Amazing Pipe Organ Desk Features Secret Compartments And An All-wood Logic Board

wood_organ_desk_with_secret_compartment

Feeling pretty good after putting together your brand new standing computer desk? Step aside please, [Kagen Schaefer] has something he’d like to show you.

His Pipe Organ Desk is undoubtedly one of the coolest pieces of furniture we have seen in a long time. The project took [Kagen] over three years to complete, which sounds about right once you see how much attention was put into every last detail.

This desk is amazing in several ways. First off, the entire desk was constructed solely from wood. The drawers, the supports, knobs, screws, and even the air valves – all wood. Secondly, when one of the desk’s drawers are pushed in, air is directed to the organ pipes at the front of the desk, which plays a note.

A small portion of the air is also directed into the desk’s pneumatic logic board, which keeps track of each note that has been played. When someone manages to play the correct tune, a secret compartment is unlocked. The pneumatic logic board is an unbelievable creation, consisting of well over 100 wooden screws which can be tuned to recognize any number of “secret tunes”.

Sure a well-placed axe can open the compartment too, but who would destroy such a fine piece of work?

[via Make]

38 thoughts on “Amazing Pipe Organ Desk Features Secret Compartments And An All-wood Logic Board

  1. Dunno why, but this reminds me of the Cheers episode where Rebecca destroys an antique desk looking for a hidden gift, not realizing that the desk itself was the gift.

  2. asheets, I seem to remember that episode as well but I don’t remember anything about a gift.

    I heard Kirste Alley was just hungry and someone had left a slice of pizza in one of the drawers!

  3. Wow. This is one of those things that
    A.) Id like to do but never have the time/energy for
    B.) Would be really cool in your house/office
    C.) Is a reference to a simpler time, when it would be more useful/effective. Nowadays you could probably just take a picture of it, send it to the Google machine, and itll send back the solution.

  4. @YS Of course what’s interesting can be relative. After what may looks to to be the video creator’s stock intro footage plays, the builder, and the desk are very much the topic. No it’s not Norm or Roy showing the entire build, but it’s additional information non the less.

    The exterior finish of the wooden pipes most likely has no bearing on the function of pipes. I guess they paying client is willing to pay just to know that what they can’t see looks great.

  5. @YS in fact, what you learn from the video is that what the “pipe organ computer” unlocks is actually a puzzle that you then have to solve to open the middle drawer on the desk, which is the real “secret compartment.”

    That is an amazing piece of engineering, as well as a beautiful piece of art. I wonder who his “patron” (or matron, as the case may be) is and how much he/she is paying for it. Whatever it is, it’s not enough!

  6. This has to be one of the most amazing pieces of furniture ever made.
    The fact that the guy has produced such a fancy machine using nothing but wood is extremely EPIC.

  7. Digital came first. Wood and leather penumatic digital to analogue converters in 1913. The Duo Art system. Digital pipe organs in 1500, 1600’s in this universe. What’s old is new.

  8. Wow. +1 to all the Myst references as well.

    Also, at the end of the video, he says there are probably between 10 and 20 puzzles like that in the whole desk. So, he didn’t even start to show all the cool stuff in that desk.

    Yeah, this guy is a serious puzzle maker.

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