A huge thanks. A true pro makes things look easy as you do here. I've wanted to see violin pipes being made for decades, (hugely curious), and for me, a better video class in the process couldn't exist. I actually get it! Thank you again.
What a lovely and insightful thing to share. Thank you so much. (My favorite part was watching you wipe glue on your leg, apron, bench etc. It reminded me of my father repacking a bearing with grease)
16:00. That jig has provided an ingenious answer to one of my many head-scratching moments as I develop my plans to build an organ of my own. Thanks for sharing. :-)
Thank you so much for sharing this! I am just beginning a W-105 build and it's very helpful to see pipe construction, and especially the tuning. I hope you might consider doing a similar video with a trumpet pipe.
Thanks for sharing your video, Bruce. There are lots a neat ideas here and of course, your finished work looks impeccable. But...and I'm really sorry there's got to be a "but"... How you make the upper lip bevel is unsafe. *Never* do *anything* freehand on the table-saw, especially with the blade standing 3 inches proud of the table. Oh, sure...it's a small piece, I've got this backing-block...I'm in complete control. What could go wro... SCREE! SCREE! SCREE! A bird comes streaking in through the open window of your shop, hell bent for the Coast, with a hawk in hot pursuit. Right past your head. You jump, and...well, dammitall anyway! I sure was ...ah...attached to those fingers... Think something like that couldn't happen? It did in my shop, about ten years ago--and the head they flew past was mine. In the event, I was only working at the bench, so my only risk was...like, maybe a heart attack?! But I like to think if I or one of my people had been at a machine, the setup would have saved them from injury. It's not enough to make accidents unlikely, you have to make them impossible. I say this in all humility, Bruce, believe me. Because this old organbuilder learned the hard way: the machine never asks, "Ummm, buddy, is this really what you have in mind?" OK, enough ranting. Now, tocompensate for my preaching with something positive, here are a couple of suggestions The safe way to make such a chamfer on the saw is to move the fence to the left of the blade. Set your angle, saw out a zero-clearance strip the thickness of your work-piece, and fix it to the fence with double-backed tape; or tack it to the table insert with a couple of little finishing nails. Feed the work-piece vertically, using a chaser-board thick and wide enough to completely cover the saw-blade until you're out the other side. Alternatively, perhaps easier, is to make a jig to hold the work-piece at the desired angle--a simple U-box with second, false bottom that pivots at the far end. Set your angle, pin the false bottom in place, clamp the work-piece to it, and pass a router on the two rails above. Piece of cake!
While I am, by no means, done watching your channel or going to unsubscribe, this is exactly the video I've been waiting for and asked for in the past. I appreciate that this video is less about detail and more about technique and gives good fundamental knowledge on the process. Am I going to run off and make a pipe? Not yet. (Got to work at getting my butt into the shop and completing the player I'm working on.) But very inspirational and fuels some of the ideas I have for future projects. Thank you!
Hola Daniel! Gracias por tus palabras tiernas y tu apoyo :) Fuimos a Chile hacen unos meses pero no alcanzo el tiempo para visitar a Buenos Aires. Algun dia me gustaria conocer Argentina.
que lastima ,no podes dejar de venir la proxima vez.yo estoy en la feria de san telmo de anticuarios desde ya 30 años asi que ya sabes nos encontraremos ,saludos
Hi, thank you very much for the video! I'm German organ builder myself and the video is just great to show the audience how much work is just on one single (wooden) pipe, knowing how many pipes an organ got and also how big they can be (the smaller make more work in detail, the big ones are just unhandy). Im just wondering why the toe is not a compound with the wind chamber as one piece of wood (sorry for my english, i hope you got what i mean). I have seen it many times in church organs like that and it makes the work easier, also easier to glue and you can even turn the toe with the complete pipe in the lathe. Or is it unhandy - or Wurlitzer made it exactly like you did? Thanks in advance!
+Olafko Hi, I'm glad you find the video useful! Yes I've seen some European pipes with toes that are made by extending the pipe body then turning the the toe by inserting the whole pipe into a lathe. The method I demonstrate in the video is the way Wurlitzer did it but I also like this technique because I can be much more accurate this way. Also the end result is a toe made of a single piece of wood rather than several pieces glued together.
I love everything you do! Does the vacuum pressure have to be reversed to play through a pipe or other wind instrument? The last part of your video suggests that they work "in reverse."
The bevel length changes from note to note - it's not a fixed measurement. Whatever pipe scale you're using will specify the length of the bevel. It's typically somewhere between 1X to 2X the width of the front of the pipe.
Thanks, really enjoy your, more then helpful, videos. Very inspiring. I'm in the process of deciding on the Senior 20 or Universal. It'll be the only one I'll be making, so I'm thinking, why not pull out all the stops and go for it! I've done some rather technical project, so I'm confident I can handle it. Check out some of my projects at lumberjocks.com/tallshipsailor/projects. Thanks again for your inspiration!
Estan chulos de bonitos esos tubos mi estimado, y el sonido!!! DIsculpe usted, un "Band organ" es uno de esos organos que van en un carro y traen un tambor y platillos y que tocan con un rollo de papel o un secuenciador MIDI?
1. I don’t think his workshop is big enough to hold the pipe even horizontally, and 2. The lumber needed to build one pipe in that octave is probably about the same amount needed to build a tiny house. There are only two 64’ stops in the world: one in a town hall organ in Australia (which I think is a reed stop) and the other in the Atlantic City Convention Hall Main Auditorium Organ (which is a diaphone). The latter stop was actually literally constructed in the building (in the chamber) and each pipe was hoisted into place using rigging. It is probably impossible to remove these pipes from their chamber without dismantling them. I have no idea how the big tuba/trombone pipes in the other organ were built / installed.
