http://www.uilleann.org/Reeds-Synthetics.html
Some cool info there. A few photos at the bottom to show what John’s been working towards as well. Perhaps some here will find it useful.
All the best!
Bri~
These look ( in concept) to a set of plans that Wally Charm sent me. He uses square tubing for the body, with a long notch in the face for the styrene tongue. Used a round piece of tubing inserted and soldered into the square tubing for mounting into the drone, with the back end plugged with bees wax.
Why beeswax on the ends?? wouldn’t epoxy be more secure?
What I have used in the past is E6000 Industrial Strength Craft Adhesive… works splendidly.
John posts to the board here from time to time - so perhaps he can enlighten us to his choice of materials/waxes/pink tape. 
… yes, day-glo would be my preferred choice of tape. 
The end is a plug- no structural support needed, just air tight-ness. You could even use a blob of blue-tac in a pinch.
OK, so they have been doing synthetic for 10 years or so…
You have a D shaped end of the tube where you cleaned a tapered cut that you’re sealing with wax. The ‘flat’ that touches the plastic reed tounge is wax.
end view like this:
reed tounge ----> lD <---- tapered tubing
If you put epoxy there you can sand it smooth to the edge of the taper and it gives a firm edge… that’s not sticky like wax or poster putty. Your climate is a lot cooler than mine and I can envision the wax sticking to the the tounge when the pipes are laying on a shelf… or worst case (my luck) dislodge and get trapped in the bore of the drone somewhere. It’s just ONE LESS thing to think about going wrong.
This was all covered long ago in DM Quinn’s “The Piper’s Despair”. For an air-tight end to the brass tubing drone staple its far simpler to fold up one end of the tubing and solder it in place. Then file to suit.
djm
Looks like someone has a copy of The Pipers’ Review with an article called
Making brass/plastic drone reeds for Kirk Lynch sets
By John Liestman (liestman@wt.net)
Hey all,
When I wrote this up it was an e-mail to someone on the list who wanted to try making some synthetics. I sent a copy to Brian so he could use some of it if he wanted to show someone a starting point. I’ll try and clarify a little.
I came up with the original design by looking at cane reeds and trying to mimic them as close as possible. The synthetics, I have found, can be alot shorter.
I used beeswax because it was quick and easy to put in and remove for modification. I keep telling myself that I should put in an epoxy or solder plug, but I never do. Probably because I haven’t had a problem with tongues sticking or plugs falling out and I border on lazy (because don’t have the initiative to move away from the border). :roll:
I use the pink teflon because that is the colour of the heavier teflon in my area. It does make a nice contrast with the brass and string. I wish it came in red or blue because those are my favorite colours.
I think if you put 100 people (IQ challenged like me) in a room with a cane reed and asked them to come up with a synthetic design using readily available tools and materials, you would get 100 fairly similar designs that all work.
I have since tried cane tongues and quite a few thicknesses of brass and styrene. I can’t tell the difference between a cane and plastic tongue on a brass body except the plastic is much easier to work with.
My 5 drones currently have: 3 styrene tongues, 1 brass tongue, 1 cane tongue. The brass tongue is in the tenor drone and that was the only way I could get the tenor quiet enough to go with the other drones. Talk to me 6 months from now and I will probably have something different because I love to fiddle with reeds when I’m too tired to play.
So in the end, it’s a starting point. Feel free to modify at will, I do.
John