making one

2009-04-18T15:37:00.001-07:00

After finding the appropriate wood to use for the pipes I set about cutting out the pipes in the workshop (again). I found it much better using Tulip wood instead of the balsa wood. It was much easier to get a good finish and I enjoyed working with it much more. I think sometimes it is wise to consider what material to use even if you have been given advice from an expert.

There are 20 whistles meaning that there are 80 sides, 20 top's, 20 stoppers, 20 mouth pieces and 20 front covers to make. I have found that the more air tight the whistle is the better the sound. Also it is important to get the mouth piece just right too, the angle must be very precise to make the right sound.

This considered it is important that every piece is very square. It was challenging but I found that with patience I made steady progress. It's very hard for me to not get distracted so I set my self goals for how long every note and job would take. Often I didn't make these goals and it became distressing so I tried a system of working on pipes for 40 minutes and then a 10 minute break. In this way I got allot more done.

Once all the parts were the right size I could stick the sides together and tackle the problem of getting all the mouth pieces and front covers the same angle.

Making bellows 3 - the reservoir box.

2009-04-18T12:36:00.003-07:00

The reservoir is similar to the bellows. But one important difference which took me a while to figure out is that it has no bottom. The reservoir box sits strait on top of the pair of bellows. I only figured this out when I looked at the reservoir box and realized that I was just making a completely sealed box which would have no air going in or out!

So I had to make a hole in the bottom to let the air in.

The holes wasn't big enough so I removed the whole bottom.

The most important part of the reservoir is making a good spill valve and making sure that there are no air gaps when connecting it to the bellows.

The spill valve makes sure that the bellows do not burst and allows excess air to escape easily.

Once the whole assembly is complete PVA glue or silicon can be used to seal round any edges. Testing at this point is very important. The bellows should be strong enough to stay full for 10 seconds with a full bag of 1kg sugar on top. I had to be careful to make sure not to let the bellows burst by restricting the spill valve so that the bellows could not be any more than 40mm.

Making Bellows two

2009-04-18T12:36:00.001-07:00

The first part of making the bellows is cutting out the wooden ply that will make the top and bottom. The top and the bottom of the bellow needs to match and be square. Other wise the cloth will twist, not fold properly and tear.

Next the valve holes must be made. The valves on the bottom can go anywhere really. But the ones on the top of the bellows must allow for the reservoir to sit on top of them. It is very important that the valves on the top are allowed to act freely with out the reservoir getting in the way.

The shape of the bellows takes in to account where to connection rods go which attach to the crank shaft and make them go. Batons are used to give more space for the fabric of the bellows to stick to, and to make them more durable. I think its important to make every thing as durable as possible because I don't know what sort of effect the strain of the air will have on it.

I learnt allot more from making the bellows than I did from trying to read about them. When I got my first valve to work it was very exciting. It was good to feel that I was doing something right.

The 10 mm holes need to be free from splinters and have a very flat surface for the leather to sit on. You want the leather valve to really get a good seal on the wood and this is impossible if it have any bumps.

The leather flap is screwed into the ply over the valve holes with a restricting strap across it. It is that simple. The tricky bit is making sure that everything is air tight.

The next task was to make the hinge. As you can imagine you can't use normal hinges as air would come through. You must put a strip of blackout cloth on the inside and the outside of the opening/closing side. As the name suggests blackout cloth is used for blocking out light. It is used behind curtains and very commonly in theaters. I STRONGLY recommend masons in Oxfordshire for anything fabric related. Even in London I find it hard to beat them. Now they also have a website:

http://www.masonsneedlecraft.co.uk/default.aspx

These strips of stryne give the bellow room for the bellow leather.

The cloth needs to be cut to size and the card stiffeners need to be glued on. I found that it was very important to mark these out accurately or it wouldn't fit and fold correctly. If this is wrong the bellows would puff out not keep pressure. I decided that using styrene would be better to use as it is just as thin as card but stronger. The leather used for the bellows needs to be top quality as it all needs to be completely air tight. The leather I had was half length so I simply glued two pieces together with fabric glue.

I was originally going to use PVA as recommended by John Smith the organ builder. But I was recommended to use contact adhesive by a colleague. This made much more sense as it is more flexible and strong. It will do a much better job attaching fabric to wood. The bellows needed to be put in a vice and very carefully the fabric needs to be put in the right place. I found it wise to do some tests with out glue first.

