Hey all… I don’t think this has been posted, if so my apologies for the repost! 
I stumbled across this on ebay and thought there might be interest…
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7300216374
Best,
ad
Gosh, SO tempting!
I’m sure it’s a great flute. That one will be similar hole-wise to the boxwood flute I just got, pics on a thread further down.
Stuart
That was what I was going to post here guess I forgot I stumbled across it yesterday. Looks nice but as usual I don’t have enough money. 
I’m surprised Jessie is selling it.
I hear it is the only one he has ever made in delrin. It looks just like blackwood.
Just think, no sitting up nights wondering if the “ticking time bomb will go off”.
Jon
I also heard it’s the only one he ever made in Delrin, and that he swore never to make another. He said he hated to work in the material.
Unique opportunity. I’m also very surprised Jessie is selling that one.
yah right - cocus, boxwood and now… delrin?
Well, OK, so it’s not all THAT tempting. I’m in the camp that doesn’t think timber’s all that delicate. Of course, I live in a swamp.
This would be a great instrument for someone who hates taking care of an instrument but wants a great stick. Of course, it won’t surprise me if it fetches a relatively-exorbitant sum . . . so that tempers it a bit.
Stuart
Are Olwell’s Nicholson models always in three pieces (as opposed to four)? Just wondering.
Thanks for the info, Jeanie
No, he’ll do any of the hole-size varieties in either (split or whole) body style, as far as I know.
Stuart
Can’t blame him for not wanting to use the stuff! It is a mess when you are turning it, all these little strings all over the place! It takes hours to polish. The plus side in making it, is tha there is no waiting time, rough it out and finish it in one weekend! I was thinking of making a block mounted keyed flute with the stuff. a gluten for punishment…
Jon
Here’s a stupid question, but I’ve worked a bit in plastics making scale models and props, why can’t flute bodies be cast? If I had to make a perfect replica of a flute for a prop I’d make a silicon and cast it in acrylic or carbon fibre or whatever- wax and then aluminium if you wanted, with todays cnc toolmaking gear an injection mould would be a snip, you would have to factor in shrinkage but once the dimension were in the computer that’s not a problem. Why machine if it’s not wood?
An interesting question…
I don’t see any reason it couldn’t be cast. You’d just have to convince a maker to try it and work with it till the end result came out right.
Then you could turn them out pretty at a pretty good clip, though you’d probably have to do some final work around the embouchure on each.
There is a catch, though:
To me, that the polymer flutes are hand-machined, made in the same way as their wooden counterparts, is a part of their appeal: like their wooden cousins, each is an individual and a work of art.
–James
Sure I would agree but you could make a flute that was closer to the hand made item at a much lower price point, I have a cheap dixon flute that I tried to learn on first of all… no problem with it, but it’s a very hard flute to play… just what you don’t need as a beginner!
Maybe because nobody’s done it yet, however, I have to wonder if the molded flute parts would be accurate to within 1/100 of an inch, which I think is what you want for the tenons, plus, of course, if it’s not at least that accurate there’ll be problems with the holes as well.
I suspect even a molded flute would still need some machining ‘cleanup’ work, and I don’t know how much market it would have. There’s also the setup cost on molding to recoup, I believe, so if they won’t actually sell in production quantities…
I think that the market is too small for the initial investment, Aulos casts two models of Baroque flutes one at 440 and the other at 415, it would be so nice if we could get a replica of R&R, but again, the market is way too small to bring the price down to $40 like the good quality recorders that they cast, there flutes are not that cheap, but being cast, you know what you are getting, and it’s better then average. I think that the initial investment is way more then any individual maker could ever afford.
I do wonder if the costs would be so high. It used to be the tooling and die making that cost the money but nowadays that cost is hugely reduced due to cnc. Ten years ago dies were virtualy hand crafted in many cases.
Mind you I dare say you’d have to sell a fair few to cover the set up costs.
I thought that this would be a neat idea too. So I went to http://www.emachineshop.com/ and started to search around. The people their said that the tollerances were not what I thought they would be for lost wax, and the size was too small for the second section of a two piece fife(sorry I could not be more specific, it’s been awhile). As for CNC, prices started going down to reasonable after 50, but that is assuming that you have all the dimensions just right the first time.
If you find anything out tell us please
I was thinking more in the line of using cnc to make the negative into which you could injection mould as many parts as you wish. Metal casting always need machining so, for a flute I suppose it would be easied to start from stock.
A bid is already in for 1400. Gee.
Heh heh, better hurry if you want to be first - I’m about half way through making one!
Now it did occur to me that the keyed polymer flutes I can remember seeing have been post mounted. Does anyone (else?) make block mounted polymer?
Terry