Any project that produces sound mechanically or electronically — xylophones, glockenspiels, organ components, MIDI‑driven devices, or hybrid acoustic/electronic builds.
I acquired a bunch of pipes from the decommissioned organ from Trinity First Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. Most of the pipes are in such bad condition that I'm using them for lumber or other projects.
Information on this organ lives in the Pipe Organ List here: MNMplsTrinityFirstLutheran
I acquired several pipes from this historic organ. The organ is still alive and well and resides at the Henry Ford Residence in Dearborn, MI. Here's details about the organ: Opus 1318 - Henry Ford Residence, Dearborn, MI
The whole house as well as the organ has undergone a massive restoration, resulting in replacing a good number of the pipes.
And... I happened to see this one listed on eBay! I'm pretty certain that it's the same instrument as the base bellows unit I have. I thought it was great to see this, so I snatched the pictures. Here's the eBay description, probably AI generated:
Antique Wooden Hand-Crank Organette / Roller Organ Tabletop Music Box
Antique tabletop hand-crank organette housed in a wooden case with decorative gold stencil accents. Measures approximately 12" x 9" x 5" and bears stamped number 13291.
These are views of the Thomas Orchestra Bells as I received the instrument. I was disappointed by the synthetic casework, but discussing it with other folks it made sense for a mass-produced object from Thomas Organ Company. The design is super simple with a row of solenoids below the tone bars. It didn't use return springs, relying on gravity to drop the striker back into the coil.
I was lucky to find this Thomas Orchestra Bells organ module on eBay, but I was unhappy with the condition of the case. I also wanted a glockenspiel to go with the street organ, so I rebuilt it and arranged the tone bars the same way as the melody pipes.
Making pipes was a learning experience for me -- settling on materials and construction methods, etc. I learned to just do it carefully according to instructions before experimenting with the design and construction. The folks who have made pipes historically, including John Smith, do things for reasons. They've gone through the trial and error so I might as well learn from them. In addition, it's really important to be careful and neat. Angles, dimensions, and joints all matter so slow down for precision.
I got this very cheap on eBay. It's clearly not very pretty, but all the bars are there. I salvaged the maple bars and built a whole new instrument for them.
One of the early iterations. I tried suspending the bars above the resonator box with wire, as an "improvement" to the string suspension it had originally. I learned a whole bunch from this experiment, including the idea that I painted myself into a corner laying the bars out with so little room between them. I was building the frame from scratch so there was no reason to try to squish it all together.