On build day, the group brought the materials to Kettering Labs on a sleepy Saturday morning. To make the instrument, the group started cutting a test piece of PVC. From this inital test piece, a tuned guitar was used to match the pitch of "A". This proved to be difficult, but was manageable with a guitar tuner's aid. A picture of the tuning can be seen below.
Once we had the "A" tuned tube, then the other tube lengths could be determined from the sound-wave equation. We set up an excel list that specified the different notes based on lengths and frequency. After determining the proper lengths, all of the pieces of PVC were cut to length. The two pictures below show the measurement and cutting of the PVC pipes.
The Cut PVC was labeled for later so that we wouldn't lose or forget which pipe contained which pitch. E, D#,C#,B,A,G#, and F# were all made from the PVC. These pipes can be seen below.
Now that the pipes are designed and cut, the group needs to build the frame for the instrument out of wood. Once the pipes are housed, music needs to be written and practiced to make sure that the instrument performs well.
That's all for now.
