After I added the tapered mouthpiece to the whistles, and with the hotdog-red ABS, these things remind me of a toy wienermobile I used to have. Thus the name.

This panflute is slightly more practical than the one it's derived from. The curved shape is easier to use than the circle, and I added a bit of taper to the mouthpiece to make it easier to blow on a single whistle. Still not a practical musical instrument, though!

This one has a diatonic scale (CDEFGABC) instead of chromatic like the other one. I had to learn the OpenSCAD lookup() function for that!

Procedurally-generated panpipes for 3D printing. They really whistle, but they aren't particularly accurately tuned. OpenSCAD file included.

It'll theoretically play a chromatic scale (12 notes to the octave) but it's too squeaky to know for sure!

A rattle! Parametric, easy to adjust the handle size, and the rest of it isn't too hard to figure out.

Please exercise due caution if you want to give it to a baby to play. Depending on your print material it may not be baby-safe. Also, it could crack open and release inhalable bits of plastic. Please don't kill babies.

UPDATE: Tuned it up and it plays remarkably in tune throughout the whole register of the device. The altissimo G plays almost perfectly in tune while still maintaining intonation in the lower register. Low B and Bb start falling out a bit but thats a reoccurring theme with wide tipped mouthpieces and you can easily lip that up.

UPDATE: Works like a charm! Just tried it out on my alto and it plays incredibly easy! I was expecting it to be a chore to play but it plays very well (in relativity or course). I notice little difference from it to the one i modeled it after. I printed it on a 3D systems V-Flash and will be uploading pics and a sound recording(recorded on my phone. Don't be too critical of my playing).

This is an untested alto saxophone mouthpiece based roughly off a beginner Yamaha mouthpiece but it does not resemble it much. The similarities include bore length, facing width, and basic length measurements. I would urge anyone that prints this out before i get around to it to share their experiences printing and playing of this mouthpiece. This will most likely need to be printed on a finer tuned machine to get the best results.

Tip Opening: 0.080
Facing: 18mm from tip
Bore: Square

Figure this would be a fun thing to try. Normally ocarina are made by hollowing out a clay shape or slip casting to get a hollow form. They take a lot of time to make a one off. Lots of drying time. I figure what better use for a 3d printer. I have no idea on the tuning currently just trying to get it to play first. Improvements will come with input. Anyway have fun let me know how it goes.

Usefully links:
greenverdugo.com/ocarina-making-tutorial/ocarina-making-15.html

Make your own artful as well as functional recorder instrument!

The source file to my recorder (available on V2.2) is kind of a mess when the important part, the wind way, is really all you're looking for if you want to make your own original creation based on it. So here is that negative space all in one file.

Instead of one big complex shape to Boolean subtract out (which often ends badly) the STL included has many overlapping shapes. You will need to break them apart and boolean subtract them individually for best results (in my experience).

Note, the lowest finger hole is not rotated to make reaching it with the pinky finger. Consider that in your design (Either pre-rotate like in v2.1b or make it adjustable as in v2.2)

Theoretically the windway of the recorder is the important part. The exterior could be shaped like anything you want. Even an original piece of art with a natural look.

Unlike the Empire State recorder the parts of this recorder are compatible with the RecorderV2.2 so you could build it from the previous in steps if you desire.

For the New Museum Challenge:
What is the design a derivative of? How does it improve on or challenge existing design conventions? How does it utilize the unique ability of 3D printing to personalize and improve on the world around us?
Music is art and beautiful, but why can't your instrument be artistic when it's not making sounds? Another example of 3D printing allowing designs to go beyond functional to decorative.

Per tzzhc4's suggestion on thingiverse.com/thing:12862 here is a mouthpiece for the Recorder that transforms it into a fife. Theoretically. Print it out and give it a try.

EDIT: New version uploaded with the proper joint bore so it will fit with the body and no logo.

