Cutting the Basswood Pipes

I've started on the pipe wood cutting. Melvyn Wright's book "Getting Started on the John Smith Busker Organ" is essential for this!

I used 4 sheets of 1/8" x 4" x 36" basswood for the first 17 pipes, and 3 sheets of 3/16" x 4" x 36" for the 3 largest pipes. I tried to find the most economical layout for the initial crosscuts, but I think I would have been better off purchasing one additional sheet for the larger pipes. A caveat: While Melvyn's book mentions that you can get by with 3 of the thicker 4" x 36" (or 100mm x 915mm) sheets for the bass pipes, the measurements specified make it impossible to use the offcuts from the largest pipe (535mm) for use for the smallest of the 3 bass pipes (385mm). I had to come up with a creative layout in order to get all the pieces out of the wood I had.

I didn't do a crosscut for pipe #1 (the smallest pipe) since I figured I'd have enough scrap left over for this pipe, and I didn't want to cut into an additional piece of stock. Some of the markings such as "16 + pt. 17" indicate that I was planning to use some of the crosscut for pieces of pipes 16 and 17. These would be crosscut to the length of the longer pipe of course, then trimmed to length after the final cutting when necessary.

In hindsight, I would have arranged the individual crosscuts a little differently so that I could fit them into my 9" bandsaw a little more easily.

After crosscutting the stock, I set to work marking the languid lines per Melvyn's Book instructions. (While I was doing this I was thinking that I should have made a marking guide as he suggested, rather than measuring and squaring each of them one by one. I also thought that I should probably stop and get my bifocals out of the bedroom. By the time these thoughts had run their course, I was finished anyway.)

Here they are, cut and marked and ready for ripping. Also in the picture are my measuring tools and a newly made sanding block with 100 grit on one side and 220 on the other:

Then let all the pieces soak in a gallon of chocolate syrup.

(Actually, just a container for keeping all the pieces together as they go from the saw table to the kitchen table.)




Then they're laid out to make sure nothing is missing, and get ready for a date with the sanding block.

(From bare wood to this stage took me about 3 hours - working time + thinking time.)

If this guy howls when I play the harmonica, just wait......

I hope basswood is OK for the languids... Everything specifies "hardwood" and technically, basswood is a hardwood. Then again, so is balsa wood, "technically".