De Muziek Machine

The 'Muziek Machine' (Music Machine) is a machine made for kids, by slapping the top of the PVC tubes, you can make sound. As the tubes are all different lengths, you create different notes. We are staying at the standard: DO,RE,MI,FA,SOL,LA,SI,DO. We also made an adjusted notebook, especially for the kids!

Our prototype is different from our eventual machine, I will explain how to build our prototype and then what changes you have to make for the real thing!

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5 fibreboards 800*1000 mm

8 PVC tubes, 400*50 mm

12 brackets

2 * 300 at 40 mm beams to make the cross

M5 screws and bolts with accompanying roundels

=> Lots of them

First chamfer 3 of the five (1000 mm sides) boards under a 30° corner, as you can see on the first picture.

For the two others, just turn around your board to get your corners like the second picture.

We also treated these corners with some casual wood glue, this to ensure the corners won’t break off easily.

Drill 8 holes with a drill bit, size 50mm. Do this on the middle boards. Properly align the holes.

Drill about 6 holes alongside the two 800 mm sides. Align them properly with the brackets.

Arrange the boards in a hexagon with 120° corners.

Fasten everything with the screw, bolts and roundels.

The wooden beams can now be fastened to the brackets as well. Don't forget to first chamfer the beams like in the 2nd picture!

We are making two interlocking crosses, saw your external lines away like in the picture, make sure you go to the middle of the beam!. Then gently hack it piece by piece until you reach the middle, sand it a bit if it’s not perfect.

Do the same to the other 3 beams. You can now attach them, we put in some extra screws just to be safe.

Once this is done, you can pull it up straight.

First start by cutting your tubes to the right length, I put in a file so you can see which length is needed to get to which note. You can put as many corners and bends as you like to make it look cool on the inside. Just make sure the length stays the same!

The corners will be used to get the slapping surface straight, that makes it easier for the kids.

Paint the top of the corners so you can set a colour to each note.

The corners will be put on the outside, slide it into the other components, glue them with some PVC glue, then glue the tubes to the board. Make sure they are all perfectly aligned.

You can put bigger tubes on the back to get a bass drum. Some good old duct tape, will do the job just fine!

Add decoration as you like it, transform the entire thing into a giant ladybug, or keep it simple, make a music note template and paint some on the walls of the machine.

Don't forget to make your notebook! I have put some pictures as example for you.

For starters, the real thing has only been drawn in Siemens NX, with a bit of luck, you'll see it in a month or two!

The hexagon will be closed, that is why we need an extra board. This also implies that the chamfers we have to make are all the same.

We will also need a big board, about, 1600*1400 mm, and two of those, this to ensure the stability of the construction. With a simple jigsaw, you can cut out the exact measurements we need.

The two interlocking crosses disappear, these are being replaced for T-Profiles that come around the entire construction. These profiles are available in the store, the only thing you need to do is to chamfer them like all the boards. The 6 separate profiles will have to be welded together insuring a great fix.

Now drill all the holes necessary in your boards, measure the holes on the sides by placing the profiles on your board and mark the board.

All there is left to do is assembling it all, like before, do it on the ground, once everything is in place, pull it up!

For more playtime pleasure, just make it bigger, let's say 2 x bigger?

Put in all the PVC pipes like before, gluing them, cornering them, do what you like with them!

As you see, we chose to anchor the entire thing into the ground, we chose a simple T-Anchor, also available in stores. This to make sure the entire thing won't fly away with heavy winds.

Have Fun!