Steel Tube Chimes For Kids

I've been building chimes with my Grade 6 students for a few years now and they really are an excellent metal-working project. What i've found with metalwork is that its tough to come up with cool projects that young kids can actually make and have real success with. Most of the typical metal projects are not of interest to many kids or they are really tough to make...  The chimes really appeal to the kids and many are motivated to build them as gifts for mom or dad.

This instructable is setup for a teacher so in the steps i'll talk about the sections as they would appear from class to class with your students. I'll throw in lots of tips and tricks that i've learned (the hard way) so that your kids will have success!

Learning Objectives:
-The students will learn and apply measuring using the fractional scale.
-Once measuring is mastered the students will use it to construct a project.
-The student shall learn to safely use files, hacksaw and the drill press.
-The student will learn than use the method required to safely hammer shape sheet aluminum.
-The student shall demonstrate the safe use of aviation snips with sheet aluminum.

Materials: (per student)
-About 3 feet of 1/2" ID 1/16" wall steel pipe.
-A 5" square piece of thin aluminum...about 20 Guage
-A piece of 3" by 5" piece of thin aluminum.
-A 1" square piece of wood... hard wood is best.
-6' of strong string.
-2 small beads.

Tools:
-Hacksaw.
-Files... smooth flat and smooth small round.
-Centerpunch and hammer.
-Drill press with 1/8" drill bit.
-Aviation snips.
-Hammers with concave form made of wood. (details later)

Vocabulary:
-wave length
-resonance
-tune
-aluminum
-steel

Submitted by HD Stafford Middle School  for the Instructables Sponsorship Program

Step 1 Cutting Out The Tube

Pull out your basic steel tube. I use the cheap stuff with a 1/2" I.D. and a 1/16" wall. Clamp it in the vice. I show the kids how important it is to clamp the spot you'll do the cutting at close to the vice so it doesn't screech and howl. Demonstrate how this sounds. They like horrible noises.

Refer to the table i've included with the notes, cutting lengths and drill points. Explain to the kids that the chimes sound best with different length tubes. I always have a kid or two who is a musician so i ask which 3 notes sound good together and write them on the board... even better, ask the student to write the notes on the board. ENABLE the kiddies I say... :-)

The hacksaw is the next tool you need.  Make sure you teach the kids about hacksawing... I find that they tend to do a couple of things that make it tough...
-They CRAM the saw in. Tell them to almost lift the saw so the teeth just float over the surface.
-They use just a tiny bit of the blade... teach them to use the whole blade from end to end. This will help with the next common problem...
-Kids have a tough time keeping the saw straight. They need to make sure that they hold the handle in the hand they write with and not stand to the side of the saw... Keeping the blade straight up and down perpendicular to the workpiece.

Once you've cut out one piece show the kids how to measure the hanging point. Now is a really good time to demonstrate how important the hanging point is... Just hold the pipe exactly on the hanging mark you made and tap it with a piece of steel. It should resonate and sound really good. Now move your fingers down about 1/2" and tap again. It should sound really flat and terrible. The kids love this!

Get the kids to cut out 3 pipes and mark the hanging point with a sharpie.

Demonstrate using the flat smooth file to remove all the burrs. Use a smooth rat-tail file to smooth the insides. 

Comments

[Dream Dragon]

Excellent looking project, thanks for sharing it.

Do you use anything OTHER than steel?

Brass, Copper, Aluminium etc might sound different, but may not work at all, what do you think?

[unclesam]

stumitch, glad to see you are suspending the pipes at a node point. It is also a good idea to suspend the pipes in a way that the suspension strings cannot touch the upper ends of the pipes above the support hole. If the string touches, it will damp the sound. You also get a more pure and longlasting tone if you suspend the pipes such that each will be struck by the clapper at its lengthwise midpoint. That will mean that the tops of the pipes will be at different heights. The pipe vibrates microscopically into the shape of a parenthesis, back and forth, and hitting in the middle maximizes the transfer of energy to the pipe.
Unclesam

[stumitch]

Excellent points! I'll use the idea of how it vibrates and change it so the kids will need to organize the pipes so they all hit in the middle!
thanks for the comments!
-stu

[Mojo_JoJo]

This is music to my ears :-) I have been using one that I made for several years now. I hung mine off a CD and hung an old shiny hard disk platter in the middle to catch the wind (the sail). The pipes I got from the roof from an old broken TV antenna.

[stumitch]

The old CD idea is great! i think i've seen some instructables that show good methods for cutting CD's... that would make an excellent addition to shape the sail, recycle and have the color of the CD. good idea! thanks!
-stu

[maximzodal]

Very impressive! IMHO, the best example in the Teacher Contest!

In addition to the objectives you lay out, it opens all kinds of inquiries for the students as to what is going on, from the type of metal, steel vrs. aluminum, what difference varying the diameters of tubing will make, tube wall thickness, even some physics (why the hanging point is important), why certain combinations of musical notes are pleasing, etc.

In my experience, some of the kids will invariably want to go way beyond the scope of this project on their own. If so, they may find the yahoo windchime group interesting:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/windchimeconstruction/

[stumitch]

THANKS! i really appreciate the great feedback! i'll add the yahoo group to the instructable if thats okay...
-stu

[Foxtrot70]

WOW! This is a great project for Grade 6. The more advanced students could be taken to the next level and construct a Westminister Door Chime set controlled via Arduino chipset.

[stumitch]

YA! i still need to get into Arduino (picaxe guy) but that would be really cool.

[Foxtrot70]

I just got into Arduino myself with no prior knowledge and very little help. It took me 9 months off and on to get a handle on it. They are very interesting controllers that can control anything and I mean anything.

[mshield]

Beautifully documented. Thank you.

[stumitch]

Thanks!

[skiedra]

Very well documented. As usual :) . It is nice to see your 100% featured rating.

[stumitch]

thanks! its a perfect project for grade 6 metalworking kids.