Wind Chimes

What are Wind Chimes?

Wind chimes is a kind of musical instrument that is constructed from rods, bells, tubes & other items made up of either metal or wood. The tubes and rods of a wind chime are suspended with some weight or a surface such that the tubes or rods can strike with the weight or surface when wind blows.

Wind chimes are powered by the natural movement of outside air. These are usually hung outside houses as a visual and aural garden ornament.

Wind chimes are considered being chance-based music because the music from wind chimes is generated due to the random effects of wind.

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The tubes or rods may either produce the sound of indistinct pitches or nearly distinct pitches. Wind chimes that produce sound of fairly distinct pitches can create simple melodies through the movement of air.

How to Make a Wind Chime?

At first, let's try to know how to make chimes from leftover materials of other projects

Required Materials:

• Nylon string

• Aluminum tube

• Scrap wood (solid wood like MDF or plywood, so that when it gets wet, it will fall apart)

Tools Needed:

• Pencil

• Hack saw

• Jigsaw 

• Tape measure

• Sandpaper

• Scissors

• Drill

• Drill bit (it should be a little bigger than the thread)

Step 1:

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On the piece of wood, draw the shape of the top mount, the middle piece that chimes the aluminum, and the bottom piece of the windcatcher.

Once you have drawn out, cut the wood pieces out. You can use a jigsaw to do this.

With the help of a drill, create a hole at the center of the piece that chimes and make holes in the top mounting piece.

After making holes, take sandpaper, and clean everything down, and round all the edges, and corners. Make the wind chime as smoothly as you can, as a smooth one will last long.

Step 2:

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Next, you have to wipe down or wipe off all the wood by using a lint-free rag and remove the sawdust. Vacuum the pieces.

Grab a stain of your choice and stain the pieces. Brush on the pieces and then wait to wipe off.

Apply at least 2-3 coating of paint on pieces and then let them dry overnight.

Apply 2 to 3 coats once again and let them dry overnight.

Step 3:

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Take your time to cut the aluminum tubing while your pieces are drying. It is a shower curtain rod of aluminum. It has a diameter of about an inch, and its walls are thin so that it can produce a nice chime.

• Cut 6 pieces of aluminum curtain rod of different lengths. 

• Keep the lengths of aluminum to between 15 inches to 20 inches, 

• Each having a difference of one inch with consecutive rods.

• Once you have cut all the pieces, mark all of them at equal distances from the end of each pipe.

Step 4:

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Now, put all the pieces together.

Start by attaching the strings with the wooden piece. The strings hang the wind chime. You should cut 3 pieces of strings of about 10" long.

Further, tie a knot at the string's end through the top piece of wood to attach it with the wood. Also, tie a knot on the other side to fix it with the wood. See the image mentioned above to know better.

Step 5:

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In a new piece of string, tie a knot at one end and thread it through the piece of wood catcher.

Then at a distance of about 18' above that, tie a knot in the string to slide on a wood chime piece.

Tie another knot at about 12 inch from the piece and slide the top mount on.

Tie another knot to keep all the pieces in place.

Step 6:

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Cut 6 strings of equal lengths. You can cut a string of about 13.5" long so that the chimers will hang 6" below the top piece. (1 inch for the diameter of the pipe and a half-inch for the knots)

Tie a knot on the end of each string and pass it through one of the holes of the corner of the aluminum pipe and then through the whole of the wood piece. Use one more knot at the end of the wood piece to make it stable.

How to Build a Wind Chime?

Wind chimes are simple structures and are easy to make. All you need to do is suspend at least two objects in a place where wind flows frequently.

If you tie a piece of string with an empty milk jug, and tie another piece of string with a block of wood through a hole drilled in it, and then suspend both the milk jugs and the block a little apart from each other, such that they don't touch each other. 

Then the wind flow should make them come in contact with each other.

This is just a short description of how to make easy wind chimes, i.e., how to make a simple chime.

What are Wind Chimes Made of?

Aluminum is a widely used material to make wind chimes. Aluminum is used because of the clarity and volume of sound that it produces. 

Aluminum has high durability and is also weather resistant. Steel is also used to make chimes. Brass is also used to produce inimitable sound.