I’m in the process of making my first whistle in brass (have made several in plastic and aluminium) and so far it’s a nightmare! I can cut aluminium tubing neatly with a junior hacksaw (all I have!), but brass . . . Good grief! It snags, it drags, I cannot cut it cleanly! What is the method everyone else uses? Presumably I need something other than the stupid hacksaw, but what?
It is actually sounding nice now that I have got to the hole making stage, but oh, the trouble I had getting there. A lot of redesigning is an understatement! And I love the look and the tone and want to make more, but not with this amount of trouble. I’m amazed I atill have any fingers! Help, please!
I’d try an angle grinder; they’re the universal portable metal-cutting device, IMO. Didn’t some guy in the UK just make the news by cutting his car in half with one?
I thought angle grinders were meant for cutting cars in half! You mean they’re not? Can you cut shapes in fipples with them? That has been impossible - just cutting the end off was bad enough! Drilling and filing are fine, it’s just CUTTING!!!
Angle grinders are wonderful for cutting up heavy stuff. It would probably tear a brass tube apart, requiring surgery on the remaining parts. Better something with a little less enthusiasm.
Just remember to grind or sand down the edge if you use a pipecutter. It’s definately the better choice, but they tend to leave a rather sharp end behind.
a small pipe cutter (a smaller version of the tool depicted by Peter)
or
a small cut off wheel in a dremel type tool
or
a lathe with a cutoff tool - of course if you had this you probably wouldn’t need to ask
or maybe a fine toothed coping saw or hack saw - backing up the cut may help, by this I mean putting a dowel inside the tube to support it as you cut.
The difference between a pipe cutter, and a tubing cutter is the thickness of the cutting wheel. A pipe cutter wheel is thicker and will make an indentation on a tube before it cuts it. A tubing cutter wheel is thinner and would collapse if cutting pipe.
Try to find a brand that the cutting wheel can be removed and replaced.
The reason is so that the cutting wheel can be made sharper than when it was bought. Sharpening a tubing cutter wheel can be done by putting a small bolt through the wheel then with a elct. hand drill rotate the wheel next to a sharpening stone.
The brand’‘General’’ makes a tubing cutter and a pipe cutter but I found the tubing cutter did not track straight enough for precision work. I took it back and bought the pipe cutter frame, and bought the tubing cutter wheel for it. I put the pipe cutter frame in a vice to hold it steady. Then both hands are free to rotate the brass tube straight. When tightening the cutter wheel against the tubing use very small increments so the cutter has a chance to cut before pushing the tube in.
A tube cutter is what you are after, but be wary, there are some crappy ones on the market. Look for something that has a fine thread on the tensioning rod. This will allow for small incremental turns which in turn will allow the tube to keep its shape and not become bell shaped or flared at the cut because of the pressure on the cutting wheel.
Edit:
Another tip, before using a tube cutter I drill a hole in a piece of wood that will allow the tubing to fit snugly into. I then place the tube in the hole and where the pipe meets the wood, etch a line into the pipe using a sharpened nail. This allows the cutter to be used without it skating off or wandering when it is being rotated.
I use a grinder to cut the windway in my whistles. The whistle must be held in a vice or you will end up with a flying piece of injury inflicting tubing looking for somewhere to inflict
I finish the job using a dremel with a little cutting wheel to get into the corners at the end of the windway.
Thanks, folks - will investigate the pipe cutter / tube cutter. How about cutting the nice curvy bit on the beak? Can’t hacksaw it, even with dowel inside, as the saw just won’t cut smoothly enough. (I can do aluminium, so I don’t think it’s just me!). I have made a very hacked mess at the moment, which is going to have to be filed until it’s the shape I want - a slow process. Any suggestions? I just wondered what the people who make lovely brass whistles do actually use. Band saw?
Try a hand held scroll saw with a spiral blade. A spiral blade will turn in a small radius. The brass tube will need to be clamped securely with out mashing it. That will remove most of it, but still need to clean the edge with file or emery paper. A chain saw file is good to have for making whistles. They are straight and small. If you have a dremel tool to cut the chain saw file in half? Then it can be used by pulling to cut or pushing. The advantage there is in the tone holes when cleaning the holes. Put the file in and pull out to trim the hole, and it does not leave some metal hanging in the inside of the hole. Pulling the chain saw file when cleaning the thin brass will give better control of the cut.
