I’ve got a very nice set of Sherline machine tools that would be perfect for someone getting into the making of small woodwind instruments, or looking to upgrade their shop. The tools are a #4410 long-bed lathe and a #5430 XYZ 12" mill base (uses the same motor as the lathe). Both are graduated in millimeters, and have the upgrade to adjustable-zero handwheels. The lathe also has all the equipment in Sherline’s “A” package deal, as well as a nice after-market quick change tool post set. For more information, or digital pictures, email me at hallt@louisville.edu, PM me, or see Sherline’s web site at www.sherline.com. These are very well regarded small machine tools in near-perfect condition, and I thought I’d offer them to the community here. $850 plus shipping takes the lot. This equipment is small enough to ship via UPS easily. List prices for this equipment total almost $1,400.
Any serious aspiring whistle makers should give Tim’s offer consideration.
Although I’ve upgraded considerably above this setup, this is the same foundation I have built my shop on.
Sherline offers many great upgrade options, and almost everything is interchangeable.
Be aware that you’re not going to have the capability to bore long tubing sections with this setup, but this will not be a problem if you use prefab tubing like I do.
To elaborate - you can only bore up to half as deep as the distance between the lathe chuck and the tailstock (less than that if your boring tool requires the use of a tailstock chuck).
8" sections of tubing would be the maximum length you could bore, and that would require the use of a boring tool with a #0 Morse arbor inserted directly into the tailstock… but such a setup will work.
Thanks for the endorsement, Gary. I’m not sure I understand this boring limitation, however. I was talking to John Liestman, who makes Northumbrian smallpipes, and he told me that he uses a long-bed Sherline like this one. He has to bore at least 12" for a standard chanter, for which I think he uses gun drills (or D bits) fed by hand through a tailstock support. This is consistent with the technique I’ve read about for other pipemaking. Why wouldn’t such a setup work for whistles as well?
Not contradictiing you, but just asking for more info.
Yes, removing the tailstock and feeding a boring tool by hand would allow you to bore considerably longer workpieces… although that sounds like a really good way to inflict injury upon yourself!
Starting the bore would be the really tricky part freehand, but I don’t doubt that it can be done… although only by those more highly skilled than me!
My experience with machining acetal leads me to believe that this method would only work for boring wood, but I’ll not speculate any further because I’ve never made a wooden whistle… maybe Dr. Busman can shed some light on the subject.
I think one starts the hole with a center drill in the tailstock and then continues the boring with the D-bit through the length. That’s my understanding from reading Cocks & Bryan as well as Mike Nelson’s books on smallpipe making, anyhow, although surely book learnin’ isn’t as valuable as actual experience.
For a gundrill, you’d need to accurately drill/bore a starter hole, then you could push the gundrill through. For my C whistles, the whistle tube and gundrill length are so long that the tailstock partially hangs out over the lathe ways: I have to start the gundrill in by hand, and it works OK.
Another option to gain some additional boring length is to mount your gun drill on a side milling attachment (or make something similar), elimationg the tailstock altogether, this is part of the set-up we use for gundrilling at Von Huene. We do this even though we have plenty of length on the bed, because the mount is plenty secure, and the milling attachment is connected to the lead screw…so we get the benefit of powerfeed gundrilling, a big plus when you’re doing 100-300 pieces in a day.
