couple pics/thoughts

this is dad and I ripping a piece of oak.you can see the dust in the air.

the second of two trees in front of our house: the other one fell down, and is now part of my marimba.

The new, smaller video's

These two actually work. the first one is solely sanding, the second is the better one, with an example of the sound.

it is much easier to upload a 6 megabyte file. the previous one was 63.

a couple video's

the top bar is recycled oak from a tree that was falling over in our yard, and the bottom is a spare slice of padauk. the oak will be the wood I use for the frame. I like the contrast between these two woods.

these are just a couple short videos I made because I got very bored tuning:

a few thoughts:

• sanding was fun, but got very tedious.
• I really enjoyed working with grandpa. 
• dad's jointer it horribly bad at staying square.
• i think when this is over I will never get all the red dust out of my ears.
• padouk smells strangely good.
• oak + padouk = stunning marimba.
• video's take a LOOOOOOOOONG time to upload.
• mallets are easy and fun to make, provided you don't accidentally snap the needle.

it is a good idea to make 4 of each type of mallet, two for each hand.

I will shrink the video, and try to upload it tmrw.

mallets, and first bar

yesterday a few days ago I wrapped the first pair of mallets. it was easier than I thought it would be, so I think i will make a second pair of mallets with harder cores. as well, I tuned the first bar of the marimba, C6. over the last couple of days I borrowed a planer from a member of my grandpa's carving club, and with his assistance at first, used it:

the dial on the side will make the internal blades raise or lower.

Grandpa hands me an unplaned key, and I feed them through. note the extreme amount of dust; it is impossible to breathe without the mask.

before planing

after planing

drilling a hole in a rubber ball, the first part of making a mallet

the ball next to a bar for size reference

rubber bouncyballs are 1.25 for 12 at the dollar store.

everything else I need to make mallets

two completed mallets

the bar tuning testing station

seven bars; one days work.

15 bars; the rest of the whole tones

it looks messier than it is. this is the workshop that I have been spending my holiday in.

this is the reason I have not yet drowned in red dust.

more roughly tuned bars. 

sanding.

crowning a mallet; the red ones are with rubber cores, and the blue ones are with wooden balls.

sanding on the spindle.