Quit Your Job And Build A Pipe Organ

[Raphi Giandiulio] grew tired of designing expensive things for Texas Instruments, so he quit his job and built this organ. Now there is some back story here, [Raphi’s] dad was a professional musician and [Raphi] played trumpet through college. He is a mechanical engineer by trade and that’s where a lot of the expertise for the instrument design came from. The project and the website that documents it are very large in scope, detailing the design process (including CAD drawings), the build, and a tour of his woodshop. The instrument includes 250 pipes and took about four years to finish, concluding in 2007. We weren’t surprised to learn that [Raphi] now has a new job… building organs.

Perhaps you’d be more interested in hacking an existing pipe organ?

[Thanks M]

23 thoughts on “Quit Your Job And Build A Pipe Organ

  1. Hmm interesting, I wish I could do that, quitting my job and build something nice.
    But I guess I don’t have that much luxury in my life.

    A very nice project nonetheless.

  2. Vicky said: “Why is your organ so small?”
    Bruce replied: “I didn’t know I was playing in a cathedral.”

    Sorry, had to be done..:)

  3. just awesome..

    I agree this isn’t a hack but I don’t really give a . . C .

    I guess we can only hope to get a new job in a way like this. For most who quit there jobs it isn’t turning out this well..

  4. Ummm… TI is a GREAT company to work for, and everyone I know that works there is incredibly happy with their jobs – Moreso than any other companies employess whom I am acquainted with, and I know people at a LOT of companies. When you get tired of what you do at TI, they let you move to a different department. I know people at TI who have moved through 5+ departments in 20 years.

    What’s the chance he got fired? I find his “I needed a change” story highly suspicious. I’m betting that his employment was terminated by TI.

  5. I work a couple evenings a week with a friend who restores jukeboxes, player pianos, and orchestrions for a hobby/side business. We always daydream about quitting our day jobs and doing it full time. It is good to see someone living that dream!

  6. @Jake
    Maybe his transfer to the pipe organ department got denied. Lots of people change jobs/employer and very few of them do it because they get fired.

  7. @Jake, there is a lot of reaons why it would be a LOUSY job for someone. If he wanted to quit that his business, no need top jump on him based on susumptions without any info to back him up.

    It is a hack, a tree hack…he hacked a tree, maybe even literaly

    Now how long before the trolls complain about a lck of an arudino though if he made one out of wood it should entitle him emperial hacker for life

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