"Neighbor Friendly Chimes"
No More Tube Banging!
WHY WINDCAGE?
The Windcage is unique & addresses many problems of classical windchime design.
Design characteristics of Windcage Windchimes:
It minimizes “tube banging”, my backyard chimes play for hours without any banging.
To quiet the chime, all you have to do is place the sail between the tubes and resting on the Windcage. This will impede the striker movement and cause the Windcage to cradle the tubes. Now that you know how to quite the chime, I hope you will never want to.
With ordinary chimes, strong winds will blow the tubes sideways causing a cacophony of sound. The Windcage will cradle the tubes, the chime will move as a “unit”, and it will actually get quieter during the strongest winds. Your chime will still play, just less often.
The striker will never pass between the tubes or get stuck on the outside of the chime.
Use of the Windcage allows a more compact design. Many chimes use six tubes, spaced far apart, to help address the tube banging. All my chimes use 8 tubes; this greatly increases the chance of a tube being struck and provides a larger variety of notes as the chime plays.
A larger and lighter sail can be used; this means the chime needs less wind to play.
If needed, a counter balanced Top Plate (helps to keep the Top Plate looking level).
Note selection for all my chimes will never produce a discord within a given chime or across all three models.
I stock FIVE colors (transparent: Red, Blue, Purple and textured: Black & Bronze), with many more options available upon request!
Custom images on the sails are an option (approximations of sports team logos, words, simple outline images, etc).
Design elements I have included (not unique to Windcage Windchimes):
Use of HDPE (high density polypropylene) for the Top and Striker.
UV resistant string.
No knots, crimp sleeves and hand wound wire slip sleeves are used.
The Sail is curved; this helps to minimize the dreaded DING DONG effect, and produces a more varied Sail movement.
The striker is attached to a rod; this keeps it from tilting and produces a consistent sound by always striking the tube in the same place.
Swivels are NOT used. You want the string to wind / unwind this helps vary the sail movement.
Stainless Steel hardware
Powder coated 6061T6 Aluminum Tubing 3/16” (Soul Singer) or 1/8” (Rhapsody and Cascade) wall thickness. The wall thickness determines note duration, but significantly drives up the cost.
In December, 2013 I finally received custom made “end forming” cutters. They produce a very nice dome shaped end on the tubes. I had been using hand turned pipe beveller, which left a burr.
All models are tuned (based on A440) to a variant of the Mongolian Scale.
Model: Soul Singer - Notes: 4C#, 4E, 4F#, 4A, 4B, 5C#, 5E, 5F#
Model: Rhapsody - Notes: 4F#, 4A, 4B, 5C#, 5E, 5F#, A5, B5
Model: Cascade - Notes: 4B, 5C#, 5E, 5F#, 5A, 5B, 6C#, 6E