In designing V1 I had to move the borehole off center. Not a big deal but the finger holes were way deeper than I thought they should be. Realized the solution was to rotate the body for playing. Note the revised playing instruction and the included illustration.

Theoretically the windway of the recorder is the important part. The exterior could be shaped like anything you want. Even the Empire State Building (by Hoeken thingiverse.com/thing:625 )

For the New Museum Challenge:
What is the design a derivative of? How does it improve on or challenge existing design conventions? How does it utilize the unique ability of 3D printing to personalize and improve on the world around us?
As if making music wasn't beautiful enough, now this recorder can sit on your shelf as an objet d'arte. 3D printing allows designs to go beyond functional to decorative.

Minor tweak for V2. You may want to print it instead:
thingiverse.com/thing:12946

Theoretically the windway of the recorder is the important part. The exterior could be shaped like anything you want. Even the Empire State Building (by Hoeken thingiverse.com/thing:625 )

For the New Museum Challenge:
What is the design a derivative of? How does it improve on or challenge existing design conventions? How does it utilize the unique ability of 3D printing to personalize and improve on the world around us?
As if making music wasn't beautiful enough, now this recorder can sit on your shelf as an objet d'arte. 3D printing allows designs to go beyond functional to decorative.

I chopped off his head!
I don't like using support so hear is a nice way to get him printed - no support needed

He is also 1.5 x bigger the the original so you get all the detail.

I wanted to print this Tentacle for so long but I had to wait to get the correct colours in PLA - Now you can get PRINCELY PURPLE and VILLAGE GREEN from the very nice people at Faberdashery.co.uk and make your very own evil tentacle to rule the world.

He was a little too tall for my printer so instead of making him smaller I made him BIGGER and split him in half, behold a monster tentacle !

For a little history of why this tentacle is so great look here - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maniac_Mansion

And then play DOTT... and yes I can help you when you get stuck in the game.

After seeing the overhang on tzzhc4's print ( thingiverse.com/derivative:15325 ) I realized how I could fix it. This is that fix. Then I saw Upgrayedd's print of V2.2 and realized how I could place the pieces better (with holes facing out)

The recorder is one of the oldest woodwind instruments. In the hands of an experienced player it creates a sound synonymous with Renaissance music. Often used in elementary music classes because of it's ease of operation. With 3D printing everyone can have one of their own to make beautiful music on... or wailing screeches if they never got past "hot crossed buns".

This was originally designed to be a copy of a Vandoren B45 but the CAD work and precise measurements proved to be too complicated to do it justice

Instead, this is a just barely functional clarinet mouthpiece.

youtube.com/watch?v=5L0RddOFvb8

Printed on a Fablicator
Fablicator.com

It works! It finally works!
youtube.com/watch?v=F9VdXtTlhCU

This revision includes minor tweaks which necessitated breaking it into 4 parts. Thank you nycdesigner, tbuser, and landru for your helpful suggestion, guidance, and sticking with me til the end.

The recorder is one of the oldest woodwind instruments. In the hands of an experienced player it creates a sound synonymous with Renaissance music. Often used in elementary music classes because of it's ease of operation. With 3D printing everyone can have one of their own to make beautiful music on... or wailing screeches if they never got past "hot crossed buns".

Version 2.1b has been confirm as functional! Thanks nycdesigner and tbuser for sticking with me!

This is a complete rebuild of the recorder instruments with more scientific measurements and a more sound theory as well as an entirely unique and slick design.

The recorder is one of the oldest woodwind instruments. In the hands of an experienced player it creates a sound synonymous with Renaissance music. Often used in elementary music classes because of it's ease of operation. With 3D printing everyone can have one of their own to make beautiful music on... or wailing screeches if they never got past "hot crossed buns".

Ever since I've seen the whistle ( thingiverse.com/thing:1046 ) and it's variations ( thingiverse.com/thing:1046/variations ) I've wondered about the feasibility of extending it to a flute. However when I finally did decide to tackle it I ended up designing the whole thing from scratch (which is why this isn't a derivative of the whistle).

