Brass tube wall thickness

Uilleann Pipes
1

The brass tube this company sells come in two thickness’s code 129 is. 33 and code 308 is .40 ,both with inside at 4.1 which is the best for consert reeds.
also would code 310 do for flat reeds.

http://www.smetals.co.uk/table2.htm

Thanks
Kevin

2

Kevin, code 129 for the concert staple, and code 128 for the flat chanter, the code 310 might be handy for reg staples, what make is the tubing?, K&S ENGINEERING CHICAGO,IL. thats the tubing I use, 3/16 tube for the concert staple, and 5/32 tube in copper & brass for the flat chanter, both work fine fo me. all the best.

3

Just editing to admit my stupidity… mm vs. inches… definately use the .33 mm (.014 in)

4

I’d reckon that .33 mm is too thin. I use .5mm wall tubing (you can buy it in ready cut 52mm lengths from NPU, useful if you have an ‘average’ design chanter and are making reeds only for yourself). So, I find most desirable 4mm ID, 5mm OD. I also use .5mm copper sheet for hand rolls.

I find that there are 2 problems with the thin walled tubing,

  1. When forming the eye and taper, the brass spreads too easily and distorts.

  2. The .5mm wall (0.20"?), for me, helps in creating and supporting the shape of the ‘chamber’ inside a reed. With the thin wall, you end up making the taper too fat and the eye too big to try and achieve the chamber, and end up with tuning problems caused by the staple shape instead of the narrower chamber causing this.

Also, because of this, you have less ‘room to manouevre’ when you need to alter your staple to correct problems.

5

Hello Alan, there’s nothing to stop Kevin using the thicker wall tube code 308 for making staples, the method I use to make my staples, I prefer using 3/16 tubing for my chanter design, but every one to there own.all the best.

6

I dont understand the theory behind it,but then again Bendict Koehler’s reedmaking is very advanced in theory and in pratice.
In “the heart of the Instrument” DVD he say that he uses smaller that usual diameter cane of about 3/4 of an inch for his reed making and because the wall thickness of his staple is 0.7mm this is OK ,if you are useing hobby tubing with 0.5mm thickness you will use bigger cane of about one inch.
So if you were useing 0.33 thickness tubing, you might have to use cane bigger that one inch diameter.

He does explain the reason behind this but even after listening a few times I still dont understand it !

RORY

7

My finished concert reeds have a width of between 13.6mm-14.00m max at the head, slip thickness 1.10mm, with a staple eye height of 1.85mm - 1.90mm, staple taper length 23-25mm, I don’t have any problems with a staple with a .33mm wall thinkness, if you want to use a staple with a 0.50 wall thickness then use it, what ever your happy with. all the best.

8

I found for the way how a reed functions a reading on Bernoulli´s effect quite helpful (Mr. Bernoulli mostly invented this effect to make Uilleann Pipe reeds sound - minor side effects of his invention were that it also makes flutes sound, planes fly, spray cans work etc. :slight_smile: ): There is an optimal “suction distance” between the blades depending on their hardness and shape. By scraping we adopt these a bit, but we don´t change the blades´ distance without “opening” the reed. I would say as well that a tube wall thickness of 0.4 - 0.5 mm plus the “traditional” eye is the optimum.