Carol has been sorting through some boxes of history, and came across the metal keys from a childhood Glockenspiel (Xylophone with metal keys instead of wood). Her recollections were that it sounded pretty bad and came to an untimely end however, she had decided a long time ago to keep the keys. They might be useful in the future … perhaps for wind chimes?
She has a 5 years old nephew who is pretty outgoing, and who loves the band Queen, and I have all kinds of scrap wood in our garden shed. Those two facts raised a question from Carol “Can you make a Glockenspiel out of your wood and with these keys for him?”
A quick test with a tuner I use for my musical interests revealed the reason why it originally sounded bad. Only one of the eight keys was in tune! A quick inquiry to Mr. Google, and tuning metal keys is not difficult if one has a grinding wheel and/or a metal file!
Two days later, we have a nice sounding Glockenspiel … but how to show it off to Carol’s nephew so that he realizes its potential? He likes Queen singing “We Will Rock You” so ……………………
Perhaps it might inspire his young inquiring mind to do better than I did? 🙂
A New Direction Perhaps? 
Clever, clever people!
I love repurposing things!
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We’re such a wasteful society, that it feels really good to be able re-use. 🙂
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Sounds great. You’ve surprised me with your talent. Hopefully your nephew inherited similar talent, and will keep that glockenspiel alive.
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Who knows what the future may hold for him if given encouragement now? 🙂
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That’s true.
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🙂
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I think it’s fun! I hope he likes it.
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If he doesn’t … I want it back! 🙂
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Ahh! I played with that toy. Then I played a superbig version of it in band, in elementary school. It was fun to play, but carrying it was not fun. The case was about as big as me! LOL!
Very cool with what you did with it. Hope Carol’s nephew enjoys it. 🙂
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It was a fun project! 🙂
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Quite a nice job you did fixing that up, Colin. I didn’t know metal keys could get out of tune or be tuned, so that was interesting. You have musical talent, too–well done! I had one of those as a kid, or maybe it was a cousin who had one and I banged around on when I went to visit. A HS friend played that instrument in marching band, it was mounted on a shoulder harness. She called it “the bells” or “the vibes” or something, rather than a xylophone. Hope the nephew enjoys it. 🙂
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Hi Joan – I don’t see how a metal key can get out of tune either, except perhaps due to expansion/contraction with temperature change. In this particular case, I don’t think that they were ever tuned properly but then … it was a children’s “toy”.
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