I’m thinking of trying to make a whistle head for my Tipple flute. Anyone ever tried it? I figure it would made a good introductory to whistle-making.
Well, not exactly. I did something based on the same concept. I should preface this by saying I had been making whistles for a few years before I ran into Doug’s flutes. So I had made quite a few different head designs before I tried this. I started with the instructions Doug has on his site to make a flute. Using Doug’s measurements, I made a flute in three sections - head, left hand and right hand. Then I replaced the flute head with a whistle head out of the same material in the fashion of a Water Weasel by Glenn Schultz. It worked alright. I’ve done better since then.
Basically you take the dimensions of your Tipple head and you design a whistle head to match. Start by making the distance from the tuning slide end to the edge of your whistle labium to be equal to distance to the center of the embouchure hole on the flute head (assumes the area of the two windows are equal). Start from there and adjust things as you need to.
Does that help or was that too weird?
Feadoggie
Ah, thanks for that. My next question was to ask where the labium should be in relation to an embouchure hole. Now I need to figure out exactly how to do it best, and what tools I might need. I’m going to keep it as simple as I can for now.
I was wondering what tools you may have access to. Making a Schultz type head pretty much requires an engineering lathe. I was not lathe challenged at the time I made my Tipplesque low D. You could make a head like Guido Gonzato’s Low Tech Whistle design for starters.
Feadoggie
Nope, no lathe. I’m pretty much limited to whatever I can get at Lowe’s or Home Depot without too much money. I need to look into the Gonzato stuff.
The tippler’s whistle needs to have a head volume of at least 1.5 fluid ounces.
Opps, sorry, that wasn’t the question.
Very funny! In my neighborhood a tipple head has ten tuning pegs.
Oh, right, that’s a tiple. (Apologies to Doug)
Feadoggie
Hmmm? How are you gonna approach the tuning slide then?
At least the pipe can be had at Lowe’s. You’ll end up with one of them Lowe’s D’s.
Feadoggie
Hmm… I figured that once I had the right tube size, I could get some other thin tubing that would fit inside it. I honestly hadn’t considered I might a lathe to actually get a tube thin enough for that. I guess I hadn’t put much thought into yet. 
Perhaps I’d be better off doing some non-tunable, from one piece, for now.
Well, start with the 3/4" schedule 40 PVC. I think that is what Doug uses. Then start measuring. I’m away from home or I could take some measurements for you. Otherwise I think starting with a non-tunable design is a good tactic when you do not have a lathe. Still a two piece whistle allows you to swap out finger tubes and heads as you improve upon each prototype.
Sorry, I’m thinking out loud
Feadoggie
What is the difference between an engineering lathe and a “normal” lathe? I googled it, but I did not really find very much to answer that.
Sorry to be obtuse, Chuck. “Normal” depends on your perspective, doesn’t it? If you work in wood, a lathe where the cutting tools are guided freehand would be normal. If you work in metal, a lathe would be considered normal where the cutting tool is guided by a mechanized carriage.
So, my background was showing. Engineers and machinists use metal working lathes, ergo… I guess it’s more “normal” here to call it a machinists lathe or metal lathe. What I had in mind was something like a Grizzly G8688 (where have I seen one of those?). I’ve heard these machines referred to as metal lathes, metalworking lathes, engine lathes, engineer lathes, engineering lathes, machine lathes, machinist lathes or the big green spinny thing. As opposed to the lathes woodworkers are likely to use. But last time I checked my woodworking lathe was also a metal lathe by virtue of the material from which it is constructed. 
Obviously, you can make whistles on either style of lathe. Schultz style whistle heads are best made with the precision of a metal working lathe, IMO.
Feadoggie
Maybe that is where I went wrong. I use a precision metal lathe. For example, there are turret lathes and engine lathes. The are basically the same, but they have different attachments or ways of mounting tools. I though maybe I was encountering a type of lathe that I was not familiar with. My underlying question is how someone would make (mass produce) a labium ramp like the ones on a Schultz style instrument.
The labium is produced the old fashioned way - hand worked with files. It’s a time consuming process but I find it to be good therapy. 
I started making that style whistle based on Glenn’s article in Woodwind Quarterly from way back when. No doubt, you can alter the Schultz design to use mass production techniques and get the same geometry (Susato-ish labium). I’ve messed with a few of those alterations with success. Still I like the handwork. Files are beautiful things. And I don’t have a milling machine at this point.
Actually, if you look at a head on one of John Sindt’s whistles you can see how he uses a mill to cut the labium (ok, that’s my own forensic determination). Still a fair bit of work. The dimensions of the components are different from a Weasel but it’s still a similar three piece head design consisting of the head tube, a plug and an outer collar. The windway is cut into the head tube and the ramp is cut at the end of the windway. The plug forms the windway floor and the collar forms the windway roof. John does really nice work.
Feadoggie
Thats what I thought. I have made a couple of heads like Susato. Mixed results. I have a bunch of good files, and I can use them, but I would rather let the machine do the work… 
When I did my machinist appreticeship, our instructior taught us the following rule:
Machines should work, people should think.
I got a look at a Sindt recently and agree with Feadoggie’s forensics, which does not mean that either of us is correct.
Machines should work, people should think
So a maker should think, become a tool maker (or spend some $), and then let the machine do the work. Or just get good at using files.
Right!
back to the original question
drilling the holes is the easy part
figuring out where to put them (if you want an in tune good whistle), making a slide, and making the head are the harder parts.
where to put them is not too hard - just use flutomat and it will get you close, then you can fine tune and make more whistles until you are happy
the slide really requires a lathe though I bet someone has made one without a lathe - solution make a one piece whistle
the head - look at guido’s site.
To sum up - if you don’t have fancy tools make a one piece whistle, Guido’s instructions seem to work (though I’ve never tried them) - the Tipple body is not going to make the job easier since drilling holes is easier than making a slide.
a two piece is nice though since you can then play with different bodies without having to make another head
just my 2 cents
An end-to-end coupler for 1/2" copper pipe is a snug fit inside 3/4" CPVC (water) pipe. I’ve used those with good success as tuning slides for alto whistles (C down to G). Since they’re fairly short, the constriction doesn’t seem to flatten the second octave very much. You could make the head Gonzato-style with no special tools. An alternative way is to make a Hoover-style head and cut the windway into the pipe wall with a file or scraper (file with the end sharpened). It’s a bit of work, but can be done with patience. You need to make sure the windway roof is flat or slightly deeper at the beak end.