How to make a wooden organ pipe - Part 1 of 3

[bogtheforest]

I need more clamps.

[exitrg]

Hi! good work! have Italian origins?

[issueagent]

I really want to build my own home organ but I am currently a student and is very busy. Approximately how much time I will need to invest in building a simplistic one stop practice organ?

[raphig]

@issueagent About 700 hours.

[issueagent]

@raphig Woah 0.o I'm willing to try it out! Thanks for the info and tutorial ! :)

[mcgyvr2009i]

@raphig Is that approximately 29 days?

[raphig]

@mcgyvr2009i 700 hours is 17.5 weeks if you work full time.

[mcgyvr2009i]

@raphig Wow that's a long time. How long would it take to at least create the area where the air gets compressed?

[johnperryn]

Thanks Raphig, Great Video and web site. I made a test pipe using simple hand tools and scrap materials! It works very well and was a very satisfying project. My only problem is that I compute the primary harmonic should be at 430cps but it plays F# at 370cps - too far off to explain by end corrections. Another mystery ☺

[DrKlown]

I thought you where making a tobacco pipe. When it said organ I read "organic" lol

[buttonbox66]

Hello Raphig, have you or are you going to make a video about how to build the bellows? I'm just starting to build a Barrel Organ, and i found your video about pipe making very interesting. Happy New Year :)

[NewEquinoxProduction]

I learned it in a bit different way, but its good!

Greetings from Germany

Niclas

[Sevag123456789]

haha r u armenian

[neuralwarp]

how do you know what length and width to make the pipes?

[raphig]

The length is calculated using the formula shown in my website in the mathematics section. The width depends on the type of tone you want. Larger widths will sound like a flute, medium widths will sound like a principal and smaller widths will sound like a string.

[Tehinstrumentalist]

@raphig your videos and website are so useful as i'm planning to use your Pipe designs for a chamber organ i'm planning to build, is there a need for certain types of wood, or is it suitable to use any wood which is sturdy enough?

[AndrewStPaul69]

I like that clamp. :)

[cruddiestcrudever]

Hmm, I'm thinking that if I take on the task of building even a small positive organ, I'm going to need more clamps! As well as a table saw and a drill press (I'm absolutely hopeless at cutting wood straight even with a circular saw)

[virginiaorganbuilder]

I've made hundreds of wood pipes, and I do NONE of the procedures the way you do, including the order of assembly of the pipe. There's more than one way to skin a cat! Maybe I'll make a video response some day. Where did you get your training? (I bet if I visit your website I'll learn more...)

[mortson978]

How many times do you use that pipe width within the single rank?

[raphig]

Once. Every pipe in a rank has a different width.

[mortson978]

very good, very consistent.

[lostnyc2]

Hey raphig, didn't notice a website till you mentioned it just now, cool! looked here like you were solely a woodworker trying to build your own organ which was why I commented. I work for another builder and most of what I do is build the wood pipes. I dont recall making the French rank you mention. Ive made a set out of maple and one out of cherry, forget where they went but the maple was a real chore!

I have a 1930 Moller in my house Im working on.

[lostnyc2]

Your initial technique is good in this, BUT it's really much easier to glue the boards to the bottom BLOCK first not to each other as you show.

We make all of the blocks FIRST and when cutting the blocks from laminated boards we slice off a section to be the stopper, and 2 thin slices for SPACERS. drill the foot holes, bevel and cut out the inside of the blocks so those are all done with, then glue the back board and the 2 sides to the block and the spacers keep the sides parrallel and perfect

[lostnyc2]

Then once that has set up, we take the assy and run it over the jointer to clean up the face of the block with the side board edges so the front board with it's bevel can be glued on, and the front cap screwed on.

We make the bevels on a milling machine not a table saw- you dont bevel the entire width of the front board- just the section directly over the mouth- leaving two "ears" which help control the sound/stability. in 16' octave you ned to ADD "ears" I'll see if I can do a quick video

[raphig]

Thanks for your tips on pipe construction. If you look at my website, you'll see that I made the 8' Bourdon with ears and the 16' Soubasse with ears and beards. I purposely cut the mouth of the principal pipes all the way across the face to mimic a true French Montre pipe which doesn't have ears.

[gondolacrescent5]

So, you're making pipes that are normally made of metal out of wood? I've seen "big" builders do the same on occasion for the bottom 8ctve of a Diapason or Montre (whatever) and the sound is very convincing. The trend in the past 50 years is to use much more metal pipework than wood--but I don't think it's necessarily done for the sake of artistic merit. It has more to do with distributing work evenly to the "plumbing" shop and the wood shop in the same organ manufactory. I prefer a wood flute.

[gondolacrescent5]

I think you're suggesting the best way to make a rank of wooden pipes vrs. that of demonstrating how to make one wooden pipe as shown on the video. I've been told it's much more economical to make two identical ranks of pipes (wood) than one, as it divides, somewhat, the cost of labour to build two identical ranks. But the real trick is to ensure the extra rank is sold or installed on the next organ that comes along to realize the profit advantage involved in doing so. Same for portativ organs.

[lostnyc2]

Actually the more identical ranks you make at one time the better- the machine and layout setup time is the same for 1 rk or 6

[Imperatormudi]

very intresting! Thank!

[XslmXSLM]

r u kevin spacey

[organdude93]

i've watched all your videos and they are great. A very nice sounding organ! I would love to build my own pipe oorgan if I could. How long did it take?

[ZackRich022494]

how much did it cost you to build your organ?

[idtcib]

thanx ur awesomme

[Daiwin82]

I am flustered..

Just spent hours on a wood pipe and it doe's not work :(

Only thing I am thinking is that it is more in the shape of a reed then flat like your insert plus mine is bumpy inside would that really make it not play?

I have drilled through the buttom parts like it shows in the video but when I blow in the button it is just air coming out.

Any suggestions?

I had to dremell everything since I don't have the fancy saws and such..

[flippingfo0l]

thanx a lot. im trying to build a flute like instrument and i managed to make a whistle but when i make it longer thinking the pitch will go down it doesn't work.

[nickjm007]

This was really useful. Thanks so much for putting the time into making this video!

[edders05]

A fascinating insight. Thanks very much!