Project: 3D-Printed Ocarina
Introduction
When I was younger, my favorite video game to play was Final Fantasy IV - not only for its engaging story, but also for its relaxing music. Its prelude and main theme still remain some of my favorite pieces to this day, and they were what motivated me to learn piano. I also wanted to learn those pieces on the flute, but given the large amount of commitment needed for its care I never got the opportunity. However, when I started taking engineering classes in high school, I realized that I could design and 3D-print my own musical instrument - and with the ocarina being the most feasible instrument to make that sounded closest to a flute (to my knowledge at the time), I set out to make my own.
Design Process
Being only a beginner in Rhinoceros3D at the time, modeling the ocarina proved to be more difficult than anticipated. Designing the main body was simple enough: the difficulty was in attaching the mouthpiece to the body and smoothing it all out. This actually took the majority of the time, as cutting out holes was a very simple matter. My design process is detailed further in the following images:
Ocarina Components, left to right: mouthpiece, windway, voicing, interior chamber, exterior surface, all combined
An old design for hole-placement, before I realized my fingers would have a harder time reaching certain holes
Top view of the final ocarina design
Bottom view of the final ocarina design
Testing
This design was mainly completed by eyeballing dimensions without any verifications from acoustical tests (nor did I have the knowledge to do so), and so I was really going into testing blindly. Luckily, after washing all the excess support material off, sound immediately came out when I blew in it - if not for a couple of hiccups. Firstly, the higher-pitched holes did not produce sound very well, and so I had to manually adjust the shape of the voicing to make that better. Next, I realized that it became more difficult to play the ocarina as time went on - this was due to the porousness of the 3D-print, and so when the water I used earlier (to wash the supports) evaporated, the ocarina became more porous. As such, I coated the entire print with some spare wood coating I had, which I hoped would alleviate the issue. Unfortunately, this didn’t work as well as anticipated, and so I just resorted to washing the ocarina prior to anytime I want to play it. The following video showcases what it sounds like:
