Project Description
I’m planning to design a fully-3D-printed programmable drum machine. There will be a hand crank that turns a cylinder. On the surface of the cylinder will be a matrix of holes that dowels can be inserted into. Each dowel will trigger some kind of lever-action mechanism (ideally moved only by gravity, MAYBE with rubber bands if necessary) that either hits a drum, scrapes along a textured surface on a resonant chamber, or possibly does something else I discover as I go along. I will need to experiment with different drums/percussive surfaces, mechanisms (for timing and desired motion), and dowel-holes/dowels (so they stick but aren’t impossible to remove). The overall point of this is to create a usable acoustic percussive instrument that makes the best use of PLA filament as a material.
Deliverables (to be designed in Grasshopper, sliced in Cura, and printed with my Ender 3 3D printer using PLA filament)
- The drum machine base (where everything else will be mounted)
- The cylinder with a 120×6 matrix of dowel holes (120 possible timing instances and 6 possible instruments)
- The hand crank (and possibly some gears) to turn the cylinder
- 6 lever-action mechanisms for striking the instruments (some may be the same, but there will be at least two different designs: one for striking, and one for scraping)
- 6 different percussive instruments (some to be struck and some to be scraped)
Team Members
- Me
- Myself
- I
Timeline
By Tue Nov 19th:
- Design and print the cylinder and a crank that can be inserted into it (leave potential gears for later)
- Design and print some dowels that fit into the cylinder (if this doesn’t work, find an alternate solution)
- Design and print one simple drum and a simple mechanism that strikes it
- Design and print a base with places to insert the cylinder, drum, and mechanism stands (this will likely be a temporary base, but I will try to design it so that if things go smoothly it could be used as the final base)
By Tue Nov 26th:
- Design and print some alternate struck percussive instruments that can be put into the base
- Adjust the striking mechanism if necessary and print new ones for each new instrument (striking mechanism itself should be as quiet as possible)
- Adjust/reprint the base if necessary
By Tue Dec 3rd:
- Design and print some scraped percussive instruments that can be put into the base
- Design and print scraping mechanisms for each new instrument
- Adjust/reprint the base if necessary
By Tue Dec 10th:
- Implement any additional ideas I’ve had throughout the process
- Add decorative designs and reprint several or all parts
- Present the project!
Related Work
- I Made a Programmable Music Box https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-KkV7kXjwM (for inspiration)
- Robot Fisherman plays 3D printed mini marimba: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfDg2nb0d1g&t=226s (for inspiration)
- The performance of 3d printed dowel with three different surface designs in furniture joints https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/tjf/issue/83957/1387389 (for ideas about dowels and connecting pieces together)
- Printing Mozart’s Piano https://peer.asee.org/25954.pdf (for ideas about lever mechanisms inspired by the piano key mechanism)
- 3D-Printed Musical Instruments: Lessons Learned from Five Case Studies https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20592043231210653 (for bigger-picture thoughts about acoustic instrument design with 3D printing, or any fabrication method other than the traditional)
- I will add further related work as I research throughout the process!