and we still wait for the first concrete flute to emerge from Jack’s molds…
For some reason, this post reminded me of the scheduling at Swannanoa and other summer schools.
They never, EVER put the beginner whistle classes in the morning slots 
Does anybody have 3D Model of flute?
I mean an irish flute like this:
{||==0==||==|==0=0=0==||==0=0=0==||=0=0=||
I have seen what modern computer-assisted machines can do in the manufacturing process, and I have no doubt that it will be possible to replicate almost any shape in the near future. I have a Susato whistle and a Yamaha flute lying on my computer table. The Yamaha flute is well-finished, and the retail price is less than $10. However, I cannot help but think back with some degree of nostalgia when everything that we used in our daily lives was made by hand. There were many jobs in the local communities for people who made the things that the people needed. I’m not sure how people are going to be employed in the future. The thought of having to work in a big-box store for my working career, selling foreign machine-made items is not a vision that is very appealing to me. If you factor in the fact that the wages paid for these kind of jobs are not enough to maintain a home and support your children, the future scenario is doubly troubling.
In the long run, replication as work for individuals is a dead end. Value reduces to the cost of materials and handling. (think paper clips) At one time, this area was an industrial powerhouse in the manufacture of shoes. (worked in the sweatshop as a lad meself…eayuhp!) Much to my surprise…it is once more a leader in “handmade custom and fashionable” shoes! Go figga! (My grandfather had a one-man shop doing that 100 yars ago! Made shoes for misshapen feet and arctic expeditions as well as prototypes for the “big” industry)
Anyway, the “printed” fabrication is not at the point where it can do acoustically perfect surfaces (yet)…molding can, but the upfront time and costs are significant…
There was and still is a glass factory (Anchor Hocking) in my home town. Like Jack, as a college student I spent one hot summer working there. I shovelled the raw materials from railroad box cars, loaded trucks of Gerbers baby food jars, as well as a lot of beer bottles. The glass factory is still in the little town, but because of automation of the glass-blowing process, there are now only about one fourth of the employees that once were employed there.
Glass is one of the industries that hasn’t been hurt too much by imports, if I am not mistaken. Because of the weight and low cost of the products (glass jars and bottles), it is desirable to manufacture these close to where they are going to be filled with product. However, other more valuable and lighter weight items are now mostly imported, unless, as Jack mentioned, there are people with enough savy to create specialty markets. Small-scale instrument makers is a good example of these specialty markets.
A person doesn’t need a 3-D printer. A person just needs to be willing to lead a life of crime. Kidnap fel bautista, he has access to a 3-D printer. Hold him for ransom. The ransom would be a flute mailed to everyone of us on the board. Who would bother tracking down every flute? And as long as all of us keep quiet, no one would ever be able to figure out which of us it was. Voila.
Can you imagine what those 3-D printing cartridges must cost. Maybe they have kits on ebay where you can refill them yourself like I do with my computer printer.
In Moscow that costs 1.20 $ for 1 сubic centimetre.