I’ve been working with boxwood a bit over the last year. A friend asked me to make a half set in D in Boxwood.
I orderd a few extra billets of the fine wood from Octapus in Turkey, it arrived very fast and I set to work (a year ago mind you)
I started step drilling the chanter this week and all is well. I say this because I have heard nothing but horror stories about boxwood warping but so far all is well.
Today I assembled my D bits and proceeded to bore a 3mm hole through a 18 inch long piece of this lovely boxwood.
The bore came out 100% on the center of the far end!!! Savage!!
D bits can take a while but with a bit of skill and a lot more patience the work very well indeed!
Yes, not as fast as gun drills but whatever you do DON’T bother with twist drills for long bores. They WILL go off center and badly.
Anything longer than 6-7 inches will be banana like with twist drills.
So if anyone wants a B chanter in 12 to 18 months give me a shout
I use twist drills for concert D’s and my drills don’t go off centre any more than 1-2 millimetre at most, if there sharpened correctly and the right speed is used, there’s no reason why long twist drills should go off centre if used correctly, the secret is not to rush the job, I use ten long drills when boring a chanter black, I bore 1/4inch in turn with each drill then place them on a steel plate so the cutting head cools down quickly before there used in turn again, mind you the drills I use are made for building airoplanes, the drills are top quality, but its each to there own, every pipemaker has his or her own method that works for them ..all the best, stew.
Thanks for that Stew.
I’ll have to review what I might be doing wrong.
Mind you I do use some long twist bits when I’m step drilling a chanter piece.
I’ll start with a D bit for the pilot bore and then step drill with other D bits and some twist bits and they follow the pilot bore grand.
But even recently I was boring some concert pitch drone bores. On one piece I got about half way with a D bit and switched to a twist bit to save some time. It went off a good 2mm maybe 2.5mm. It wasn’t fatal because I had plenty of wood on the piece to recenter and turn again but still frustrating.
What speeds should I be using?
When boring a chanter with D bits I’ll start at about 125-150rpm and after the half way mark I’ll jump to about 200-225rpm to avoid grain following.
Maybe I should try those aircraft bits. They might be a bit stronger than what I have now.
The bigger the drill bit, the slower the speed on the lathe. The only long boring I did with a twist drill was for mainstocks, and that had to be on the slower side of things. A tiny bit of beeswax on the tip of the drill will help keep it cool also. Take your time, keep the bit from getting too hot, and clear the chips and you should be fine.
Hi guys, the drill will still cut when its hot, but you don’t want to produce to much heat when your boring wood specially ebony as it will crack if it gets to hot, I give a minute in between using each drill in turn for the bore to cool a little, to much heat will soften the cutting edge of the drill also thats why I use ten for each chanter blank, the only reason I use long twist drills is,! I bought a batch of twenty 12inch long bits from the USA on ebay for a $1 each, the next thing I know because no one else bought any of the batches he had for up sale on ebay he decide to send me the lot around one hundred twenty drill bits! these drills bits are what they use to drill the rivet holes on airoplanes with, there lovely quality, I also bought some 4mm drills bits also from him sixty in all for $1 each, so because the drills are 12inches long I have to finish the bores of with some 16inch length drills I bought here in the UK they cost me £22 each which was = to $28 or something like that at the time, the speed I bore at is roughly the same as tompipes around 150/200rpm I then use a slightly bigger drill bit once I get a quarter /middle / three quarters of the way through this stops any drag on the drill which may course the drill to run off centre, for instance when I bore with a 5mm drill when I’m a third of the way into the chanter blank I then use a 5.12mm drill and slightly open up that length of bore I have drilled, this helps reduce the heat produced by friction on the drill bits when you start boring with the 5mm drill bits again, the aim is to produce as little heat as possible on the drills and wood I also have a couple of breaks to let things cool down I don’t hurry thing when I’m boring a chanter, but I also keep the drill bits sharp when any stop cutting well I have my drill bits sharpened at a local engineering shop, they charge me £1 each but they are sharpened perfectly, I might try and making a boring tool from some silver steel and temper the cutting edge end up see how that go’s, I’ve heard gun drills are excellent tools they use compressed air blown down the drill when boring which helps remove dust and cools the drill, that’s all well if you can afford one, so I do what works for me without costing to many bucks. all the best, stew.
Savage indeed! Congratulations, Tommy! I’m looking forward to seeing/hearing one of your sets.
Meanwhile, thought I’d pass this on …
Being sort of a boxwood magnet (I don’t know why or how, I just am) with 3 boxwood flutes (one quite-famously warped) and a concert chanter, I’m always interested in boxwood lore. Anyway, just heard about two pretty darned popular flutemakers microwaving boxwood to both test AND to “temper (?)” it – apparently if you heat the wood enough the resin boils and this somehow toughens the wood more. And I guess if it doesn’t warp at XXX degrees, then … ?
I can’t even speculate how this does or doesn’t affect the curing process. But as for the end product, I have noticed that my new boxwood flute and earlier boxwood flute by one of the above makers has a MUCH more “close-grained” or “harder”-feeling finish than my boxwood flute by another maker (which is the warped flute) or my concert chanter, both of which feel more open-grained and “spongier.”
What I’ve seen done on boxwood to fast forward through a bulk of the warping is to steam the billets. This is accomplished by wrapping the billets in plastic, taping the whole lash-up so it won’t leak, wrapping it in something that won’t melt or burn, then throwing it in the oven at a lower temp for an hour or so. The billet will go through a great deal of warpage. You can then turn it true and do your work. Being boxwood, it’ll still probably go through some dimensional change though. The stuff is really nice but it’s so much work, not very cheap, and a bit of a gamble. Careful not to overheat boxwood when working it as it can develop small cracks. Just a few thoughts from a lowly apprenticy type.
A little late in replying here, but a few years ago I read an article on this subject written by Hamish Moore. You might still be able to find it on his website or elsewhere in the internet. He uses boxwood a lot, and his method was to microwave the billets (something like 20 minutes iirc), and then he would submerge them in linseed oil. I’m not sure if he drilled pilot holes before the microwaving, but I doubt it. Anyway, he said that the wood becomes much more stable and less prone to warping after the process. I tried it once on a piece of wood that was destined to become a smallpipe chanter, but with all the racket I was afraid my microwave would explode , so I stopped after a half minute or so.
if there sharpened correctly and the right speed is used, there’s no reason why long twist drills should go off centre if used correctly, the secret is not to rush the job, I use ten long drills when boring a chanter black, I bore 1/4inch in turn with each drill then place them on a steel plate so the cutting head cools down quickly before there used in turn again, mind you the drills I use are made for building airoplanes, the drills are top quality, but its each to there own, every pipemaker has his or her own method that works for them 
..all the best, stew.
all the best, stew.
Congratulations, Tommy! I’m looking forward to seeing/hearing one of your sets.
iirc), and then he would submerge them in linseed oil. I’m not sure if he drilled pilot holes before the microwaving, but I doubt it. Anyway, he said that the wood becomes much more stable and less prone to warping after the process. I tried it once on a piece of wood that was destined to become a smallpipe chanter, but with all the racket I was afraid my microwave would explode 
, so I stopped after a half minute or so.