Building Your Own Homemade Flue Pipe (Organ Pipe)

Organ-building brought to the masses: you can build a flue pipe entirely of cereal box cardboard in about 10 minutes. The construction I mention here is different from the one used in my Christmas Organ (q.v. - http://ssngai.byethost14.com/organ/organ.htm and Youtube), but that just demonstrates that a flue pipe can easily be made of any material just so long as it has the right basic form.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• flue
• pipe
• diy
• homemade
• cardboard
• cereal
• box
• christmas
• organ
• windsheet
• foot
• languid
• lip

[ssngai]

@Drummer0647 Cardboard substitute: I suppose you could use thin plastic for the upper lip. It's got to be thin, though -- in my experiments, even thin wood sharpened to an edge didn't produce as clean a tone as cardboard. As for the foot assembly, you can design anything that will create a windsheet. It would probably be difficult to roll plastic up into the traditional cone, but there's no reason why you can't make the foot the same cylinder with cut face as the upper lip assembly.

[ssngai]

@Drummer0647

PVC vs ABS: Doesn't matter. You might consider whether one accepts glue better than the other.

[ssngai]

@Drummer0647

Constant pressure: My wind pressure actually isn't 100% constant. But it turns out that my blower is capable of delivering such a large flow relative to what my pipes demand, the pressure around my operating point is pretty much flat, and it doesn't make a difference. I recommend trying it first without regulation; that may be good enough. If you insist on regulation, you can read more at rwgiangiulio.

[ssngai]

@Drummer0647 Some excerpts from my private reply:

Covered ("stopped") pipe: It halves the frequency -- almost exactly, but not quite. You need to make a small correction -- learn more at rwgiangiulio's site. In real life, all stopped pipes have plungers to allow tuners to make fine adjustments. Also, stopping a pipe changes the Ising relations, so a mouth assembly that works for an open pipe may not work quite as well for a stopped pipe.

[ssngai]

@User846 I've sent you a private message.

[2110400]

What exactly is the "languid" (i probably spelled it wrong)

[ssngai]

@2110400 You spelled it right!

The languid is the sheet that divides the upper and lower halves of the flue pipe. (In this case, it's that little cardboard square.) It serves two roles, one with each half of the pipe: 1) as the nearly-complete wall of the foot assembly, it forms the flue, or the slit through which the windsheet flows; and 2) it serves as a wall of the resonating chamber.

For a clearer picture, you can Google Image search 'languid pipe'. Let me know if I can be of further help.

[Drummer0647]

I want to build one of these for science olympiad but I have a few questions: Does covering the pipe cut the frequency in half? How do you supply constant air pressure to your organ? Would you reccommend pvc or abs pipe? (they are very similar but you can easily paint abs pipe as opposed to pvc.) When using pvc for the pipes, would you recommend everything that is not pvc to be cardboard or is there a stronger material that would work just as good but be more durable? Thanks!

[Sethhope1]

A pdf would b very nice... i want real plans to build a pipe like this...

[TheTedd321]

Could I also have a PDF?

[issueagent]

Hi! Thanks for your information, how can I make a windchest?