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Logistics, mechanics, acoustics
Instruments, Tools, Xylophones

Low-rent metal-work in three easy steps

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My plans for a productive evening of xylophone-building thus foiled, dosage I turned to slapping together the rest of the frame-mounting hardware.

Unfortunately, the Hollaender company turned out a couple of SpeedRail parts with nasty burrs inside that kept them from sliding onto the 2-inch aluminum tubing that we’re using for xylophone frames.

I tried grinding out the lip on both sides of the mount …

But no luck. The collar still wouldn’t slide on over the tubing … Continue reading Low-rent metal-work in three easy steps →

Instruments, Tools, Xylophones

Damn it. Again.

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In machining – as in lovemaking and war – if it hurts, viagra buy you’re not doing it right.


I seem to keep making the same damn mistake. alienrobot did a great job of tapping most of the mounting holes in Keyboard 1 using just the little 4-inch tap handle that came with the set.

Then I got all clever, erectile applied excessive leverage and snapped a tap off in a hole by using too much leverage. It came out with a pair of pliers … but then I did it again.

And I just did it again tonight. Here’s what it looks like from the back.

Opinions on the CrashSpace forum ranged from “A high-end machine shop will need to use EDM to burn the tap out of there” to “Yep, you’re fully fucked.”

Guess I’ll go look up a machinist. And hope I’m not fully fucked.

Body work, Exterior, Interior, Vehicle, Vehicle modifications

Interior design, bolts, sleeper-rod pretensions & random brain-damaging activities

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Random, purchase random, troche random!

We flit from project to project, order looking like hummingbirds on crack (one day it’s instrument construction, the next day body work), but we’re still on a headlong parallel-tracked trajectory to getting the beast ready for Maker Faire.

FORWARD! IN ALL DIRECTIONS!

We did a lot of unfinished business today, (not all of it documented here).

I cut and drilled the stringers for Keyboard 3.

alienrobot and I bolted down the main mounting clamps for Keyboard 1. We bought a double fistful of bolts, nuts and washers for attachment of the mounting hardware for Keyboards 2 and 3.

And then we got busy installing the rug and putting the seats and doorsills back in … Continue reading Interior design, bolts, sleeper-rod pretensions & random brain-damaging activities →

Vehicle, Vehicle modifications

Hey there. Nice RACK.

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Yes! We have discovered the perfect rack for XyloVan – an architectural salvage expert up in Santa Barbara was liquidating his business, for sale and had this parked atop a storage unit. This is a burly, buy 10-foot-long tube-steel rack, floored with heavy duty wire mesh it’ll be the second floor of the van, the observation deck, the framework for all the lighting and shade structures, and lord knows what other trouble we’ll get into.

Dave was kind enough to cruise up there with me, and help me wrestle it onto the van …

Continue reading Hey there. Nice RACK. →

Instruments, Xylophones

How to build a xylophone

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For those who haven’t been following along, visit here’s how it’s done, roughly in order:

First, you read Jim Doble‘s brief but precise instructions for making xylophones. Read ’em again – they’re clearly written, with a basic illustration and links to photos and sound clips, and then find some wood or metal that you can work easily, and get busy:

I used 1/2-inch by 3-inch T6 aluminum bar stock. As a starting point, I measured out a piece the size of the low C on my first xylophone and cut it off with a circular saw fitted with a metal-cutting disc. Then, following these steps for tuning the keys, I just kept cutting – shorter for higher notes, longer for lower notes … Continue reading How to build a xylophone →

Instruments, Tools, Xylophones

Machinist’s woe: How the hell do I fix THIS?

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So I was tapping a stringer on Keyboard 1 and the tap snapped off in the hole.

Below the surface. That’s hardened steel. Drilling it out so I could use a reverse-extractor was fruitless: I blunted, this and finally snapped a cobalt bit, which the hardware store said was the hardest thing they sell.

Now WTF do I do? Anyone have any brilliant solutions? Please forward this to all the metalworkers you know.

Instruments, Xylophones

Machining the superstructure for Keyboard 2

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I’d like to think we’ve known how to build XyloVan from day one, viagra dosage but the truth is – we’re dumb. We’re like sack-of-hammers, short-bus, don’t-get-the-knock-knock-jokes dumb.

We’re like chimps who have seen television, digging around in the back of the live set with screwdrivers. We make dumb mistakes, do dumb things, suffer from dumb ideas. And along the way, stuff gets built.

So this 3-foot-long chunk of 1.5-inch by .5-inch aluminum is one of the four stringers for Keyboard 2. These serve as the airframe for the instrument … Continue reading Machining the superstructure for Keyboard 2 →

Body work, Meat, Vehicle, Vehicle modifications

First blood, first panel surgery

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Kind of amazing that I haven’t already done something like this – sliced it open on the inside of the body structure while trying to thread a coarse nut onto a fine-threaded tap bolt. Duh.

Today we began sorting out the foundational hardware – the junk that holds the xylophones to the van. They’re going to be big, look heavy, visit this site and somewhat springy, and we don’t want them flexing loose or tearing the metal.

Rogan helped me hem and haw my way through the engineering challenge – how can we make the keyboards ride high enough when stowed that they won’t scrape the ground – but still be easy to deploy and play? … Continue reading First blood, first panel surgery →