Sourcing Organ Pipes & parts.

The many ways of getting Organ Pipes are usually as follows.

1 -- Redundant churches.

2 -- E-Bay.

3 -- Organ Builders (they remove pipes from organs when they restore the instruments).

4 -- Me !!. I have quite a few contacts !!

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If this is your first Organ build, Please start Small, DO NOT try to build a 7 rank Organ on your first try, as when it does'nt work, you will probably Give-up !!

I use a "Chromatic Scale", Usually from "Tenor" C upwards. The Tenor C stopped pipe is usually 36 inches High, this is measured from the bottom of the pipe foot, to the top of the pipe stopper ( see Photo ), I usually use 49 (4 octaves),

This keeps the size down to something you can handle easily.

If you are building a 49 note organ, I usually use 12 Wooden stopped "BASS" pipes, and the the rest could be either stopped, (or Open) Wood or metal.

This is a 49 note Pipe Organ using Stopped wood Pipes.

Five pipes are "hidden" in between the "BASS" pipe row & the next row.

You can see the "pine" windchest top (B&Q), and the Posts (15mm diam).

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Windchest parts.

The windchest top can be made of "pine", I use Wood "shelves" bought from well known DIY outlets such as B&Q or Homebase.

These are relatively cheap, but when choosing them go through them and find the one's with the least number of "Knots" you can find.

The sides , again from B&Q ,are planed "pine", you will need them approx 5 inches wide.

The rackboard can be made from 3 plywood, or 6mm MDF.

The Rackboard "posts"( these lift the rackboard above the windchest top ),are made from 15mm hardwood dowel.

The windchest bottom is 6mm MDF.

I'll come to the sizes you may need on a later page.

TOOLS-

1 -- A good set of "Flat Bit" hole cutters. [ In fact TWO sets ]

       The reason for 2 sets is that some of the hole sizes you need to Bore will

       NOT be in the set, so you can "grind", lets say a 25mm cutter down to

       24mm, and an 18mm cutter to 17mm, etc,etc.

2 -- A large adjustable Hole borer, 35mm to 65mm.

3 -- Plenty of rotary DRUM type sanding disks.

4 -- A good small set of standard wood drills ,( one's for metal are as good ).

5 -- The usual selection of screwdrivers / pliers / hammers/ wood mallet /

6 -- Preferably a "pillar drill".

I'll probably think of lots more tools you need as I progress through the time it takes to build the Organ.

To be continued !!!!

This is a 49 note Pipe organ for "WALL" Mounting.

With internal Electronics & blower.