Version History:
Ver2.0 - recorderv2mouthpiece.stl + recorderv2body.stl + recorderv2foot.stl: The mouthpiece in this version is the tallest piece at about 119.3mm which is cutting it too close for a TOM.

Ver2.1a - recorderv2.1amouthpiece.stl + recorderv2.1body.stl + recorderv2foot.stl: Per input from nycdesigner and tbuser the ring around the base of the parts has been widened to increase stability during print, the mouthpiece has been altered with a shorter windway and 1mm taller window. This brings the mouthpiece to being short enough for a TOM and does not effect tuning tho it may require slightly more air to work.

Ver2.1b - recorderv2.1amouthpiece.stl + recorderv2.1body.stl + recorderv2foot.stl: Same as 2.1a except the windway now slopes towards the lip. tbuser found that worked best for his 6 hole flute ( thingiverse.com/thing:11945 ) so I've included it for experimentation.

It works!

While working with Cymon (who doesn't have a MakerBot) and NYCDESIGNER to try and get Cymon's Recorder design to work thingiverse.com/thing:11796 I decided I needed a little more SCIENCE! So I wrote a parametric OpenSCAD script based on the Whistle/Flute from ggwhistles.com/howto/ that allows you to experiment with different hole placement, size, window and lip angles, etc. This flute is much simpler then a recorder (and not nearly as pretty as Cymon's) but it is able to play 6 notes quite clearly and loudly. Now if only I knew how to play the flute...

This is still a work in progress because I think I can get the mouthpiece/lip to print a little easier. It's kind of fiddly to get it just right.

Cut up into sections to be printable on a ToM (with an HBP, an ABP probably won't have the height) Also repaired some geometry problems with the model.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work too well. If you close all holes (including the end) and blow into it - it does make a sound, then again I don't know how to play a recorder. :) So I think there is hope for a MakerBottable recorder...

Warning: DO NOT PRINT THIS THING! As it is this does not play. This was made based on the look of a recorder and best guesses based on illustrations and went through several iterations to attempt a fix, but in the end has several mistakes that renders it... not as good. In other words it looks the part but it doesn't sound the part. Use thingiverse.com/thing:12168 for one that works.

This is my version of the 8 bit violin. A lot of things have changed since I stubbornly wanted to do it my way.
One of those things is that I wanted those nice chequered press-fit sides. This adds a nice purfing-like trim (struggled to make it really press-fit actually). The top has a slight curve in it, to give it a little more volume and to move away slightly from the blocked look. All part are designed for 3mm (ply) wood. That makes for ~40 minutes cutting time on our Epilog mini 35 lasercutter. This edition is cut from a local light plywood, most likely made of poplar, but any 3mm ply would probably do. Light weight is a plus if you want more volume from your instrument. To make sure the bridge does no come through the top deck, I designed a bass bar too, to go under the G (lowest) foot of the bridge. A sound post is left as exercise for the maker.

This is a Makerbot printable Dan Moi*, which is similar to a Jew's Harp**.

I modeled it off of a brass bass Dan Moi, but the sound is much closer to a bamboo one. While this will not replace a nice brass Dan Moi, you can print this on a well-tuned Makerbot!

Here is a YouTube video of the Dan Moi in action: youtube.com/watch?v=enHMpn5SC5w

Since I can't seem to do links properly:
* en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%90%C3%A0n_m%C3%B4i
** en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jews_harp

I'm building what will likely turn out to be the ugliest cigar box ukulele ever, and found I didn't have any wood hard enough to do the job for the bridge, and the nut I had carved, too, looked a bit too fragile. Hopefully these will do the job.

I've printed this and the parts seem to work. The "instrument" (I use the word loosely) I built is a soprano ukulele, you may want to tweak some things if you build a different size. You may need to tweak some stuff anyway, the height of the saddle and the nut being the first that come to mind, depending on your ukulele.

