Hi! I’m Lefty!
I do all kinds of crazy stuff, but today I’m trying to find out if I can make a 4-5 foot metal staff whistle when it is twirled.
I cant seem to find any designs or plans for such a thing, or even videos of people getting hit in the groin with something like it, and there’s videos of guys getting hit with EVERYTHING! lol
so, my ideas are unsupported by education, research or even personal experience… Hence my need for one of you guru’s.
I’d like to design a set of inserts for a tube that makes a nice sound when spun end over end…
Lefty, I think you win our new, offical KAPOW (Krazy-Ass Post of the Week) award.
Of course, our whistle focus here is on the musical instrument, not other utility whistles like police whistles, bosun’s whistles, bird whistles, etc. But you never know.
Are you imagining something for public performance, like baton twirling or cheerleading or marching band? Or something just for fun?
I’ve seen, as toys, flexible plastic tubes that you twirl around like a bullroarer to make noise. But I’m not sure you could size a long, rigid tube to work the same way. I thought of cutting fipples into the tube ends, or attaching siren whistles, but those don’t seem likely. Maybe the deer whistles that people attach to the front of their cars to avoid collisions - if you can twirl fast enough. A very thin rod might give you a sustained “sword swish” effect, but not be very loud. Electronic sirens with accelerometers could be another approach.
Some of the creative folk and instrument makers here might have better ideas …
It’s so crazy, the board didn’t even
add it to Lefty’s post count! If anyone
does invent it, there will people here
asking for the left-handed version. So,
good start with the moniker is all I’m
saying.
I would suggest two plungers that are
on springs that hold it to the center of
the staff which are pulled by centrifugal
force toward the ends when the staff is
spun. These plungers provide pressure
to force air out of fipples at the end of
the staff. The pitch would rise as the
plungers move, of course. Kind of like 2
slide whistles controlled by the spin.
I’d suggest making the ends of the tube perpendicular and reasonably sharply finished – not sharp, but not rounded off – sanded smooth or beveled maybe 1/2-1 mm. The tube should be thin-walled. If it won’t whistle straight off, put corks in the ends, starting with the cork face about 2x the inner diameter from the end of the tube. try this, and if it doesn’t work, continue by pushing the corks in about one diameter at a time. If you get to 10x the diameter without any sound, then there’s something wrong – probably you’re not spinning it fast enough, or the tube may be too big a diameter to sound well.
You can try tying it (securely) to a rope and swinging it around to get more speed. It will definitely sound when you do this (as experimentally verified by the toys MTG cites) unless there’s a design flaw.
Yes, I just saw a variant on the exact same earlier, myself. Note his point about corrugation being important; in the other site the point was made that the corrugation should be serial and accordion-like, NOT spiral. Taking such info at its word, perhaps a series of o-rings set into the bore of a tube could perform a similar perturbation function?
Yeah, I was thinking of maybe finding a corrugated tube that would fit into a pipe but inserting rings of different shapes might work too. We’ll suss it out in time! Right Nano?
The fireworks do have a certain flare to them, dontcha think?
WOW, You Guys! Thanks SO much for all the kind thoughts and great ideas!
@Trolls @NaySayers @g00fbaIIs
I was respectful, honest and direct… its ok to be “wrong” if you are those other three things… But you wouldn’t know, would you?
I’m glad you feel comfortable with your friends here, but to chase off someone from the outside world who asked for your help?
I dunno… seems… dumb… IMHO You’re like digital HillBillies.. Stop it… It hurts the Chiff &Fipple community that you’re so comfortable in.
So back to the guys on the top of the list!
I’m a 3d modeller who uses a process called 3d printing to make digital ideas into physical products… My pal spins the Fire staff and he loves the sound of the fire whooshing around him, but fire is not always practical… or legal… so he thought… “Lefty can make a whistle”… I thought “That’s gonna be easy!” but as my now proudly worn Krazy-ass-post-of-the-week status… (thanks!) tells me, this is not a simple “check this product out” kinda deal, so I’ll go over all the AMAZING info, links and ideas you guys have offered, and I’ll DEFINITELY keep y’all in the loop!!
Thanks again SO much for your outstanding support for a total stranger.
