kalimbateeny
Kalimbateeny A tiny Kalimba, also known as a thumb piano, designed to be worn as a piece of jewelery. The Kalimbateeny is a fully functional musical instrument, tuned to a D major pentatonic scale (D, E, F#, A, B). It's made from purpleheart wood, and uses bobby pins for tines.
my build notes:
- laser cut purpleheart box
- purple heart sourced at Woodcraft, ~1/8" thick plank
- cut in four pieces
top piece
- sound hole
- holes for retaining bar screws to go though
middle pieces
- most of interior volume removed
- slightly larger holes cut for end of screw and nut to fit
- should probably be even larger for washer/lock washers to fit
bottom pieces
- no holes, etc
- (should have made holes through the bottom, would make assembly/disassembly easier)
- retaining bar is 1/4 inch steel rod
- sourced at hardware store
- two holes drilled through for retaining bar screws
- best done on a mill/drill press but I did it with a cordless drill
- cut to ~1.5 inches
- sound bars are 3/16 inch steel rod
- sourced at hardware store
- cut to ~1.25 inches
- in theory this can be free floating on the surface, but I found
assembly much easier after I glued them to the surface
- gorilla glue, clamped with the retaining bar, screws, and two extra tines
-tines
- used bobby pins
- sourced from the pile of bobby pins in the bathroom
- cut apart with dremel
- used the straight part, with the rubberized coating at the end
- (tried using tines cut from a sewer snake approx 1/8 inch wide, but these
tines seemed to be too stiff for the small size of the box)
- fasteners
- 3mm phillips pan screws
- 3mm hex nuts
- (washers and lock washers recommended if space allows)
- wood finish
- walnut oil
- (something a little clearer would have probably been better, to lessen discoloration of the purpleheart)
- hanging
- slot cut though 3rd layer of wood before box assembly
- large enough to fit some silver craft wire though to make
wire wrapped loops on each end
- cording created from hand-dyed silk ribbon and attached to wire-wrapped loops with overhand knots
- overhand knots covered with cones
- ends finished with ribbon ends
Click to viewmy build notes:
- laser cut purpleheart box
- purple heart sourced at Woodcraft, ~1/8" thick plank
- cut in four pieces
top piece
- sound hole
- holes for retaining bar screws to go though
middle pieces
- most of interior volume removed
- slightly larger holes cut for end of screw and nut to fit
- should probably be even larger for washer/lock washers to fit
bottom pieces
- no holes, etc
- (should have made holes through the bottom, would make assembly/disassembly easier)
- retaining bar is 1/4 inch steel rod
- sourced at hardware store
- two holes drilled through for retaining bar screws
- best done on a mill/drill press but I did it with a cordless drill
- cut to ~1.5 inches
- sound bars are 3/16 inch steel rod
- sourced at hardware store
- cut to ~1.25 inches
- in theory this can be free floating on the surface, but I found
assembly much easier after I glued them to the surface
- gorilla glue, clamped with the retaining bar, screws, and two extra tines
-tines
- used bobby pins
- sourced from the pile of bobby pins in the bathroom
- cut apart with dremel
- used the straight part, with the rubberized coating at the end
- (tried using tines cut from a sewer snake approx 1/8 inch wide, but these
tines seemed to be too stiff for the small size of the box)
- fasteners
- 3mm phillips pan screws
- 3mm hex nuts
- (washers and lock washers recommended if space allows)
- wood finish
- walnut oil
- (something a little clearer would have probably been better, to lessen discoloration of the purpleheart)
- hanging
- slot cut though 3rd layer of wood before box assembly
- large enough to fit some silver craft wire though to make
wire wrapped loops on each end
- cording created from hand-dyed silk ribbon and attached to wire-wrapped loops with overhand knots
- overhand knots covered with cones
- ends finished with ribbon ends