Question: What is the best method for removing the mouthpiece (plastic) from the body of a thin walled aluminum whistle without damaging any part of the mouthpiece itself or the whistle body? I would appreciate any comments/suggestions. Thank you!
-James
A Stor Mo Chroi
A Missive
Put in hot, not boiling water briefly, and give it a gentle twisting.
The first time I did it I kept it in the water too long and ruined it! 
Since them I start with warm and work up from there!
Hmmm. I’ve completely failed to get the head off a Feadog. Hot water…brute force. Nothing works. And I’ve done lots of whistles bofore, and helped others when they had difficulty. But this one has me beat.
Another era has passed and a sad thing it is, too. Stewy’s bodacious avitar no longer graces the C&F. I shall hoist a pint this evening and mourn her passing.
My Feadog was tough to defipulate also.
What I ended up doing was to put it in the freezer for 10 minutes before dunking in hot water. That worked. Gotta move quick tho - before the temperatures equalize.
With my LBW a long hot soak did the trick - but the paint went gooey as well - so now its a LBPSW (partially silver). I also filed off all the corners on the fipple - it looks faster but plays just the same.
Thanks for the replys. But…Removing the mouthpiece WITHOUT
damaging either the mouthpiece itself OR the whistle body…that’s what
the challenge is. My goal is to remove the original mouthpiece, to try a
different mouthpiece, and then replace the original…
Thanks!
-James
A Stor Mo Chroi
A Missive
Following Stewy’s advice will not damage your instrument unless, as he mentioned, you were to boil the water. Also, it may help to know what whistle is this you are attempting to take apart?
Start out with water that is hot to the touch but do not boil it. Sometimes even hot water from the tap has done the trick for me… depends on how well your water heater works though, I imagine this would be different with each person. Other times I microwaved a teacup of water and that worked as well. Again, just don’t boil it. You need not leave the headjoint in the water very long either; dip it in, wait a few seconds and then take it out and twist it off using a towel or something so you don’t burn yourself. If you hold the headjoint by the bottome of it (the part that is on the tube, not by the beak) then you’ll decrease the likeliness of a split headjoint from torquing it unequally. I’ve never damaged a whistle in this process and I’ve done this dozens of times.
Mitch also gave good advice. For tougher whistles (like Oaks) I’ve had to freeze the whistle and then do the hot water bit immediately afterward. That’s always done the trick where the hot water alone wouldn’t.
Good luck.
Danger Will Robinson!
I recently learned of a very strange phenomenon. It is possible for water to be heated above and beyond the boiling point in a microwave, and yet not boil. That microwave teacup of water may be hotter than anything you could produce in a kettle:
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/m/microwavewater.htm
Remember, always read the manufacturer’s instructions and wear goggles and all other recommended safety gear before taking up the whistle.
Regards,
Tom
The only way to boil water hotter than 212 degrees at sea level is to put it under pressure. At 600 psi water boils at about 400 degrees.
Technically you can superheat water to a temperature slightly above 212 degrees Faran, 212 degrees frar, 212 degrees farner, 100 degrees celsius in a microwave under perfect conditions, heating for a long time and not disturbing it. It will steam, turning to gas, but not boil
As soon as it is disturbed it will spontanoer, spontanea, spe, rapidly boil.
http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/superheating.html
The-the-the thats all, folks.
That microwave water thing happened to me. I was in a company-rented apartment. Everything was new in there. I put water in a clean new cup and microwaved it, intending to make tea before I left for England on business. I opened the door and didn’t see any bubbles. I gave it some more nuke time. Agan no bubbles. What the heck, I took out the cup and placed it on the counter in front of me with a bit of a bump. As I looked down I could see the spray of water heading upwards and I remember thinking “no England today”. But I wasn’t scalded. I’m guessing the spray was so fine that each droplet lost enough heat in transit. It was hot, but not enought to do damage.
The type of whistle I am trying to separate without damaging is a Walton
Goldentone C. It has a yellow plastic mouthpiece and a “goldtone” body
I do not want to damage. I would like to try a differennt mouthpiece on
this whistle body. Does anyone know what kind of glue was used to
attach the original mouthpiece? Thanks again for your help!
-James
A Stor Mo Chroi
A Missive
No way to know what kind of glue.
You shouldn’t have any problem with the hot water method.
Walton heads are pretty chunky compared to most. I think you’ll be safe.
I’ve removed the heads on all my “headed” whistles that way.
I haven’t messed one up yet.
Can’t worry too much about breaking it. Thats the beauty of the low cost whistle. You can always get another with little pain.
If you aren’t willing to risk it, leave it alone.
I like to explore.
Heck, In the last year I’ve taken Xacto blades, sand paper, files, bee’s wax, sheet plastic and glue to mine.
MOST of the time its been for the better. 
Thanks for the response Aanvil. I am going to try the hot water method
(I think) Replacing this whistle would be a problem though. Waltons
discontinued this particular whistle. It has a very nice traditional sound.
Just thought that I would explore the possibilities with this type of whistle
body. I appreciate your kind help.
-James
A Stor Mo Chroi
A Missive
I kinda blew past your description in the first post… sorry.
Goldtone C.
Ya, that is what I have read too.
Makes it a collectable!
I removed the head of a Walton’s LBW using hotwater. I ran some hot water through my coffee maker. I stuck the the head of the whistle in the hot water, heard a cracking sound (the glue seal breaking) and was able to remove the whistle head. Since putting another LBW head on (there was nothing wrong with the original; long story…) I haven’t been able to get it off. You do want to be careful about that aluminum tube; you can bend it with your bare hands. Just make sure you hold the whistle near the head when you pull. Personally, I wouldn’t want to risk the damage to a rare instrument like a Golden Tone. Good luck!
[Thread revival. - Mod]
Today I encountered the same difficulty: it seems that the mouthpieces of the Feadog whistles are chemically fused with the metal.
Did you put the whistle in the freezer to make the metal retract and then dipped the plastic of the mouthpiece in hot water to complete the detachment?
Hurray, cheer, cheer! I succeeded right now but in a very drastic and risky way: I brought the temperature of the whistle to -18 degrees Celsius by leaving it in the freezer for 10 minutes, then I immersed its mouthpiece in boiling water for 3 seconds, with the help of a cloth I gave a very strong twist to the mouthpiece (my hands hurt!). I had to repeat the short immersion of the mouthpiece two more times and twist the mouthpiece with great force, to make it detach from the tube. In the end, with great effort and attention, the desired result was obtained but the blade had become dangerously soft (luckily it did not deform or break). Returning to room temperature, the mouthpiece has maintained its exact original shape. The only problem is the sliding of the mouthpiece on the tube: the mouthpiece slides badly and I don’t know whether to sandpaper its inside or the outside of the tube in the sliding section of the mouthpiece. I will probably sandpaper the inside of the mouthpiece so as not to compromise the uniformity of the tube: I do not want to modify its natural resonance (perhaps it is better to thin the plastic which is musically more refractory material).
A simple search would have shown you a better option. The subject has come up very often in tyhe past.
From an old post :
Best option is to shun the hot water (heat also softens the plastic of the head) and just ‘throw’ the whistle with some force into the tube of a wider whistle. Forces will only move one way, along the length of the tube, and heads come off cleanly in a few goes (depending on the amount of force used).
This method hasn’t failed me yet.