Automatic Tubular Bells

Step 2 The three towers

After cutting the bars to the proper length, I had to construct a support to hang them. I made some sketchs, and finally built these three towers you can see in the pictures. I hung four chimes on each tower passing a nylon wire through the holes I did near the top and the bottom of each chime. I had to drill holes on the top and the bottom because it was necessary to fix chimes on both sides to avoid they oscillate without control when being struck by the sticks. The precise distance to place the holes was a delicate matter and they had to coincide with the two nodes of vibration of the fundamental frequency of the bar, which are at 22.4% from the top and the bottom. This nodes are the no-movement points when the bars oscillates at it's fundamental frequency, and fixing the bar at these points should not affect them when vibrating. I also added 4 screws on the top of each tower to allow adjusting the tension of each chime's nylon wire.