I’ll bet there are more than a few engineers / lawyers / physicists on this list.
Any comments on “3-D printing”? It’s something that’s been percolating since
the 1980’s that lets you design (or copy) a 3-D object and reproduce it - the
whole thing - physically - without doing any hand on work. It just pops out, like
toast from a toaster.
Some reading material: http://www.publicknowledge.org/it-will-be-awesome-if-they-dont-screw-it-up
no bacon? 
We discussed this awhile back. The first person who admits to owning a 3-D printer is going to get a “visit” from “someone”. The “visitor” is going to make them print out 1000’s of copies of a very nice flute by holding “something” to their head and then “convince” them to mail one of these flutes to each and everyone who supplies their maling address to a thread. No one will ever know which of these 1000’s of people (if it’s even one of those people) is the “visitor.” I’ll have an alibi.
Interesting article, I don’t think it is a threat to flute makers. I doubt cocus or blackwood will be coming out of a printer cartridge any time soon. Polymer flutes might be possible now. Some of these ‘printers’ print with a type of metal, still not good for flutes. I could see silver keys done this way at some point, but they would still require handwork to complete the job.
Now Doug Tipple might get a run for his money…
Lewis
There are one or two obstacles I can envision to 3D-printed flutes. The first I can see is the limited materials, which also relates to the second. The second is that people want hand-made instruments. The injection-molded Yamaha recorders I’ve played (and I’ve heard it about Zen-on and others) are really wonderful. I’m not a recorder player, but my wife is, and the Yamaha plastic recorders are solidly in the mid-range for quality and sound. And they cost about a tenth what a mid-range wooden recorder costs.
3D printing is still pretty steep; I think the per-unit cost at this point wouldn’t make a 3D-printed flute competitive with a Tipple. I’m not sure once you consider the CAD time/effort whether it would be competitive with a Burns Folk Flute or Sweetheart.
I don’t think, however, that 3D printing will ever replace a Patrick Olwell, Hammy Hamilton, or the like.
Charles mentioned injection-molded Yamaha recorders. I agree that they are very nice. The only reason that similar molded plastic simple-system Irish flutes are not currently available is that that producers like Yamaha don’t think that there are enough buyers to make it worth their while to develop and produce the product. I do own a 6-key Ferris flute in the key of F. It is made from molded plastic (probably not injection molded), plays nicely, and sells for about $200. I’m not aware of a similar low D flute in the same price range, but it is just a matter of time. However, a 3-piece Yamaha plastic low D flute selling for $30 would be a blow to people who make lower-cost, hand-made simple-system flutes.
Quite, Doug & chas. I mean, Aulos have had their ABS traversos on the market for many years, but the price never comes down significantly, certainly nowhere near their excellent recorders - presumably because there isn’t adequate demand volume and maybe because there’s some hand finishing or other production issues that make them more difficult/expensive than the recorders. (Though why baffles me - I’d have thought they’d be easier, actually!) Aulos are already set up to make transverse flutes, but seemingly their marketing/R&D people haven’t found a likely market for an “Irish” style folk flute to bother to start on one - seems a bit strange to us, and I wouldn’t mind betting there are more potential Irish style flute players than baroque flautists in the world in general… but then, neither have they bothered to try to challenge Generation or Susato in the Whistle market, and I bet they could easily give the latter a run for their money if they wanted to.
now would be a really good time for the makers to publish the specifications of their designs (those who havent alredy) and allow anyone with access to a 3d printer to go ahead and copy, create, iterate, colaberate and improve.
Yes it may be commercial suicide in the long run, but i have a hope that in 500 years Future-Terry-McGee will be discussing the legacey and technique of those makers who embraced the technology in its nacence.
I think there will allwayse be a market for the high end, hand made, silver keyed, rudal perfected, expensive-wood-carved, engraved, ultra-flutes. Where this technology will be most disruptive/revolutionary is in the middle-range flutes… the kind i am on the lookout for.
But this technology is still the perview of engineers, hobiests and futurists, i certanly have no desire to buy such a device.
If paper printers are any indication, I’m guessing that the price of the 3-D printing cartridges might be expensive. You can buy a paper printer/copying machine for next to nothing, but I am continually disgusted when I see that I am needing to buy expensive ink cartridges every time I turn around.
My wife was watching a TV program about home improvements. One of the woodworking guys had a computer-driven machine that carved fancy door panels. He said that you simply turned on the machine and let it run for “4 hours per panel”. That would be 12 hours of run time for the panels on just one door. I wonder how long it would take to construct a 3-D object one layer at a time?
Well, we’ve had factory made furniture for quite a long time now and there is still a decent sized market for hand made furniture. We have highly automated car factories but companies like Bentley that have a huge amount of hand craftsmanship in their cars are still very strong. Various companies have violin factories but there are still independent luthiers who specialize in violins.
3D printing like CNC is just another automation technique.
Technology doesn’t necessarily replace good craftsmanship I do think it tends to make the craftsmen better though since they almost always get pushed to the top tier in their product since it’s tough to go head-to-head with an automated factory in volume or speed of production so they have to go with quality over cost or speed.
Just some observations…
i’m thinking this is true, since they’re stopped making several models:
http://www.aswltd.com/aulosfl.htm
Doug, it also appears Ferris is no longer making that F flute… they only have the Bb now on their website…
cheers,
eric
Read somewhere on the internets that printer ink is made from a mixture of pigments and unicorn blood.
You can see why it’s so pricey.
You might want to look into hooking up a Continuous Ink Supply system.
Ah, that’d be due to the shortage of Virgins to Tame the Unicorns (or lure them to their deaths) so that their Blood could be drawn, I presume. Tapping them like blood donors would be better economics than killing them and draining their blood, of course, as they are almost as rare as Virgins - but we all know how wasteful of resources corporate capitalism is…
The trick would not be in “printing” the flutes, but in
capturing the internal design first. The difference between, say,
an M&E and, say, an Aebi would not be in simple things like
shape of the embouchure or size of the tone holes or bore diameter.
It would be in the inner bits - how the undercutting is done differently
on each hole, the shapes and cutting angles of the holes or how the bore tapers or
varies from a circle in cross-section. I suppose you’d at least have to run some
real ones through an MRI scanner a few times. Even then some of the ones
you “printed” probably would be duds and some would be great and nobody
would know why.
With factory-made instruments like Buffet R-13 clarinets or Loree oboes,
the buyer plays a dozen or more of them and picks out the best one or maybe
decides they are all duds in that batch. Even though in theory they’re all the
same down to the fraction of a millimeter.
Seth Hamon is now making Swedish pipes with a casting system that could be used to make keyed flutes, I think this would be interesting…
I get a permissions error with your link,Jon.
Perhaps http://www.swedishbagpipes.com/Home_Page.php might work better. He discusses his casting on the Swedish Pipe page.
Bob
Thanks, did have trouble with the link.
http://www.swedishbagpipes.com/Plastic_Swedish_Bagpipes.html He does artificial legs, that is where he got the color…
I think it’s a nightmare to think that, one day, the beautiful hand-made flutes that we know could be made entirely by a computer or machine.
The great makers of today, just like those of the past, KNEW their instruments in every way, by making them by hand, by examining the whole process minutely with every sense (eye, ear, nose, touch, maybe even taste), by TAKING TIME, just as an artist takes time, to get to know their creation.
This is important because it means that the maker is an expert on how the thing was made, how long it took, before selling it to someone who will take an equal amount of time perhaps to get to know the instrument and play it well. It’s a relationship, a two-way relationship. (It’s worth reading what Matt Molloy says about Patrick Olwell in the interview reproduced on Firescribble.)
If you tell me there’s a machine that can give me all the details I need to make the best Boxwood Rudall bore, and I select the programme on the machine, press the button and have the thing made, well I’m sorry but I may be able to sell the created instruments to you but I won’t know a thing about the instrument I’m selling; then, I’ll decide to cut corners to make more of these instruments more quickly, and as I increase production while neglecting my expert knowledge of their making (since the machine has it all stored for me), then the quality of these instruments will decline without my knowing - as will the playing. (Notice that today, many young people write very badly because they rely on spell-checkers…)
For me, this is not unlike the idea that one day we’ll have robotic prostheses that we can wear on our hands like gloves and that will play like Matt Molloy or Kevin Crawford etc., depending on which programme we select. Will that make us better musicians or worse musicians? It will certainly make us less in touch, literally, with our instruments and with the touch needed to sound those instruments.
No, no, no… let the artists take the time that they take to make these beautiful instruments. For example, that “time” taken is written all over Terry McGee’s website, since he is a very good example of an artist who is willing to spend huge amounts of time, slow time, making something worth making and worth playing and worth keeping for hundreds of years.
Finally, that time taken is part of the personality of these flute-makers: I get the impression that many of the great flute-makers we love enjoy the solitude and “meditation” (for want of a better word) involved in the creative process; these are no ordinary guys with hobbies; they are dedicated craftsmen. I’d hate to see that go away, but it could be so easily eliminated by a machine.
Shane
A friend from Italy sent me this website address to help with my design of a new G flute.
I find it interesting that the flutes (quenas) are made by CNC machines and from a composite called paperwood. Nothing inexpensive about these flutes, though.
http://educci.de/gb_educcifloeten.html