Making bellows 1

2009-04-18T12:35:00.001-07:00

I had no idea how bellows worked. I had no idea what valves really did. So There was allot to learn. As always I leafed through my collection of books on organs and the like, then headed for Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellows

This was the next stop on the information high way:

http://www.mmdigest.com/Tech/vanceBellows2.html

I was starting to understand that the valve needed to let air flow into the bellows at the bottom and into the reservoir box. In the reservoir box it would be kept under pressure by the pressure spring to allow a strong stream of constant air into the organ.

Here they use this technology to make a chair which is also an organ. The Bellows inflate on there own when you stand up. Amazing!

http://www.instructables.com/id/SEB8O8XFKOF7IVJ/

Of course professional organs have much more complex bellows then the ones I'm trying to make. This organ uses a water engine to move the air along:

http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/POWER/waterengine/waterengine6.htm

They would also use more complex valve mechanisms. Bigger organs have stop mechanisms too. This give a summary of larger organs:

http://nersp.osg.ufl.edu/~bodinew/Pages/SoundProduction.html

For this project I'm making 2 bellows with simple leather flap valves. Then with one reservoir on top held with a spring. I'm getting the information on how to build it from the john smith plans.

Moulding practice. New skills learnt.

2009-04-16T06:47:00.000-07:00

I joined in on a group tutorial on moulding. This was to show us how we could minimize the use of expensive silicon when making moulds. I learnt that it is important to plan out the complete moulding and casting process before you start to make sure you get the most out of your materials.

We made an alginate mould of part of our face which we then filled with plaster. This gave us a plaster cast of one of our facial features. We screwed this onto a mdf board. This was important to keep the place of the item. We then covered this in a 10mm thick layer of clay. We made dove tail shapes in the outside of the clay to give the silicon something to slot into. We fibre glassed over this making a large funnel at the top as a pour hole. It is always very important to remember where you are going to pour your material. We then poured the silicon into the funnel created . This resulted in an even layer of silicon. This is important to minimize warping and to save material.

The mould could then be unscrewed and cast into again and again with very good results.

The problem I see with this method is that you can only use it to mould something hard. If you had a clay sculpt how could you cover it in clay with out destroying your work?

I got allot of benefit from this practice as it had been a while since I had been in the casting/moulding rooms.

Sourcing wood. A steep learning curve. Balsa wood uncovered.

2009-04-16T05:25:00.000-07:00

I started off using Balsa wood for the pipes of the Organ. This decision was made as the John Smith plans specified this wood. I'd seen several organs made with Balsa wood and found it produced a good sound so I didn't give it a second thought. I photocopied the scale pipe size diagram from the plans and cut out all the pipes with a bansaw. The cutting diagram was a new idea to me which I found in the John Smith plans. It saved time after its drawn up as you can check your lengths and widths quickly by holding it up to the diagram. Also if you want to change the measurements it is easier. This is clear when you inspect the diagram. Cutting the balsa wood on the bansaw produced allot of fluff. I didn't really enjoy working with the wood. Some further investigation into balsa wood reveled that it had a very wide range of density : http://wapedia.mobi/en/Balsa_(tree)

So how could it be used to give a reliable sound? PVA is needed to seal the pipes and a hard wood strip is required to make the sound. So why not use a plastic? I had a personal dislike of the idea of using plastic as it was far from traditional and wouldn't look right. Also I wanted to learn more about using the traditional material of wood. Laser cutting everything is not something I admire.

I also came across environmental issues with using Balsa wood. Did you know that it is one of the heaviest trees, but one of the lightest woods after the sap is removed?

This is a good website of material data. This is all the properties of Balsa wood including sustainability:

http://www.matbase.com/material/wood/class4-5-10-years/balsa/properties

It turned out that I had made a number one school boy error. I had not checked the pipe cutting diagram after photocopying it. Photocopiers warp the image slightly which is bad when you are using them for accurate measurements which you need to make specific musical notes.

