First off, I’d like to say Hi to the community. I’ve been reading these forums for awhile now, and haven’t taken the time to actually post anything.
A little history on myself. Back when I went to middleschool (about 12 years ago) I was in our school’s orchestra band. I had a strong desire to play a wind instrument, and the sound of a flute (particularly the piccolo, which I had heard on many occasions at my city’s annual 4th of July concert playing “The Star Spangled Banner”) had always amazed me. Unfortunately at the time, my band teacher was a bit of a… 
…and made it a point to make fun of any male that wanted to play a flute or clarinet (queerinet as he called them). Regardless of his negativity, and due to the sheer fact that he made fun of people who played the clarinet less than those who played the flute (regardless of what he called it), I decided to play the clarinet, despite the consequences. I went on to place first in state all three years of middle school, before moving on to high school, where I abandoned my love for wind instruments and went full on into guitars.
After many many years of still wanting to play a flute, but always having that nagging band teacher’s voice in the back of my head telling me that “only girls play the flute,” I finally (a few weeks ago) caved in and purchased a penny whistle. I was really amazed at how quickly I was able to pick it up and play, and immediately fell in love with the sound of Irish music. After doing a lot of research (and listening to about 2 million + sound clips) I decided I wanted to play the irish flute, as the fingering is the same as the penny whistle, and was closer to an actual flute. I’ve always been very cautious about purchasing instruments (especially over Ebay) and after reading the many warnings on these forums about not purchasing any suspicious flutes online, I eventually found my way to Doug Tipple’s website (http://dougsflutes.googlepages.com/). I was really amazed listening to the gorgeous intonations of the flute from the sound clips on Doug’s website, and intently read his article on how to create your own PVC Flute.
Being a craft-oriented person, I went yesterday to Lowe’s Home Furnishings (a hardware store here in Florida, I’m not sure about the rest of the world) and picked up 20 feet of 3/4" Schedule 40 PVC pipe for $4.00. The gentleman that ran the plumbing area was kind enough to courtesy cut the pipes for me (though by no means was the cut perfect or even in the center of the pipe…). From Lowe’s I went to my local “questionable foreign imports” store in the local mall, and purchased a pack of drill bits (with the three required sizes) for $4.00, a frightening, “Taking your life into your own hands” drill for $15.00, and a hacksaw for $1.00. I already had sand paper and some needle files at home (from a long obsession with the Warhammer Miniatures game…).
After arriving back home, I set up my work area and within about an hour and a half I had measured, cut, drilled, and filed my first home made flute. I was surprised as after about 5 minutes I was able to hit the high D on the flute, and after about 30 minutes I was able to hold a moderately steady low D (though god help me it takes me awhile to find it). The flute is in near perfect pitch (I’ll have to widen the B and A holes to sharpen them just a whee bit) but I’m noticing more and more how much more control I have over pitch with the flute then I had with the penny whistle.
I’m proud to say that I’m now on my way to learning the flute just like I’ve always wanted to, and wanted to give a word of encouragement to any other would be flute players out there that may be sitting on the fence about picking up this beautiful instrument. With none of the materials immediately at hand, you can purchase everything you need to make your own flute for about $30.00. If you already have a drill, bits and files at home (not horribly uncommon if you’ve ever done any work around your house) the cost drops dramatically to just the cost of the pvc pipe (about $2.36, which is enough to make you around 4 flutes).
There’s just something so satisfying about making your own instrument and then learning to play it. I’d highly recommend it to anyone out there, even experienced players. It’s really hard to describe in words the feeling you get when you hit that first note, and feel the flute vibrate slightly in your hands. It’s honestly one of the greatest things I’ve ever experienced.
I’ve now dedicated myself to one hour of flute playing practice and one hour (time permitting) of flute crafting practice a day. My next goal from a crafting perspective is to make custom finger placements (only a matter of shifting them around the pipe) and turning the pipe into a two or three piece instrument.
If anyone has any insight on the above two goals, I’d love to hear it (Doug, if you’re out there 
)
I’d like to make a special thanks to Doug Tipple for making this information public knowledge on his website.
As a side note, I’d actually like to put together a step-by-step picture collage of creating a Tipple flute (with Doug’s permission) that I could post on these forums if anyone’s interested. I’m a graphic designer/programmer, so I have all the equipment/software necessary to put it together (…camera…photoshop). I know a lot of people are visual learners, so it’s always helpful to actually be able to see the process as you’re doing it.
Happy Holidays everyone!
Like I said, it’s very worthwhile.
I knew that the irish flute was older, but I wasn’t very clear there 
Sorry for the confusion 
