The project:
A miniature marimba tuned to C major.
Why it was done:
One year, we decided that all of our Christmas presents were going to be homemade. Of course, I was the biggest music nerd of the bunch and therefore it would have been a disappointment if at least one of my gifts hadn't been some kind of musical instrument.
How it was done:
Unfortunately, I had a fever of about 102º and had fainted the day before so I had to get this idea from a book. Nevertheless, it was a decent amount of work. The bars were made of Honduras Rosewood (cheap but decent) and each had to be cut and shaven correctly to produce just the right pitch. This alone took several hours to get right.
The plywood is pine with a maple veneer and the structural wood is itself pine as well. All of the cutting was done on a table saw as I did not have a jig saw or mitre saw handy.
The result:
Here is the marimba completely assembled:
Download a sound file of the marimba here (I never claimed to be a good percussionist):
