Eoin Ó Riabhaigh: When the ancient uilleann pipes meet modern 3D printing:
You can tell the photographer was not a piper (or much a of a photographer for that matter). One decent shot of the pipes with the chanter in mid-swing totally out of focus and blurry. I’d love to get my hands on that Taylor set…
The article title is misleading. I wouldn’t refer to 3D-modelling controlling CNC as 3D Printing.
Yes. Agreed. It’s possible he uses 3d printing for something (in the article they directly say he’s using 3d Printing), but his quote doesn’t mention 3d printing. I do wonder what, exactly, he’s i doing with a CNC router.
He doesn’t specify a CNC router, but CNC machinery. It could be lathe control for profiling the outer appearance, cutting key blocks or whatever is needed for regulators, tenons, sockets, etc., or drilling toneholes.
“Some of the processes are computer-controlled, and I’ve drawn the pipes up as 3D models, and I cut them on a CNC router,”
Oops, my mistake. I somehow missed his actual quote & grabbed the more vague info from the other text.
However, looks as if CNC routers can operate on multiple axes (such as 3-axis, 4-axis, etc.) and can also be utilized with a lathe or various jigs for the type of cutting I was suggesting.
Yes, indeedy, CNC machining centers can have some amazing capabilities. My wife still chuckles about a demonstration we attended where, as she put it, a CNC machining center was busy churning out one-tenth detailed statuette ´baby machining centers´. This was thirty-five years ago. Of course the turn key price of the system we saw was just short of half-million USD.
Bob
“I prepare the wood for the chanter and the other parts of the pipes, it’s all seasoned timber that’s been pre-drilled and allowed to acclimate for maybe a year or two years, depending on the application. Some of the processes are computer-controlled, and I’ve drawn the pipes up as 3D models, and I cut them on a CNC router, then. It’s a completely different way than I think anybody else, that I know of.”
I read that as Eoin is still probably boring/reaming the chanter in a traditional manner and then using the CNC to do other portions of it - Tim Benson does something similar I believe (he mentions how he integrates CNC’ing here in this video). The article isn’t particularly clear on what exactly Eoin is doing though so, who knows!