To avoid constantly tuning my cane regulator reeds, I wanted to see if it would be possible to make working regulator reeds from plastic. I first tried making them from a yogurt container but that didn’t work out well so I then sliced up a plastic bottle and it worked a bit better. Here’s a recording of the uglies in action 
those regulator reeds sound pretty good Islander
I have a few questions:
Was there a noticable improvement in stability?
Did you cut the slips along the length of the bottle using the existing
curve to make the eye shape at the lips, or around the bottle using the
existing curve to help close the lips?
Did you use similar dimensions (length & width) as cane for the blades?
How thick was the plastic material of the bottle?
Did you find the label still attached to the plastic made it less slippery
to handle & tie, or was it extra stiffness you were looking for?
Cheers,
donpiper
Hello donpiper!
I haven’t needed to tune the reeds after the initial tuning, and while my chanter reed (cane) has undergone changes as before, the reg reeds have remained unaffected. So yes: there is a noticeable improvement in stability. I did, however, adjust the bass reed’s bridle a little bit soon after posting that video, just to make it more stable under pressure.
The plastic is pretty close to 1 mm thick, may even be exactly 1 mm. I’ll post a more accurate measurement once I find the right tool. Can’t even find the ruler when my gf is away visiting her parents. She likes to arrange the house and hide my things.
I cut the slips along the length of the bottle. The original blade dimensions worked well for the tenor and baritone reeds but I used different dimensions for the bass. The bass is wider and shorter than the original dimensions. For some reason the original dimensions did not co-operate with the plastic to give a well functioning reed. The tips of the blades are sanded in all reeds to make them weak enough to sound, much like when making cane reeds, but with plastic like this the scrape doesn’t need to be long at all.
As for the bottle label still attached to the plastic: I was just too lazy to remove it 
Maybe the effect is good or maybe it’s bad - I don’t know. I guess it could be be muffling the tone slightly.
Thanks islander for the answers.
I will have to try making some, when I get around to it, that is.
I have some chanter reeds and some drone reeds to finish first.
cheers,
donpiper
No problem, I hope you’ll have success with them!
I finally found the ruler and remembered to measure the thickness of the plastic. It’s 0.5 mm without any sanding - thinner than I thought. Easy to work with, bends nicely around the staple with no warping elsewhere. The bottle I used is 95 mm in diameter.
Has anyone else here tried making these for the regs yet? If not, I’d like to encourage you to do so. They are much easier and faster to make than cane reeds, and mine have continued to stay in tune, no matter where I’ve played them or what the weather has been like.