Buzz Bar Game

Attachment 16086

Fancied something different for kids parties and I looked at Buzz bar games on Ebay....£300 quid - not likely, so I made this for a few pennies. Although this reads like the worst Generation Game conveyor belt ever, here goes with the bits: a (9v battery and a holder from a bust radio, 3m/22mm copper pipe, couple of old plumbing fittings, some old case parts, a piezo-electric 110db buzzer from an old alarm, a house brick, reclaimed cabinet carpet, bits of old wire, cable off my missuses old iron, a switch off a broken power tool, a metal coat hanger, a bit of old rubber tube and hey presto ...... a buzz bar game.

It all breaks down into component parts so it's easy to carry.

Very clever.

I however wasn't so clever and paid £200 on Ebay for mine...

You should manufacture them - yours certainly looks better than the one I have just bought.

I've done similar to this before (except using 8mm brass rod instead of 22mm pipe - good idea by the way!) and I added a small blue strobe from Maplins (£6) and a couple of timer circuits (NE556 Dual timer IC + a few resistors and caps) so that when they hit the rod the buzzer sounded for 2 seconds and the strobe flashed for 6 (which means when they hit the pipe it triggers reliably and there's no arguments about whether that quick touch counts or not!)

One thing I will mention is that you'll need to keep a decent metal cleaner and an old rag handy at every gig. Copper and steel are good conductors when they're clean, but oxidise quickly when they have kids sweaty hands on them and that will quickly stop it from triggering reliably :D

The other thing worth considering (from experience) is connecting the cable to the unit using a banana plug mounted on the front surface so that if the kids trip over the cable or turn away without thinking about it the plug will pull out rather than pulling the whole thing onto the floor....

Julian

P.S. How did you get the bends into the 22mm pipe without it kinking? Did you borrow one of these from somewhere?

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Originally Posted by DJ Jules

P.S. How did you get the bends into the 22mm pipe without it kinking? Did you borrow one of these from somewhere?

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Or use the old trick of filling it with sand. ;)

I pondered over what to use for a good few hours. Cable, brass rod, copper bar? It just seemed logical to bend a pipe using larger hand held pipe benders (I have a selection of these!). You can get very complex shapes if a 15mm pipe is used and it's possible to do lettering with narrower gauge gas pipe. Quite an easy project for anyone so minded and if you haven't got pipe benders, a local plumber would sort it for you in no time at all. I'll be looking at making the buzzer sound for a few secs.

Simple circuit diagram available for anyone who wants it

Good tip already: Silica sand packed inside the pipes does help to get a neat curve.

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Originally Posted by paulg

You can get very complex shapes if a 15mm pipe is used and it's possible to do lettering with narrower gauge gas pipe.

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Custom one with the B&G's married name - now that would be a nice angle (pun intended).

Awesome. Well done. :) :)

I've been asked to post a few pictures / instructions on making a buzz bar. Attachment 16255Attachment 16256Attachment 16257Attachment 16258

Make two boxes like those in picture 2 from plywood. Size doesn't matter so long as you can get all the things inside. Put 22mm holes in the top. The shiny chrome things above the holes are just radiator pipe covers - they tidy up the point where the copper buzz bar tube goes into the box. The 22mm copper pipe is just pushed into the two 22mm holes in the box for assembly. Note the big lump of 3x2 in the centre of the open box. This gives you something to push the pipe into. Both boxes are the same in this respect. It makes a very stable connection between box and pipe.

One box carries the battery, sounder etc and the other is just a dummy for fastening the buzz bar to. My dummy box is just a solid box which contains two house bricks for ballast and the same 3x2 bit of wood for the pipe to go into. It is made to look like the other box just to keep things looking OK.

Picture 1 shows the box that carries the battery, sounder etc. For those of you with a penchant for tidy cables, look away now. This bit doesn't need to be anything fancy. It is hinged so you can change the battery but also you can put the cable and the hand held loop inside for transport. Note the two cables. The one with the yellow end connects to the cable / hand held wire loop (not shown). The other is pushed up through the central 22mm hole to connect to the buzz bar. The buzz bar has a similar cable with a female connector so you can split it for carriage.

On the top of the box, I have highlighted the area where the sounder is with a bit of chalk. basically you just need to cut a square out of the top of the box lid and fasten the sounder beneath. I used velcro to fasten the sounder because I can then turn it around easily to have it facing upwards or downwards. This gives you some very basic control over volume. Facing up, it is very loud. Facing down (with the box shut) it is much quieter. Picture 1 shows the sounder facing down.

Both boxes have handles - you could put latches on them so they fastened together for carriage but I didn't bother.

Picture 3 shows the circuit diagram - the diagram shows a piece of wire instead of copper tube for the buzz bar - the two way terminal on the left of the diagram is not needed with a copper tube. You just need a hole in the solid box to push it into.

Bending 22mm copper pipe is easy enough. Fill it with silica sand and cork up the ends to get a nice bend with external pipe benders. Put oil on the faces of the bending profiles for a smooth bend. Don't use internal spring pipe benders - you won't get them back out because of the tightness of the bends. Bending is even easier with 15mm pipe.

You can make the loop that goes around the buzz bar with a bit of coat hanger that's been bent around a tube. Mine is a coat hanger, some old rubber pipe, different coloured insulating tape coated with sticky back plastic, some glitter and a cable of the missuses iron.

Thank you for that paul
very informative
i will post a pic of mine when its done.