Wind Chimes

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Expiremental Wind Chimes

This is the first wind chime I built using 3/4" copper pipe. The chime tubes are tuned to a C7 chord (C, E, G and Bb). The wind catcher is a CD so it becomes a sun catcher too, and the wood support plate and striker are 1/2" poplar. It has a quite pleasant musical sound in a light breeze.
In the subsequent versions of this wind chime (the kits the children would assemble) the support plate is routed with a ogee edge and the striker is rounded on the edges. Both wood pieces are sealed with colonial maple varnish stain.

Wimd Chime Instructions

Click image for a more readable and printable image.

This is a page of instructions for building the wind chimes. I was asked to help with a workshop for children at the Pacifica Winter Arts Festival, so the first step for me was to learn how to build a wind chime. After some research and experimentation, this little wind chime was the one we would use. The plan was to put together the wind chimes as kits so the children could build them at the festival. The wood parts were prepared and the copper tubes cut to length, drilled and tuned to the four notes (the C7 chord) that I chose for practical and personal reasons. The instruction sheet goes with the kit.

Click here for the Support Plate diagram.

Wimd Chime Oscilloscope Trace

Here is an oscilloscope trace of a wind chime tube as I was testing the frequencies for the musical notes. The trace makes a nice sine wave and the time interval shows .73 ms (milliseconds) per division. Frequency equals 1 divided by the time in seconds so this tube is sounding at 1,396 Hz, almost right on for the F note I'm looking for. This tube is in a set of four. The notes the chime tubes make are F, A, C and Eb for a F7 chord.

The 4 note windchime

Here is the wind chime shown at the top of this page but with the finishing touches applied. The support cap has a routed edge, the striker has rounded edges and both are sealed with varnish stain. Also, this picture was taken in daylight.

Click image to hear the music of the windchime.
(2MB Wav file)

The 5 note windchime

This wind chime has five chime tubes made with aluminum tubing (old tent poles). They are tuned to the notes C, D, E, F, and G so the sound is quite different from the four tube chime. It sounds a bit like church bells. The support plate is the shape of a pentagon.

Click image to hear the music of the windchime.
(2MB Wav file)

Wimd Chime Kit Parts

This picture is of the windchime kit, showing all the parts, ready to be assembled.

Here is the windchime assembly rack at the Pacifica Winter Arts Festival. We were able to build two windchimes at one time. First the support plate was strung and suspended from the rack at a good workable height. The children then tied the remaining parts; chime tubes, striker and wind catcher to the plate. They learned to tie some new knots and to tie the parts in just the right place to make an attractive and musical windchime.