I had to cut out all the pipes again. As I had learnt that balsa wood was not such a nice feeling wood or environmentally friendly I considered other woods I could use. I e-mailed several Organ makers, some professional and some making organs as a hobby. I got a variety of responses. Some people said that it didn't matter what you used as long as you sealed the wood with something. Other people said it had to be a good quality hardwood. You will find all useful e-mails on this topic in my research folder under making techniques. Looking at the information I received subjectively I chose to go for a hard wood. Although I have no doubt that Balsa wood would also produce good results, I liked the idea of using a heavier wood which would clean up better. I also had all the equipment needed for working with such wood.

This did however throw up new problems. For me to work the wood into pipes I needed the wood to be around 5mm thick. I didn't think this would be a problem until I went to several timber merchants who told me that:

A) They didn't really sell hardwoods,
B) The hard woods that they did have came in 2 inch thick planks,
C) planing down the wood that thin would cause allot of warping,
D) there planner didn't even plan down that thin.

This was more of a job than I considered. I started work on the bellows during this time to be more efficient.

I kept phoning around different timber places until I found someone who could help. Help came in the form of this company:

http://www.thorogood.co.uk/

They specialized in what I was looking for so I went for it. They could make all the wood I needed in a nice tulip wood, in 5mm thick. I was very pleased. The price was very high but as I'd spent quite a bit of time with people who told me that it couldn't be done I didn't mind so much paying £75. Now I know better. This article was very enlightening:

http://www.melright.com/busker/jsart28.htm

Of course when I read the tittle I hoped it would be a machine which made the whole pipe not just the wood for it.

So finally the very beautiful wood arrived. I was very happy. I now know allot about how wood is made into flatter sheets and how you need to know about warping if you want a natural wood. If you want a large flat material (larger than the width of a tree) you can't use a natural material, use ply or MDF. I have found people making organs out of MDF.

An unusual instrument.

2009-04-15T05:52:00.000-07:00

Previously seeing Organs as being quite traditional animals I was pointed in the direction of this unusual creature:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIJCbdPrcNY

Is it not fantastical? My organ will be more sculptural, but its interesting to see a less traditional take on organs.

Earlist Organ much older than I ever imagined.

2009-03-15T17:08:00.000-07:00

I've just read in "The Art of Organ Building" by George Ashdown Audsley that the oldest known representation of a Pneumatic Organ is found on a very old sculpture. The sculpture shows two small organs with pipes fed by wind chests connected to bellow. The sculpture is dated A.D. 346-395. (!) Out standing! I'm shocked.

Mechanical Musical Instuments, the First Computers?

2009-03-15T16:25:00.001-07:00

I came across this idea that mechanical musical instruments are the first computers. This philosophy really intrigued me. It really shows the sort of historical impact that these items had on people. I take Cd's, DVD's, mp3's completely for grantage. The concept that having a song on a disk as a new idea is completely alien to me. So the organ is the computer which can interpret a program and act accordingly, and the rolls/books of holed music are the Cd's which hold the program. This new angle on street organ technology is really fascinating.

Mechanical Musical Instuments, the First computers?

2009-03-15T16:25:00.000-07:00

Photographic evidence of the personal and social impact of interaction.

2009-03-15T15:50:00.000-07:00

To further prove my point of the strong benifits of people meeting together and interacting, either through art, play, music, learning, here are some photos of such benifical events.

Photo's will follow! Having terrible blogger problems.

Photographic evidence of the personal and social impact of interaction.

2009-03-15T15:06:00.001-07:00

Photographic evidence of the personal and social impact of interaction.

To further prove my point of the strong benifits of people meeting together and interacting, either through art, play, music, learning, here are some photos of such benifical events.

Photographic evidence of the personal and social impact

2009-03-15T15:06:00.000-07:00

Personal creative development. A passion for Organs and community.