Those pipes are also considered so low in pitch as to be practically musically useless. 32’ stops are at least audible (even though some notes sound more like a helicopter hovering), and a few other musical instruments do make notes in the 32’ octave.
Great work, but where do you get the patience. All that work for just one pipe - wow!. But, how do you get the 'string' tone from a wood pipe. I thought most wood pipes were 'flutes'? Thanks for the vid!
Hi - yes it takes a lot of patience and time to build pipes. Wood can be used for just about any type of pipe that you might see more commonly made of metal - even trumpet pipes. For wood violins, the key is the narrow scaling of the pipe, the low cut-up of the mouth and the brass frein which guides the air sheet over the mouth preventing the pipe from overblowing.
+DuoArtOrgan I think I get it (sort of). I would love to be able to build an organ, but I can still remember from my high school days when we had to do 'woodworking' and I built a snall drawer chest. The teacher's 'oh dear' still haunts me! But, your work is fantastic and admirable. I'm very jealous of your skills, but I know I would never be able to do that. Sigh! Thanks again!
Ciao, a me piacerebbe sapere anche come si costruiscono gli altri tipi di canne per organo, in particolare quelle che riproducono il suono del sax e delle trombe. È possibile?
Hi - yes I've had a few requests to make a video on building trumpet and other reed pipes. My next project involves building several sets of pipes for a Mortier dance organ so if I have time, I'll make a video.
what wood do you use to make the parts for the pipe because I want to make a pipe but I don't know which wood is best to use hopefully you have an answer to this
I’ve heard of wooden band and street organ pipes made out of maple, cherry, beech(?), alder(?), poplar(?) and probably a few other types of generally hardwood. Perhaps pine might have been used for some large bass pipes (to cut down on weight), but be careful using any softwoods as those are most easily attacked and eaten by termites aka “woodworm”. I know of a large fairground organ whose softwood case was mostly eaten by termites (as well as a couple of the softwood channel dividers in the windchest and one of the softwood pipe risers for the facade pipes), but whose pipes were largely left intact, most likely because they are made of harder wood (also, the organ was ‘rescued’ from bad storage conditions twice in its life, which probably also halted the termites from making further progress), although an entirely new case had to be built.
Im making a rank of cello pipes and a celeste for them myself and am about to start crating the sides and fronts of the pipes. this is very helpful! Also do you have any detailed pictures of the tuning slot? I can't get a clear image on how to make them for my cello pipes.
I use a small bit on my router table to make a cut in each side piece about .030" deep and about .075" wide. I'm away from my shop until the end of the month and don't have any detailed pics on this computer.
Oh okay then. Thanks for telling me. Also would it be possible to purchase around 100 Frein Harmoniques from you? With the limited tools and limited experience working on metal, I have not had much luck making a decent one in the past week.
This has a lot of good information but I find it frustrating that the person operating the camera can't keep the important view framed or get close enough to see exactly what is happening. For example, at 16:53 when you are measuring something with the dial indicator, you don't clearly explaining what you are doing and the camera isn't framed well for some time. Drawing a diagram on paper would help explain what is going on. The camera operator is MADDENING! Never shows you adjusting tuning at top of pipe at 36:00!!!
+Chopy 61 There are a few sets of band organ plans you can often find on Ebay and probably other places. You can also look for a copy of Doyle Lane's band organ scale book.
Yes I have this book and it is indeed called Wurlitzer Band Organ Pipe Scales. I *think* it may be available as a PDF in the “Members Only” section of the AMICA website, but not positive. That book was published in the 1980s and I think copyrighted, but since Mr Lane passed away in the early 2000s or so I think the copyright has lapsed. Not positive and an curious. It’s a fairly thin book with a comb ring binding, and only occasionally found for sale online, but keep looking for it. The scale drawings / measurements themselves, scaled down, are from the original factory scale boards found mouldering in Ralph Tussing’s basement in North Tonawanda, and Ralph, who along with his family had worked for the Wurlitzer company (some of his family also worked for North Tonawanda and Artizan), had gotten these items from Wurlitzer, along with the two remaining roll perforators and band organ master rolls (which came from Wurlitzer to Allan Herschell Co. about 1945), when they phased out their band organ department. It’s NOT (unfortunately) scales for ALL DeKleist/Wurlitzer models, only mainly those produced after 1916 or so such as the 103; 104/105/106; 125; 145/146; 148/150(I *think*); 153; 157; 165; 180; and Caliola. This is only measurements for wood flue (flute, diapason and violin) pipes, and not for the reed pipes nor brass piccolos I *think*. But still a very useful book. The boards were used by builders in the factory to pick off the relevant measurements for each pipe using a set of calipers. Amazing this still exists, if even only for the most common 1913-1929 or so models (which to be fair accounted for like 2,000 organs, including most of the surviving originals). Some seldom built or one off organs like the 162/163 (only 1 ever built); 164/168/175 (only 5 ever built); the 166 (only 2 ever built), and the “65 note piano roll organ” (only 1 ever built) are not included, nor are early 1910-1919 styles the 126 (9 built) or 147 (58 built), but by and large nearly every other 125, 150 and 165 roll organ is included.
OMG...I feel faint seeing you use that machine so (seemingly) unsafely....@ 2:11 etc......I know you are good at it...but it's scary looking.... Otherwise...a very good tutorial...Thanks....JRZ
Such a great task and so bad video recording! It is terrible, how the cameraman can't manage the camera! We could look at the master's knee, or the completely out-of-focus parts, for a long time.