Music Box II

Encouraged by the success of my first music box, and inspired by the awesome wooden pipe organ of Raphi Giangiulio, Music Box II - a.k.a.Zebrapipe - is probably the most ambitious project I’ve ever tackled. I’ve worked on this for almost a year now, and I think I still have a long way to go.

This music box is a mechanized pipe organ, with 33 notes (2-1/2 full octaves), and plays one-minute tunes.

The “clockworks” turns the drum, and powers a double-acting three-bellows air supply system, which pressurizes the “air chest” (the 2x4-looking part across the front, with all the holes in it). The revolving drum actuates the keys, which open valves inside the air chest, which blows air through the (yet-unfinished) pipes, which then sing. Simple, huh? …and all made of wood, leather and brass.

The drum is designed to be removable/interchangeable, so it could play any song. (All I have to do is design and build another drum…as if !). For now, it’s going to play (all my friends guessed it) Hello, Mr. Zebra by Tori Amos.

And yes, that is chrysler, my faithful companion, sticking her pink nose in the picture.

And, yes, I’m still plugging away at this thing!

Back View

In this back view, you can see the spring-powered “clockworks”, the “Watt” fly-ball governor, the bellows system, and the drum. (as well as that ugly oil stain on the case. yikes!)
The drum is made of 33 individual “wheels”. Unlike a conventional music box, the pipe organ can control the note duration (whole note, half-note, quarter-note, etc) and volume. The width of the “teeth” on these discs = the note duration (how long the valve is open); and the height = the volume (how deeply the valve is opened).

The Pipes

These will all go across the front, in that top picture.

This is the part that’s almost killed me! Each one of these 33 pipes has about 20 individual pieces - each pipe of different dimensions; and some of these pieces have to be accurate to a few thousandths of an inch! Not to mention the final “voicing” and tuning required.
So far, I have almost 300 hours in these babies.
They’d better sound sweet.