Jackson Eagle Project - Large Outdoor Musical Instruments

Ready to build! The holes for the poles were 2 feet deep.  Using a post hole digger and newly- wet dirt thanks to the perfect timing of a rainstorm, the dig was fast and relatively easy.  The posts were leveled, checked and re-checked and a stabilizing triangle was created with stakes, poles and screws.  Quickrete is amazing.  Pour in some water, add some quickrete.  Add water, add quickrete, aerate/ mix in the hole itself.  It sets in less than 1 hour.  Wow! Dumping the dirt! Final Product:

We went through several drafts and possible construction designs, and here are the final designs that Jackson came up with.  Each blue box is 2 inches, the yellow lines are 1 foot.  Poles will be place in 2 feet holes, so the black line is the "ground line".  The total width is 61 inches for the Tubulum and 60 inches for the Metal Chimes.  Total height for the Tubulum (to the top of the red pole from the ground) is 10 feet, and for the Metal Chimes 6 1/2 feet. Note the tubulum poles are showing the bottom-most part of the u-bend; remember it curves up and the opening of the pipe will be several inches higher. Tubulum: Suspended Metal Chimes:

This was a big group activity.  Scouts sanded down all the black writing on all the pipes, then wiped them with wet rags and dried them to get ready for the dye.   Other scouts drilled holed in both ends of the metal pipes, then filed down all the sharp ends of the pipes.   Mostly adults dyed the PVC pipes since we were working with the highly caustic MEK  solution. Some notes on dying PVC pipe.  PVC pipe does not paint well.  It quickly peels and pulls off leaving a big mess.  You can purchase industrial grade dye on ebay (Rekhaoil dye comes in 1/4 ounce bottles, plenty for 1 pipe) and mix with with MEK.  Once applied to the pipe, it is permanent and needs a LOT of sanding to remove.   The MEK eats in to the pipe an leaves a permanent tattoo of color.   The result is amazing.  However, MEK is caustic and eats through any plastic gloves, container or tarp.  We had lots of br...

The trickiest part of the build was cutting all the pipes to length.  We decided on 8 notes, a c-major scale. There are formulas and estimates for pipe lengths online, but it turns out that the tuning is highly variable with humidity, altitude, and pipe construction.  Using a tuner on your phone/ ipad is very helpful.  Adding the u-bend to the pipes definitely changed the length of the pipe needed.   We made sure to cement the u-bend on first so that there wouldn't be any change in the tone if the pipe wiggled/ moved.  To cement the PVC pipe to the u-bend (curved portion), follow the directions on the Oatey cement bottle.  It sets up really fast. The biggest hint here is to start long and cut more as needed. We used a machine saw that could cut through PVC and metal.  It took 3 hours of trial and error to cut all the pipes and the PVC. The PVC pipe tuning was very easy to do.  Remember, you need to bring a flip flop and hit...

After final approval, the fundraising efforts started. Jackson approached 2 Home Depots, 2 Lowes and 1 ACE store.  He had a printed letter and came dressed in full scout gear.   He always asked to see the manager and he had to return to stores several times to finally talk to a manager in charge of donations.  Lowe's never called back or agreed to anything but a discount (no donated goods).  He did put out a request for funds through NextDoor without any replies.  He also contacted our local realty company (owning all of Castle Hills properties) without any replies.  The Lewisville Home Depot kindly donated most of the lumber, pvc, and metal pipes, worth around $280.  The Colony Home Depot gave more PVC, MEK, PVC cement and other misc. supplies valued around $70.  The Westlake ACE hardware donated $50 of goods, mostly used for carriage bolts, MEK, screws and sandpaper.  The rest was purchased by ourselves online and in stores fo...

Eagle projects take so much time and effort!  We learned so much through the process and wanted to share everything we learned in case any other young men are interested in a similar project. It started with the construction of a butterfly garden behind our local elementary school, Castle Hills Elementary.  They constructed some gardens, benches, a checkerboard, an outdoor loom, and 2 professional-grade musical instruments. Jackson is a very musical kid.  He plays the piano and the trombone and has been singing in school, community and church choirs for 5 years.  Immediately after hearing about the outdoor musical instruments, he starting thinking about what he could create.  Here are a few pictures that served as inspiration for the project: The final decision was to 2 make 2 instruments.  The first is a Tubulum, a drum instrument made from PVC pipes that is hit with a paddle to create different pitched tones.  The 2nd inst...