Is there a home repair that I can do to tighten up the joint? I want to tighten up the brass tubes not just fill up the gap with Teflon tape. That doesn’t work anymore.
never use goose fat on a whistle.
Teflon tape is that the same as PTFE?
It’s that white plastic non-adhesive tape that comes on a blue spool that is used in plumbing applications. I’ve seen it in other colors too.
I’ll use whatever I want, goose fat included, on my whistles. I was just looking for a catchy thread title. I don’t play ITM and I was hoping that it might be an ITM song title. Or is it tune title, you folks are so testy about those two words. Now I guess you’re testy about goose fat too. I’ll put that one in the vault too.
You can stretch the inner tube by inserting a closed pair of needle-nose pliers into it and pushing a little while twisting. Be gentle though because once it’s too big, it’s difficult to shrink it again.
Well, that just gave me an idea. I have some hose clamps. If I put the whistle back together and put a hose clamp on the joint, that might work to tighten everything. I’ll let you know how that works once I finish my lawn work. Thanks.
I clicked on your webpage, nice whistles.
I’ve never had a problem with the Clare, but beeswax worked very well on two other two-piece tubes that got loose. The wax seled evenly with no worry about air leaks
I had the same problem with a silver flute. No one told me not to just slam the two pieces together but to gently twist them into place. I paid to get the silver flute repaired.
How about “Heat Shrinkable Tube”? 
Beeswax is sticky and will attract pocket lint. Since this is meant to be a pocket sized whistle, this could be a problem. It would work fine if you leave the whistle assembled. Go with the needle nosed pliers idea, but as O’Brien says, take it slow and easy.
Double ditto on David O’Briens’ fix solution. After all the man makes a fantastic sectional whistle.
Mick
Yes but the man has the hands of a craftman. I don’t have those hands. I finally got the whistle, one of those adjustable hose clamps with the built in screw, a screw driver, and me all in the same place. The fix took all of 5 minutes, and it worked.
Anyone who is reading this thread gets a bonus tip. I bought some silicon pencil grips back when school started. I’ve been using these on my two-piece tunable whistles to keep the two pieces situated where I want them. I play at church where I pick up and put down all kinds of instruments and don’t have the luxury of putting a whistle back in tune. I’ve had one on my Clare 2-piece for awhile too to seal up the gaps when it was all Loosey-Goosey. I’ll still keep the silicon grip on it. The Clare sounds even better. Even though I took my own advice, you all got me there. Thanks.
What you want is a ligature clamp of the type used on soprano cornets and flugel horns. You would need one of the right diameter, then you drill a hole and cut a slot to the hole on the larger pipe, smooth it all off and use the clamp.
This is probably the “correct” engineering solution to a long lasting removable swaged joint between tubes but it would probably cost more than buying a new whistle.
I suppose the best solution depends on what stuff a person got laying around their house.
You could try a simpler, more attractive fix…If you have some electrical tape - Scotch “Tartan” brand may work best - try wrapping the out side of the hub (the female end of the joint) with a few continuous layers over itself. The trick here is to stretch the tape as you are applying it. I think this may give it sufficient squeeze to tighten the joint, and you’ll have a black band at the joint, rather than a clamp. I’ve done this for other things, but I’ve never actually tried it on a whistle. What I’ve found, is that the more layers you apply, the harder it squeezes.
Oh, I guess I didn’t make myself clear. After I screwed the hose clamp on real tight, I unscrewed the hose clamp and removed the hose clamp. This squeezed the outer brass tube back to it’s original shape. Besides a couple of scratch marks (I don’t care) the two-piece is as good as new.