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Hey all,

I saw a video yesterday of a person putting a spring on a table with a neodymium magnet next to it and it started vibrating and giving off this low hum. Of course today I can't find the fucking video...

But it had me thinking:

-What If I got a large PVC tube (4"), screwed holes to attach a spring on one side (I would screw holes around the pipe to have multiple springs attached) and something on the other end of the spring that had a long shaft that could go through a cap at the end of the tube that I could pull on to change the spring tension and pitch (like a foosball pole) or maybe some sort of wing nut that when turned tightened the tension or released it.

-Pardon the quick sketch but I was also thinking of using a rubber washer, spring, then agent with another washer on top to vibrate the spring. Could I wrap some shielded wire around the magnets and attached them to a battery supply? would that increase the strength?

I figured somewhere in the center of the tube I'd attached a single coil pickup (probably a shitty old one from a japanese throwaway guitar that works like a mic, a pot for volume and a 1/4 out.

Ultimately I wanted to create a drone chamber that I could adjust the tone.

Is this possible? I'm a super novice with this stuff and just had an odd blue sky idea.

I like your idea, I think this's somehow possible & I hope you don't end up in the ER.

Is this the video you were talking about? If not, it reminds me of this...

Corey Y wrote:Is this the video you were talking about? If not, it reminds me of this...

No, but that is so fuckin' cool!!!!

so if I wrap wire around the magnets that are touching the springs will that do anything? Also wondering if I should put one on the opposite end of the spring and reverse the polarity? I have no idea if any of this will do shit.

I support this thread.

goroth wrote:I support this thread.

I think you're supporting my ultimate demise.

Yeah, don't actually do any of this experimenting until you know what you're doing.

Confuzzled wrote:Could I wrap some shielded wire around the magnets and attached them to a battery supply? would that increase the strength?

Unless I'm mistaken, it sounds like you're expressing interest in using a magnet as a form for an electromagnet? Strength depends on which way the electric current (which induces a magnetic field) is flowing in relation to the permanent magnet poles.

With DC one way will work with the magnet, the other way will work against the magnet, with AC you run the risk of demagnetizing the magnet to a degree determined by field strength.

I'd do away with magnets at the winding and just use steel threaded stock allowing ease of mounting, wind it up like an electro magnet and then drive that like a (low power) speaker (the permanent magnet can be like a slug that moves).

Generally speaking, you'll want some stuff to move and some stuff to remain still for stuff like this to work. Have fun!

crochambeau wrote:

Confuzzled wrote:Could I wrap some shielded wire around the magnets and attached them to a battery supply? would that increase the strength?

Unless I'm mistaken, it sounds like you're expressing interest in using a magnet as a form for an electromagnet? Strength depends on which way the electric current (which induces a magnetic field) is flowing in relation to the permanent magnet poles.

With DC one way will work with the magnet, the other way will work against the magnet, with AC you run the risk of demagnetizing the magnet to a degree determined by field strength.

I'd do away with magnets at the winding and just use steel threaded stock allowing ease of mounting, wind it up like an electro magnet and then drive that like a (low power) speaker (the permanent magnet can be like a slug that moves).

Generally speaking, you'll want some stuff to move and some stuff to remain still for stuff like this to work. Have fun!

I am such a novice at this that half of what you said went completely over my head.



Here's a brief write up along with a better illustration of what I had in mind:

The didgeridon’t
Original Idea was to have 3 various length springs mounted inside a 4-6” PVC pipe in a circular pattern
with neodymium magnets connected to a wire that attached to a battery supply. The hope was that the
magnets would create a vibration and hum which would be received by the pickup and the output would
be controlled by the pot and amplified.

- I’m guessing that soldiering to the magnet is not going to do anything.

I’ve been looking into using iron machine screws instead and wrapping one of them for each spring set in copperwire
and urning them into electromagnets.

Could I still put the neodymium magnet on the opposite side or would mounting them under the springs cause a vibration?

I believe a permanent (neodymium) magnet is just going to exert a constant push or pull to a magnetic material.

It will be a static system.

If your goal is to create vibration, you will need something to excite the spring. Physically reaching over and jostling it will work, until equilibrium (rest) is reached, for drone you'll want something active. Like an alternating magnetic field (the mechanics behind a speaker) or a periodic on/off switching of your battery.

I'd say: by all means, build the thing, and then modify it to function if it does not meet your needs. It's the best way to learn this shit. Take a breath and dive in. Have fun!

crochambeau wrote:I believe a permanent (neodymium) magnet is just going to exert a constant push or pull to a magnetic material.

It will be a static system.

If your goal is to create vibration, you will need something to excite the spring. Physically reaching over and jostling it will work, until equilibrium (rest) is reached, for drone you'll want something active. Like an alternating magnetic field (the mechanics behind a speaker) or a periodic on/off switching of your battery.

I'd say: by all means, build the thing, and then modify it to function if it does not meet your needs. It's the best way to learn this shit. Take a breath and dive in. Have fun!

Thanks! I had stopped by a radioshack that was going out of business and bought a bunch of shit for $2 a piece and picked up 4 piezo buzzers. No idea if they would be useful. Makes on hell of a god awful noise though.

I also support this thread!

I'm saddened that RadioShack is shutting most of it down, honestly. I mean I love buying stuff off e-bay as much as the next guy and/or Thailand via Tayda, but radioshack was just cool for some spur of the moment needs.. I bought all their bigass 20 watt 8 ohm resistors for like 97 cents when the one here went under. I figured I may make a speaker load simulator for testing tube amps..

I had a basic idea for a controllable spring exciter.. You could use a small electric motor with an off-center (unbalanced) item on the end, so when you spin it, it will vibrate, and it will vibrate more and more as the motor spins faster. Kind of like the old rock polishers, minus the smoothing media in a can! :P A rotary vibrator? mmm.. anyway. Simple solid state motor speed control via a potentiometer controlling voltage.. boom.

BetterOffShred wrote:I also support this thread!

I'm saddened that RadioShack is shutting most of it down, honestly. I mean I love buying stuff off e-bay as much as the next guy and/or Thailand via Tayda, but radioshack was just cool for some spur of the moment needs.. I bought all their bigass 20 watt 8 ohm resistors for like 97 cents when the one here went under. I figured I may make a speaker load simulator for testing tube amps..

I had a basic idea for a controllable spring exciter.. You could use a small electric motor with an off-center (unbalanced) item on the end, so when you spin it, it will vibrate, and it will vibrate more and more as the motor spins faster. Kind of like the old rock polishers, minus the smoothing media in a can! :P A rotary vibrator? mmm.. anyway. Simple solid state motor speed control via a potentiometer controlling voltage.. boom.

hmmmmmm... the Mrs. might be looking fruitlessly for her vibrator.

So would i need a motor for each spring? I was planning on mounting 3 of them plus the pickup and 1/4" jack, or 1 motor that brushed each spring?

My other thought was to get copper wire and wrap it around the inside of the PVC pipe walls in the area of the springs and soldiering a power supply to it to create a magnetic field that would vibrate the springs in the tube, though I'm not sure if that will work. I've been doing a lot of reading on this and started reading the Make: electronics book as well.

If the springs had a "Floating" mount, as in whatever they are mounted to is rigid between them, but the mounting apparatus itself is attached to a secondary board with rubber feet or something similar, then you just mount the motor to the same apparatus as the springs (or each spring mounted separately with its own motor, controlled independently) and let it go vibratory on you, or you could also mount the motor to the spring "pillar" that holds one end of the spring, sending the vibrations down the spring directly in an axial manner I would suspect. It would be easy to mock up with some cheap plywood and some 8-32 or similar machine hardware.