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Array Mbira
So heres what we got.
2025-07-11
alright lets write stuff down. have beeen workin on it just havent recorded yet.
gettin the top playwood on. its birch 1/4inch thick. first mark the edge of the body box to the plywood.
then complete the markings. vidin our where screw holes need to be. drill the holes for the screws. this plate is going to be removeable.
Then use the markings from earlyer to line up the top, drill through one of the holes into the body. put in a screww so no movin around.
Drill second hole to hold in place and then we can drill through all the other holes.
and there we go :) all the threded inserts are in. USE ZINC/STEAL INSERTS, NOT BRASS. brass inserts suck big ass.
no pictures of the gluing but glued on the bottom panel. drilling holes for the renforcment pegs.
Then while the pegs dry we saw off the exsess wood, get the edge close to final.
took off all the steal from the test rig. bending all the metals guna be a pain. we'll justy turn on a synth talk or somthing :)
yeah so its guna look somthin like this
here's the ratio compass i might use for figureing out where to bend the tines? its set to the golden ratio right now. better that than noythin or wtf.
the pegs dryed so we cut those off.
now we glue on the side panels. did some sound testing and the box is way louder withou the giant holes in the side, so we covering them up. makes it so the bottom isint gettin all scrached up either.
shoulda just done this at the begining but eventually ended up using a cut off to line up the feet side of the side panel level to the floor. much better than trying to keep the side in place while the clamps move it all over the place. still sucked ass to put these on >:(
sanding time, 320 grid, 800 grid
OOPS: Could not find "/physical-objects/array-mbira/fs-2025-07-10-01.jpg".
touch
k time to do tung oil. one half pure tung oil. one half mineral spirits.
mix in jar
dap on with rag
the clouds where cool
also did the body. the bettle kill pine look soooo goood. guna cream
figured out why the images wern't goin through. the unmark parser didn't like the #'s. weird.
2025-07-02
hmm, thinking i might need to bend the tines in a diffrent spot. >:\
ex.
-------------!-------*--------
-------------------!----------*----------
the !s are closer together than the ! then the tines are in more danger of overlaping. On the Array Mbira's the bend point is .3 of the total length from the end. >:(
almost just want to not worry about the overtones, its givving me a headache :(
2025-06-30
>:( hrmf
thats -100 doll hairs from all the diffrent parts testing. all that hardware from ace hardware is expensive. i'll make a parts list so future peeps can use as little material as possible, no extra experimenting required.
2025-06-29
box and top are gluing now just gota wait. then we'll glue the top on and stuff, bla bla bla. mabye made these sound holes too big? not sure... might make them smaller later with the sholder pieces.
would like a way to make these images small before they go up to the website. might want to work on the main.lua to do some automatic image resizing.
2025-06-28
2025-06-27
got all the final pieces just need to get the pieces into place, figure out big to make the body.
2025-06-26
can't deside whether to do 2 octaves and a fith or 2 octaves. hhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
2025-06-25
ran out of wire again :) shoulda thought about getting a spool of this stuff. oh well. 10 notes down out of the 17! hope ace harware has more metal.
been using this and this to tune the thing.
2025-06-22
Went to ace for more spring steel. Trying to add a extra layer to the sandwich, no workin that great? The extra layer defenetly makes it all harder to tune easy. The amount of pressure needed from the wingnuts is alot harder now too. Mabye the extra top notes arn't worth it? It seamed like the tone was fine once it was all really clamped down, but idk. Maaaabyyyee. Might also want to consider another way. Say diffrent towers for each layer, put the screws on the bottom? ehhhhh
2025-06-20
Went to ace again for some wing nuts and machine screws. Its really not that fun when you have to find an allen key to tune a instrument. WIng nuts are awsome.
Went to the local Wood Emporium. Dope ass place love the dude who runs the place. Got some thin pieces of maple. Should be hard enough but might want somthing sharper. Cut a wider piece down so now we got 3 strips with incressing width. Top ones about 2cm.
Holes drilled 1 inch apart with a power drill.
Forgot to put a piece of wood under to drill throug into, got some drill out or whatever its called.
Heres what we got workin. Each level is for a diffrent diameter of music wire.
Made a jig to bend the wire. Switched to a heavy hardwood. The pine pieces couldn't keep the pivot point ridged.
The bending is for overtones. These are tuned to 2 octaves above the bottom. Need to bend in a more consistant manner. -> tune all tines first, then mark half way, then bend to 2 octave overtone.
2025-06-19
Got some music wire / piano wire / tempered steel rod from a local ace hardware. We got 1.5mm, 2mm, 1.2mm. The think for the low notes the thin for the high notes.
2025-06-18
So heres what we got.