In the home stretch on this Rain Stick.
Did the last two turned parts of the Rain Stick - the end caps.
Turned a place for a PVC threaded plug to be glued into one end cap.
Tried assembling all the parts - turned outer tube components and the inner PVC pipe and fittings - and discovered I need a little more space inside some of the outer tube components,
Got the enough room inside the outer tube for the inner tube to slip into - and OUT.
Lined up everything to make sure that the PVC threaded plug lined up with the female threaded PVC fitting in the end of the PVC inner tube.
Epoxied the "thread cheater" PVC threaded plug into the turned end cap prepared for it.
Took some pictures.
Here's a detail shot of the Thread Cheating.
Here's the Rain Stick again - with some of the optional Inner Tubes. The one in The Stick has birdshot and small ball bearings inside. I turhned a bunch of grooves on the inside of that one because THAT got me the sound I wanted. Complicated things becasue I could only turn grooves on the inside of PVC pipe lengths under about 6". THAT meant turning normal PVC pipe couplings down - to just about nothing - to join the inside grooved pipe sections. THAT was a royal PITA.
I tried an inner tube with LOTS of dowels going through it and though it didn't produce the "rain" and "waves" sounds I was after, it did produce interesting sounds when I used four different sizes of ball bearings. That one has possibilities since two or three of the larger ball bearings get hung up on their way down and you have to shake them loose - yielding a pin ball type sound as they bounce their way to down.
The next optional inner tube has SOME dowels and I plan to slip some feeler gauge strips through thin saw kerfs in hopes of getting some interesting Jew's Harp twanging out of it.
Still need to tune the innner pipe length so that the end cap, when screwed on, fits over the end of the turned outer tube. And I have to make some sort of stand for this thing.
Not the most aesthetically pleasing piece I've ever turned - but the fun part - after some problem solving and experimentation - WORKS.
It's not too hard on the eyes - is somewhat interesting to look at and hold - can be held easily at several gripping areas and rocked to generate the sound of rain - or waves breaking on a beach - none of the internal doweling or other "mechanicals" are visible from the outside - AND - you can change the sounds it makes by changing the Inner Tube. If another Inner Tube is develped that makes other interesting sounds - the piece can be changed to accomodate it - without losing any sounds made by Inner Tubes you already have - it's UPGRADEABLE.
Turned Wood - Has Movement - Has Sound - Is Interactive - Is Upgradeable - and nearly indestructable.
Another Leap Of Faith piece successfuly completed. A more refined looking turned outer tube will be the next step - now that I've go the procedure down for making these things.
Embarrassing Addendum: OOOOPS! #179
Only AFTER the glue had dried - thick CA glue takes longer to set up (I NOW know) - did I discover that the end cap had slipped on the end of the tube it was glued to. I also discovered that the CA glue "releaser" (I'm told it's actually acetone) won't soften CA glue enough to undo a joint - IF it's soaked into the wood much - which in this case it did - or if there's a lot of surface area in the glued joint - which there was in this joint.
Here's the problem illustrated - and the fix I came up with - that actually worked - on the first try.
