Want to learn how a Xylophon is made from scratch? The guys from NerdKits go over the basics, when the Xylophon is built they automate it by making some coils and drive it using a NerdKit. This is a fun project that is sure to provide some holiday cheer.
“Our homemade xylophone was a great way to put our milling machine to use cutting the bars for each note, and using the lathe for the solenoid forms and steel slugs. We made our xylophone from aluminum bars — all 6061 aluminum alloy rectangular bars, with a 1.5″ x 0.375″ cross-section. Our solenoid forms were cut from 0.5″ diameter HDPE (plastic) round stock, and featured an outer channel 0.090″ radially deep, leaving just 0.035″ radial wall thickness to support the coil. The inner bore of 0.250″ allowed the slug to slide up and down, and the slug returned to its base positions simply via gravity. Each coil received 600 turns of 32 AWG magnet wire, for a final measured resistance of approximately 11.5 ohms per coil.”