It would be incredibly difficult to build a saxophone by hand with all of the keys, rods, posts, toneholes, etc. that are required. This link gives some information on building home made instruments out of bamboo. Good luck. www.webspirit.com/fluteman John

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If you are still interested, I found a book at the New York Performing Arts Library that gives detailed schematics on how to make a number of wind instruments, such as a recorder or a flute. Robinson, Trevor. Amateur Wind Instrument Maker (1980). JMF 83-540. In the theory part of the book, viz., the first chapter, the author talks about the various trade-offs in making a wind instrument. For example, pitch and volume are determined by the placement of the tone hole and by its size, and there is a trade-off between the two that must be calculated. Maybe, for your science project, you can demonstrate some of the principles posited in this first chapter. Good luck at the science fair.

Fantastic! I remember being in the Science Olympiad 20+ years ago. What I remember of the musical instrument competition is that you want not just to simply replicate an existing instrument - but create something original. Now, there are so many instruments new, old, and Blue Man that it would be hard to come up with anything one could call purely original. For a saxophone type instrument, maybe start by building a simple prototype with a cylindrical bore - perhaps come up with a novel way of activating the sound. Experiment to see what happens with different tone hole locations or even how you might control which toneholes are open or closed. If you simply want to construct a saxophone by non-traditional means, your best bet is to get intimately familiar with a junker horn. Might be interesting to see a saxophone type instrument that has a simpler range to it - more like a recorder. That might be a more manageable project and one that I think doesn't already exist. Facsimile horns get made all the time in China and Taiwan.