2009-03-15T13:51:00.000-07:00

I'm strongly interested in the current British festival scene. I think its one of the few things the British really know how to do really well. (Other than the silly prices!) I think people will look back at this period of British history and remember the festivals. It is a very current forum for all sorts of artists to express them selves in. I want to explore different areas which bring people together. I don't want to create items which are static to be viewed in an art gallery or a museum. I want to make items which bring people together and make them smile. This is very strong in this current project. What could be more perfect for this aim than a street organ? Historically they are designed to be placed at fairs, public places, dances, and festivals of days gone past. I love the fact that I'm trying to recreate a musical instrument which in the past would have been completely wondrous; and today although obsolete holds the same wonder. People already flock to my instrument although it is currently just a set of whistles! It was new technology, were previously people would have to get a whole orchestra now they could allow the street organ to make the music. The wealthy could have versions of them in there home, the first time that they didn't need to have silence all the time (bar playing instruments themselves). I can't even imagine the magic of this step, I'm so surrounded my music and noise all the time at home. The difference of it not being electrical also makes a big difference. Speakers omit a noise from one direction in a very specific way. Organs play as if someone is there playing an instrument. Old organs play the very same music as played all that time ago. This fact gives my goose bumps; it’s almost a form of time travel. More so than a painting or an old worn chair, an Organ gives you the very atmosphere that was felt all that time ago. Pure magic.

All this considered my organ or any future musical, mechanical piece would be a perfect platform for re-kinderling this magic to the community. The Secret Garden Festival offers many opportunities for this sort of interaction.

http://www.secretgardenparty.com/2009/participation.php

Using these forms I plan to take my finished street organ to the secret garden party. I have a couple of options of how to present myself.

1) Using the magnificent fancy dress form.
The theme is Garden of Eden and Babylon. As the front of the organ is covered in peacocks this fits very well. I would then make myself a peacock costume. As they say they will give up to £400 I'm thinking of something very elaborate. This will need to be professionally costed and planed. I call it the music of Eden and walk around entertaining people. The form also states that I could do it in a group. This opens up possibilities of making several matching costumes and making a story to go with it. The eccentric peacock keeper and his swam of peacocks? The ancient peacock treasure of Babylon? Traditionally organ grinders would try to strike up more business by making a story to go with there organ.

2) Use the performing art form.
For this I would do a similar show but put more empathy on the story being told. For this I would get a free ticket, then £75 for all actors who want to come with me. I'm not really an actor and nor are the people I plan to take with me. But it’s more about in crowd story telling with props and I think every one has that in them somewhere. I also have a large steam punk kaleidoscope which I have already performed at festivals, it’s a great prop. You'll be surprised how many people haven’t seen a Kaleidoscope for over 10 years. Also it is useful in teaching children about how mirrors work.

3) Join the Kazoo Crew.
I know the leader of the Kazoo crew. This is an area of the festival where you can go to and play a whole number of simple instruments. You can even make your own instruments. This would be a good atmosphere to interact with other people playing instruments. Half the magic of musical instruments is the ability to play with other people. This is an area which I haven’t even considered yet; could the organ join a band?

4) Join the science area.
The science area of secret garden aims to teach people science at a festival. Crazy you say? No. People do indeed turn up in the middle of the festival to listen to lectures. I could explain to people how whistles work and all the principles behind the workings of a street organ. Currently people have no idea how it works, I know it took me a long time to understand it. I could also show people how to make there own whistles. I could talk about bellows, air pressure, and sound vibration. I know the Woman who does lectures about the science of sound so I could work together with her. I also like the idea of using it as a teaching aid as I think that when people learn it really strengthens there experience. This is also why I like sculpture more than paintings. You can't hear, smell, or touch a painting really. With an organ it’s a whole sensory experience, you’re not going to forget it!

So why would I want to do this? Other than complete self indulgence as I will certainly enjoy it, its also great publicity for my work. I will be meeting people, making friends, and showing people what I'm about in a very memorable way. All the while my work will be on display. People will remember it and talk about it. If I'm lucky I might meet someone who likes it so much they might offer me some sort of future creative project. I will make sure that I have business cards on me for this possibility.

I want to promote craft. I want to promote the idea of simply gathering round a musical instrument. I want to tell people about street organs, and how they themselves could make one to. I want to entertain people in a powerful interactive way, far away from stale snooty art exhibitions.

There are also several other festivals that certainly fit the bill. Sunrise celebration festival, Antic Banquet, Shambala to name a few.

I think that’s enough of a passionate rant for now! That’s 1108 words in one entry!

Wood Carving.

2009-03-15T11:34:00.000-07:00

The small traditional street organs often looked like little wooden cabinets with decorative inlays and occasionally wooden carvings. I know that the bigger ones also used painted wood carvings. I wonder weather plaster was ever used as well? Although this would make them less tough.

I've started looking into wood carving. I would have liked to carve my street organ in the traditional way but it would have taken far too long. Especially as this is not a historical reproduction this seamed unnecessary.

