Making Wind Chimes

I love to make simple instruments. A while ago I made several sets of chimes. One was a regular chromatic scale and the other was a strange just intonation concoction of my own devising. To make the chimes I used the following formula to calculate their length:

L2 = L1 * Square Root(F1/F2)

Where:
L2 is the length to which you'll have to cut the next bar.
L1 is the length of your "reference" bar;
F1 is the note it plays (in Hertz frequency)
F2 is the note you want the next bar to play. ( Also in Hertz frequency)

With a metal cutting blade for my circular saw and a grinder (for fine tuning), I made over 30 chimes for the two sets of pipes. You can do the same with these tools or with a hacksaw and a file (which will take a little longer to fine tune). The pipes I used were cheap electrical conduit pipes that you find at the home hardware store. They sound wonderful.

I suggest cutting the pipes a little long so that you can grind down to the correct pitch. You can take away, but you can't add back to the pipe! You can tune by ear, but I'd suggest using a free online chromatic tuner.

I made simple beaters (that work great) out of quarter inch dowels and little wooden wheels (from the craft store).

To hang your chimes, hold the chime between you thumb and forefinger and strike the chime. Move your fingers down the chime gradually, restriking as you go. When you find the spot where it sounds the best (called a node), mark it and drill a hole at this point. You can also find this spot by measuring the the pipe and drilling at 22.4 percent of the length from either end.

These types of chimes have been used by people for modern compositions, wind chimes, children's choirs and family gatherings.

Happy chiming!