The saddle has no supports for attachment to the ukulele. I just glued it on and it seems to have stuck well enough. For a stronger structure, you'd want to make a back piece to put on the inside of the ukulele, extrude a couple of pegs from that and make corresponding holes on the bridge. I may do that if/when I get around to building another ukulele.


Included is also the original Blender file which should be easier to edit than the STLs, if you can open it. I find when I open stl files imported from Blender in ReplicatorG, the models must be scaled to 0.5. I was expecting some factor of 10, but go figure.

A friend wanted a trombone keychain (I tend to offer up keychains a lot to show off the abilities of 3D printing) so I made her one!
Sorry, no picture of the actual thing, I gave it away too fast.

As if playing the trumpet weren't already cool enough, make it a little cooler with a built-in mustache!

I loved making this violin. It was a lot of fun to make. I sometimes wish I had four hands so I made a few changes to help in the assembly process. I added cut outs to the top and bottom and tabs to the sides. It gave me freedom to glue the sides to the bottom and leave the top unglued until I have everything just where I wanted it.

This is a crude but working violin made in an 8-bit, pixelated style. Here's some videos of the thing in action: moonmilk.com/2011/04/17/8-bit-violin-played-by-real-fiddlers/

(It was on Make:Live on March 9th, 2011: makezine.com/live/)

It's laser-cut from 1/8" plywood (front and back faces), 3/16" plywood (bridge), and 1/4" solid wood (everything else). It's a messy design, and not fully refined, because I really didn't know what I was doing when I made it.

License notes: all rights are reserved, but I grant you all permissions under the CC-BY-SA license creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/ if you promise that if you make any substantial changes or improvements to this design that result in a working instrument, you'll publish your version of the design to Thingiverse and tell me about it. And in general, if you make and/or perform with an instrument based on this design, I'd like to hear about it.

The document "8bit violin scratchpad" contains bitmap images I found on the net, and I don't claim any copyright on those.

This simple noisy gadget uses a method known since the 19th century to generate the notes of a scale: the number of teeth on each gear corresponds to the frequency of a note, so when you let something buzz against each gear, you'll hear the corresponding note. Here's a video of the thing in action: flickr.com/photos/ranjit/5472598312/

This set of gears creates a just intonation diatonic scale - all the pitch ratios are related by simple fractions. The gears have 24, 27, 30, 32, 36, 40, 45 and 48 teeth.

You could use an optical sensor like a photo interrupter to pick up the pitches, or if you cut the gears from steel, you could use magnetic pickups like the Telharmonium did back in 1898! synthmuseum.com/magazine/0102jw.html

This is a quick-and-dirty replacement for a missing hammer on an upright piano. Video at flickr.com/photos/ranjit/5430307892/

The pictured hammers were lasercut from 1/4" poplar, glued together in pairs to be 1/2" thick and then sanded down to 0.4" to match the original hammers. The extended slot in the bottom allows you to glue the hammer onto the old broken shafts instead of replacing them, and to tilt them to the right to hit the strings at the right angle. The felt is some wool stuff from a craft drawer. Real hammer heads are mostly felt, but I made these ones mostly wood because it was easier.

An improvised ocarina design - to my surprise, it worked on the first try. Cut from a 3.5 x 11.5 inch slab of 1/4" maple. Check the video to hear what it sounds like: flickr.com/photos/ranjit/5423038441/

With the finger holes on the sides instead of the top, it's not as easy to play as my previous ocarina: thingiverse.com/thing:1816 - but it's way easier to assemble.

This is part of my project to make a crude musical instrument every day in February. (More at moonmilk.com)

This is a recorder inspired by the vintage 1984 Fisher Price Crazy Combo Horn Set.

I will probably design the rest of the components at some point.

youtube.com/watch?v=MmaUZ9Ltd3s

UPDATE: Added two piece "glue-together" body.