This site was a useful starting point.

http://www.carvingpatterns.com/

Contextual Research

2009-03-15T11:21:00.000-07:00

I've started to dwelve into what the professional applications of street organ building are.
On a very straight forward link there are a multitude of Organ builders and kit sellers. (Links to which you can find on the righthand side) Everything from the very prosesional crafts man to the novice who is following the same plans which I am, seam to be making a bussines from selling organs. There are also lazer cut kits and parts for sale.

This site I found of parlitular interest:

http://www.teanola.com/teanola-wood-carvings.htm

So you can even buy hand carved wooden minitures for the front of your hand made organ. This leads me on to start an investigation into how the front of traditional organs are made.

This site sells Organs using the same plans as I am using for $3750. So there is a market for this item!

http://www.floraco.com/organs/organs/page2.html

Musical Box Society International.

2009-03-14T15:54:00.001-07:00

The Musical Box Society have a great series of short documentaries on the history of mechanical musical instruments on U Tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuTUNxC0KWg
Its similar information as at the musical mechanical museum in Holland, but much more convenient! Well worth a good look, there are some fascinating characters. In this first documentary I particularly like the statement made that before the industrial revolution craftsmen polished even the very inside of the machines, even parts which no one would see. I can only hope to reach that level of good craftsman ship!

Dingles Fairground Heritage Centre

2009-03-14T13:48:00.000-07:00

I heard allot of good things about this centre from Organ builders and enthusiasts. The website is under construction but you can find out about Dingles from other sources:

http://www.culture24.org.uk/am29111

They have a large steam powered fair ground section and many of the larger street/dance organs at the Dorset Steam fair are owned by them.

I phoned them up for imformation on what organs they had on show at they're centre and discovered that I'd seen most of there display at the steam fair. So no need to make the trip to Devon.

Finding the plans and the organ society.

2009-03-14T10:37:00.001-07:00

There is a strong group of avid street organ lovers on the Internet. There is allot of information available on how to make your own street organ of the sort and size which I am interested in making. The one which is most recommended is John Smith's 20 note street organ. Discovering this over the summer at the Dorset steam fair I went about purchasing the plans and DVD written by John Smith.

http://www.melright.com/busker/jsmith.htm

From the plans I could see that this was designed for people with little experience of building and making. Also clear was that John Smith certainly knew what he was doing, but was not always very good at explaining this to other people. So on one hand I found that I could make the plans allot better. On the other hand I was completely out of my depth in decoding how to engineer this mechanical musical instrument. I have no previous knowledge of making mechanical objects or musical instruments so there was allot to learn and experiment with. I found this very exciting and daughting.

Trip to the V & A Museam.

2009-01-21T14:14:00.000-08:00

Looking at machanical musical instuments at the V & A

Goo.

2009-01-21T13:57:00.000-08:00

I want to make the outside of the street organ look more organic than the traditional street organ. Possibly making the design a-symetrial. I've been looking at art novou and more moden 60's psycodelic art work as inspiration. Allot of these designs look as if they where melting. This thinking putty goo inspired me as a natural shape which might work quite well.

Poland tea room.

2009-01-13T03:56:00.000-08:00

These are pictures of an art novou tea room in Poland. I went there 6 months ago. The style fits in with the street organ style. The pattens used are bold but alittle fussy and over complex. I think the design needs to be updated.

Head dress ideas.

2009-01-13T03:54:00.000-08:00

I was considering making a taditional headress alongside the street organ. Looking at my time plan I simply had no time to compleate both. So I'm going to just concentrate on the street organ.

Canal boats.

2009-01-13T03:21:00.000-08:00

Canal boats have a long tradition of beutiful traditional painting. Its bold and colourful it complements the gypsy style in common with steam engines, street organs.

Street organ at Dorset steam fair.

2009-01-13T03:08:00.000-08:00

Dorset steam fair.

2009-01-13T02:37:00.000-08:00

This is the first street organ that I saw at the Dorset steam fair. Its a really great fair with genuine steam engines powering almost everything. I really found the street organs an amazing presents at the fair. Its great to hear non electric music.

Street Organ

2008-10-01T05:48:00.000-07:00

This blog is for my final major project in which I intend to make a street Organ.