Da Vinci Accordion Project

Industrial Design Fundamentals Assignment:
1. Design a wooden toy inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci.
2. Make a model of your toy.

Visual Reference Board:
Bellow Prototypes:
I found this site useful in coming up with my method for building the bellows.
Here are my first bellow prototypes. For these ones I used an x-acto to cut out the trapezoids from poster board and masking tape and fishing line to connect them together.I switch to a thicker chipboard for the final set of bellows:


Cutting fabric to cover the bellows:
Glueing the fabric on the bellows was the longest part of the process and was the most frustrating and sticky. I used a whole bottle of Elmer's glue so it ended up being really strong.

Here is a video showing the bellow action. I was kind of disappointed because the bellows ended up stretching less and less with each layer of fabric.

One bellow finished:
Chipboard mockup of body:
Two bellows done:
I cut a bunch of plywood to the profile of my keyboard and glued them together to make a mold:
Then I laminated 3 pieces of thin veneer together and stuck them in the the vacuum bag on top of my mold. I will use this to cut out my keys.
The wood for my keyboard didn't quite take the full contour of the mold so I had to adjusted the end piece of the keyboard casing to match the new key profile.
Here I've put together the keyboard and bass button casings and I have the bellows and unfinished keyboard resting in place. The edges of the casing are burnt because I cut out the wood on the laser cutter. On the keyboard I've masked off where I need to cut the wholes for the black keys. I've also got my unfinished sound ports resting on top.
I sanded off the burned edges and gave the casings a rich bombay mahogany stain. I finished it off with two coats of high gloss polyurithane.The white keys stay their natural color and only need 2 coats of high gloss polyurithane finish.
I modeled the sound ports out of a non-hardening wax-based modeling clay called plastaline. Then I spray painted them gold.
This photo depicts a cross section of the keyboard action. I used fabric for the hinge and red foam to spring the depressed keys back. The dark keys are stationary for this model.

The Ubnox-O-Phone!!!

I made this primitive synthesizer/obnoxious noise maker for fun during my spring break. I first got the idea when I saw all the crazy diy noisemakers and synths at musicfromouterspace.com. I used their Weird Sound Generator schematic along with the Ruby Guitar Amp schematic from runoffgroove.com to build what I have named the Ubnox-O-Phone. This was my first electronics project. I ordered most of my parts from mouser.com for about $35. I started by using the runoffgroove schematic to put together this simple amp on a bread board.After I got the guitar amp making sounds, I finally had enough confidence to pull out the soldering iron and piece everything together.





For the case I decided to go with a rack mount kind of look. I also wanted to show off all my work so I used 1/8" clear acrylic and I left the sides open. I designed it in Illustrator and I used our school's laser cutter to cut out the front and back and all the holes for my knobs & stuff. I also used the laser cutter to engrave the name and control labels. I used a scifi looking font that turned out to be hard to read but still looked really cool.

It took me about 2 days to solder all the components together and then a few more hours to design and laser cut my faceplate. I was really happy with how it turned out. Here is a video that shows the noises it can make as well as some of the places I have taken it.

14 1/2 Songs in 29 Days

I've begun work on my album for February and I've already got 3 songs finished. My goal is to get 14 complete songs (and one half song) done by the end of February and not worry about the quality. So far I've just been using my Axiom 25 and Ableton Live.

Song 1



Song 2



Song 3


Song 4


Song 5

P-Bass Sketch

Matt Bellamy of Muse Sketch

Violin Sketch

My sister's violin.

Blue Steel Rangers

Blue Steel is teenagers with attitude that fight evil.

Sam Holmes - Accordion
Paul Holmes - Bass
Scott Stanley - Piano
Clay Turner - Guitar
Caleb Van Voorhis - Drums

Sheetz Music Video

After making this song and video, we were contacted by the corporate office of sheetz and each member of our band was given a $20 gift certificate for sheetz. We thought it was kind of funny because the first sheetz we went to actually kicked us out for filming there. We thought about insisting on a formal apology but we decided instead to just keep our mouths shut and enjoy our gift cards.

Update: Our video is now the first video on Sheetz OVERFLOW

Sam Holmes - Accordion
Paul Holmes - Bass
Scott Stanley - Piano
Clay Turner - Guitar
Caleb Van Voorhis - Drums, Vocals