Thread: Decided to make a Pipe Organ

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So what do you do when you have alot of extra wood, scrap materials, and bits & pieces left over from other prop builds??? Why...make a Pipe Organ of course.

I always thought a Pipe Organ is be a great Halloween prop and in seeing all the awesome ones that are created and posted here I decided to go for it. I didn't start from a real piano, since I don't have one, so I used 1X3's to build the frame.

Here are some pics of the build in progress so far;
The frame (which is built in two sections each small enough to fit in a crawlspace for storage)...
Organ Base picture by Coldshivers - Photobucket

The internal supports....
Pipe Organ Frame picture by Coldshivers - Photobucket

The external panels and keys support shelves...
Organ picture by Coldshivers - Photobucket

A pic of the keys cut and the exterior wood after staining. I used some black garden farbic between the keyboards shelves and along the bottom to allow the music to flow straight out of the organ. I also started the bench build which you can see off on the left of the pic.....
Pipe Organ picture by Coldshivers - Photobucket

This is a pic of the organ with most of the black keys painted and of the completed bench....
Organ and Bench picture by Coldshivers - Photobucket


The bench was made from a 3' 1x10 I had and some old kitchen table legs I saved that were cut down to size. My next step is to finish the black keys and cut differnt PVC sizes which will insert 5" through the top and rest on a shelf so they stand up, and can be removed for storage.

I'm not going to have the time to automate the keys (this year) but someone, or something, will be "playing it" to Bach in the direct path of the ToT's (ha).

The best part of this entire build up to this point is that the total cost so far totals $3.74! That cost was just for some disposable paint/stain brushes and a can of black gloss spray paint. Everything else below I had on hand.

So far I have used;
ORGAN
5 - 8' 1x3's for the frame
4 - 8' 1x3's for the keys
2 - sheets of 3/8 plywood

BENCH
1 - 3' 1x10
4 - old table legs painted red
1/4 yard of black material left over from BoF build
1/2 8oz. bag of fiberfill left over from BoF build


P.S - Thanks J.D. for your help with cutting down the 1x3's into keys!

That is awesome i want an organ now

It looks awesome, HP! I especially like the different levels of keys. Good thing you had some help cutting. love the bench with the faux fur, too. Can't wait to see it complete.

WOW! you guys are just WAY to smart for me!! LOL I would never be able to do that!!

It looks amazing!

What a great way to use up scraps of wood! Looks great Now where are the pipes?

MsM

Thanks. It came together nicely and looking forward to finishing it.

Yeah, I hear ya MsM, those pipes have to be next. I picked up 10' lengths of 2", 1.5", and 1.25" PVC tonight so they should be made in the next few days. I do have a dilemia though. I cannot settle on the color of the pipes. I keep going back & forth between silver, brass, or copper. Any thoughts????

My dutch husband had no doubts what so ever.....the pipes had to be copper. Guess that's the advantage of growing up in a church in europe. You just know that old organs have copper pipes. Go figure lol Here's how ours turned out:

Your Pipe organ looks great! The stone surrounding the pipes looks great and I really like the double rows of pipes too. Seeing the copper color and how it stands out I think I have my color now.

Where did you place your lighting to have it shine on it? Behind or over top? That is another question I haven't settled on.

Thanks

Yeah, we played around with lighting last year and still weren't totally happy with how it turned out. We had a soft colored spotlight above and behind the organ and organist and also had one of those clip on book lights clipped on under the keyboard and directed up at his face and a second one pointed down at his hands.
We were lucky enough to have him done far enough in advance to be able to spend an evening just playing around with lights. Will play around again this year cause I still wasnt happy with it.

MsM

Did some work on the Pipe Organ and almost finished with now. I have the back set of pipes cut, painted, and mounted. Now I just have to install a smaller set of pipes (only about half as much) in front of the back row, put some trim around the edges, and attach the back after I cut a few holes in it for the power cords to run through for the boom box playing Fugue that will sit inside.

Ms Meeples, thanks for the color suggestion, copper is perfect.