Submitted by Gretchen Taylor, Illinois
Idea posted August 4, 2003
I just discovered a cool way to make a quasi-triangle instrument easily and cheaply.
I was at my local farm store and stumbled upon some rather large eyebolts. (They kinda look like the metal striker that is used to play a triangle.) Anyway, I screwed off the nut, dangled it from my pinkie, and struck it with another eyebolt. Voilá, it sounded like a triangle (just a bit duller). I experimented with various sizes, and the best one was about six inches long and kind of thin. Others were thicker, but seemed a bit bulky. Then I saw a holder with metal dowel rods. I found a rather skinny one for a buck that my husband said could be cut with a bolt cutter or hacksaw. Soooo, I bought a bunch of eyebolts, one dowel, and headed home to put strings on the eyebolts and cut the dowels (six inches each). I had to sand the ends of the dowel cuts to smooth them. If you don't have a way to cut/sand these, just use another eyebolt the same size as a striker.
Anyhoo, now I've got six new instruments for my kids to play. Cost me about five bucks total!