How to Make a PVC Pipe Organ

Buying a whole marimba can be expensive! But why waste the money when you can make your own pipe organ from simple items in your home. Soon enough you'll be playing your very own music from a home made instrument. That's pretty cool!

• 60+ feet of PVC Pipe 2 inches in diameter (The more the better because cutting them the exact length is hard.
• Tuner or pitch pipe (some way to test whether or not the notes are correct)
• Saw (Preferably a buzzsaw but a hand saw will work if you can cut them with enough precision)
• Drill
• Screws
• Four 3 X 12 pieces of wood
• Four 1 X 3 pieces of wood
• Flip flops or Ping Pong paddles (for the paddles used to hit the pipe

You can use as much pipe as you want for as many octaves as you want. For my pipe organ I only used two octaves in order to conserve space. Octaves 3 and 4. There is a simple equation to help you figure out what length each pipe should be. Tube length (in)= (13300/2*Frequency of note)+(tube diameter/2)

This is a good link to tell you the different note frequencies:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_key_frequencies

Use a sharpie to mark where to cut each of the different pipe lengths for the PVC. Then use a saw to cut where the line is drawn.

Lay three pieces of wood out like this

Drill the top piece of wood into the two side pieces of wood like this

Repeat steps 4 and 5. At the end you should be able to put both finished pieces on top of each other evenly as shown.

Drill a piece of wood to the bottom of one of the bases. This will give the structure more support but it is optional.

Drill a small piece of wood on the side of both structures across the middle. This will keep them together

Continue drilling these small pieces of wood across the middle of the two bases. Make sure that the distance between each piece of wood is enough to fit a piece of PVC pipe. It's better for the pipe to be a tight fit than a loose fit.

Your final base should look like this. Put the PVC pipes in the order shown in the picture above.

Drill holes in the PVC pipe and put bolts through them. Put the pipe in the holes and let them hang from the bolts.

Enjoy playing your new PVC pipe instrument