Wind Chimes By Tom Parker MAKE MONEY
Sometimes it costs more to buy it than to make it from the money itself.
$34.99
Wind chime bought
online.
$4.20
Wind chime made from
quarters and dimes.
I’ve always liked wind chimes. Maybe it’s because my parents had one hanging on the front porch
when I was a kid. They’re usually made with pieces
of glass, or shells, or hardened metal tubes. And
anyone who’s jingled a pocketful of quarters knows
that regular coins lack the sweet musical ring of a
wind chime. But hammer them thin enough and
those same coins play a different tune.
Photograph by Tom Parker
I tried pounding on a few coins with a hammer
and anvil, blacksmith style. It worked OK, but it was
time-consuming and hard to make the coins sound
just right. Luckily, there are train tracks near my
house. So I lined up a dozen quarters on the hardened steel rails and left them waiting for the next
train to rumble by.
Sure enough, by the next morning my 12 quarters
had been rolled thin, like nicely matched metal
potato chips. To make a frame for my wind chime,
I carefully notched 4 more quarters and 2 dimes
with a hacksaw blade, pressed them together in a
vise, and added a dab of solder. Then I tied them all
together with some monofilament fishing line using
traditional clinch knots.
All you need to make this project is 16 quarters,
2 dimes, and a 100-car coal train to flatten your
coins. I don’t think the coal company minds. I think
of it as their carbon credit. And you can’t beat the
sound of this money as it dances in the wind!
167 Make:
