Pipe Organ Build

I chose to build a pipe organ. I am still choosing to build a pipe organ, in progress since March of 2023.

Please enjoy these photos and videos of progress so far. If you’re curious as to what in tarnation got up my rear end to make me want to do this, that detail is written out meticulously below the pretty pictures, just scroll down.

Specifications (as of right now that I am building towards):

  • 5-6 Ranks, 1 Division
  • 1 Manual, 1 Pedal
  • Stops:
    • 16′ Bourdon (Pedal)
    • 8′ Principal (Pedal C2-G4, Manual C3-C7)
    • 8′ Trompete (Manual C3-C7)
    • 4′ Octave (Manual C3-C7)
    • 2′ Octave (maybe, Manual C3-C7)
  • Couplers: None as of right now; the mechanics may be too hard at this point.
  • Painted PVC and 3D-printed PLA+ pipes, brass reeds, may attempt a wood rank, wood casework, direct mechanical key action, mechanical stop action, all on 2″-3″ W.C. wind
Me glancing up from trying to deal with aligning the pallets in the windchest.
One of the first photos of the wind chest.
Wind chest with a hinged top
The windchest with air input
I used sheet vinyl from the craft store to make the “bladder” on the wind chest/regulator. The point here was to give some sort of buffer to the inbound airstream, although I have a second wind regulator because this doesn’t fine tune, it just bulks it.
My very first pressure gauge in literal inches of water. I upgraded to actual wc/in gauges after this.
Wind reservoir/regulator complete, first iteration. This is still in service, just with a downstream fine tuner.
My blower (for now); a retired inflatable jumpy castle blower, which works rather well, and is designed for partially-static loads and long duty cycles.
The wind regulator/reservoir inline with the blower.
I think this is iteration….2?…of the keyboard? I reprinted the keyboard 3 times, redesigning the keys each time (from scratch, nobody had 3D printed a keyboard before).
One of many keyboard printings.
Not my first pipe but a complete one. You’ll notice the mouthpiece is a circular one; not what I ended up for the final design for this rank, this is more of a flute/whistle rank sound.
One of the pipe mouths that I started to print; this was the design that I eventually settled on.
An initial pipe printed off the original posting on Thingiverse; I went from here to modify it to PVC piping.
The first mouth for 1.5″ PVC
A couple of pipes that work.
A large pipe with a very, very small pipe ontop.
A good portion of the first rank printed and assembled.
A “family photo” of the completed first rank, C2 through C7.
This is pallet board…..4? 5? I tell you, if I never have to design another windchest……but I’ve learned a lot? I guess?
2nd or 3rd pallet board drilling. I think I’m on the 4th or 5th now.
Troubleshooting leaks on the windchest. Not the 3D printed piping flanges, some removed to debug leaks.
Fitful attempts to remediate pallet leaks; leaks would be ok (I have plenty of air) but the pipes speak in low whistles so it’s a no-go until solved.
Working out how to lay out the windchest pallets. This was a nightmare to sort out. I eventually redesigned and reprinted the keyboard to have even spacing so the pallets would also be even-spaced.
Winchest pallets Mark I setup. I used aluminum angle stock to provide the upper stop for the springs and to give some rigidity. I’ve now completely torn this down twice.
A few of the pallets in the windchest from the side. These have now all been reprinted yet again.
Adding felt to the pallets

Current Status as of July 3, 2025:

Here’s an unordered list of things I have accomplished with this project and where I am working on it so far:

  • Blower identified and tested (bouncy-house blower)
  • Wind reservoir and regulator constructed (3″ W.C., weight-loaded)
  • Downstream wind regulator constructed (2″-3″ W.C., spring loaded)
  • Manual keyboard designed (FreeCAD), printed, and constructed, 61 keys, C2 – C7
  • Pipes in the 8′ principal on the manual rank are done (C3 – C7)
  • Manual windchest is in progress; pallet valves are done, key linkages are done, but I have to redo the pallet board to downsize the holes to get better pallet seals (too much leakage).

WHY!?

Because I could. And because I think pipe organs are fascinating machines and some of the prettiest sources of music out there. They are literally the largest instrument in the world by a long shot, and yet the fundamental technology is so very old school. Air, controlled by a valve (key), blown through a pipe, vibrating a reed or across a lip, produces a note. You can only have one note per pipe, so for a full keyboard, you have to have 61-88 notes, and then to create harmonies and colors and fullness, you duplicate that, over and over and over, going octaves above and below and in harmony, until you get a cacophony of sound that is nothing less than glorious. This results in a massive machine literally filling up entire rooms, stadiums, or shopping malls, all controlled by one lone operator at a console somewhere.

The reality is that the art of pipe organ construction is very, very old (3rd Century BCE) and has gone through many iterations and yet still remains a bit of an engineering feat and, because I’m an amateur and have never done this before, of course I thought I’d try it and learn through trial and error and error and error and error, because why not?

Specifically, I chose to primarily 3D Print a pipe organ, or at least a good portion of the parts. The pipes would be PVC (because it’s cheap and easier to deal with than melting and shaping lead-tin pipes), the mouths 3D printed, the keys 3D printed, and much of the windchest, valves, etc. would also be printed. The rest would be wood and a bit of metal and springs and bits and bobs.

It also turns out that nobody has tried this before, which is always a good omen. I mean, people have built organs before, but not out of PVC, and certainly not at this scale. I want at least a few ranks (sets of pipes), a pedal board and one manual (keyboard), and stops, etc. to go with it. WHAT COULD GO WRONG!?

“Lots”. “Lots” is the correct answer. It has been nothing short of an engineering puzzle and curiosity and fabricating a lot of things that didn’t go right and I had to redo. I’m only on my…..5th keyboard….and 3rd windchest? I think. I try not to think about the time wasted. 🙂 But I’m learning a lot and having fun, so that’s what counts, right?