Well I decided to boost production while trying out Delrin, so I hired a few local kids I know who are fresh out of college and needing work.
Here is a view inside my workshop this morning, from my Shop Cam:
I expect to boost output from about 2 flutes every other month to maybe 1 flute every month. If I am lucky.
Casey
I really envy these guys. They get to sit down while working at their lathes. My knees are shot from standing at the lathe for 30 years, the last 20 on a concrete floor!
Casey
The other lesson to learn from this photo is that all of these old flutes we treasure and play were made by people who regularly used spittoons - while making and playing these flutes. Very hygienic.
Maybe all that chewed tobacco is how old Boxwood gets its patina…
Casey
I think you are underestimating the antimicrobial/fungal properties of nicotine.
My tiny workshop is carpeted (it was once [previous owners] the main bedroom)! I stand doing lathe work and sit doing drilling and filing etc. work, just like the guys in the photo. Lovely pic!
I have a workbench with small lathe and two work tables in the front carpeted bedroom on the main floor of our house. I have a good view of what is going on outside. I usually sit on a stool when I am at the lathe. My other machine tools (belt/disk sander, miter saw, three drill presses, grinder, shop vac, and polishing machine) are in the basement. I usually stand on rubber mats to operate the machine tools, although I have two stools that I can use when I am in the mood. I also have a vintage concrete double wash tub that I have converted into a hand-sanding station for the water-sanding of the pvc flute bodies. I usually stand to do this, but I can do this sitting down if my back is bothering me.
I’m curious to know how many flutes a flute maker typically makes, say in a month. Or how many hours go into making a keyless verses a keyed flute?
How many flutes could a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck flutes?
The answer is in there and involves quantum math. It all depends upon how many naps one needs in a typical day. I seem to need more of them.
I average about 150-200 a year, depending upon my health and enthusiasm and economic circumstances.
Casey
Just be sure to maintain your stringent quality control with those college kids.
and if they complain about the white shirts and ties, show them the door.
In all seriousness, are you now making delrin flutes and are you taking orders for that now???
The Delrin just arrived and is sitting here in my office. Actually I am more interested in the 8’ long 4" diameter cardboard tube than the contents inside. I want to make a big fife out of it. Will require 4 people to play (one for the embouchure, 3 for the 6 patented tone holes).
I can’t say for sure about the Delrin till I try it but I suspect I won’t be using this. But for sure I will be using Cast Acrylic Resin and Alternative Ivory. I am accepting orders for the latter in my Folk Flute line - but email me at caseyburnsflutes@gmail.com to discuss, rather than here. I merely wanted to report my progress using these materials.
Casey
Great minds think alike, I guess. Daniel, you better get working on the patent papers.
Casey, do let us know what turns out from your polymers.
Feadoggie
Casey,
I knew if anyone would, you would have a shop dress code!!!
I’ll do the blowin’ on the big flute, you do the fingerin’, I’d be just like Lark camp all over again! 
JD
What a different world that was that there was a need for so many flutes and flute makers. Thanks for the picture.
So many mailing tubes, so little time…
If this was Rudall’s shop (it may have been. Terry or Robert Bigio if you are following, do you recognize this location? Terry, are
you still with us?) perhaps they were aware of the need for these flutes far in the future (i.e., our generations) and so they hired
extra workers to make it happen.
As to a Dress Code - I’m struggling with that. I am not what you would call “Svelte” - instead I am that statistic that
has been in the news lately though I have never been that much into potato chips but I am fond of snacking.
I figure it was a mixture of dark chocolate, Manchego Cheese and going from full time bike touring to driving a car 20 years
ago that is causing this. Well, my longevity is maybe a little better staying off the bike in these days of SUVs and cell phoned drivers.
I was in 3 gnarly bike/car accidents before. I an twice the man that I should be, in the wrong way. One could probably cut strips
of fat off of my carcass and not need to add cheese or chocolate to their “Long Pork” mole’.
For some reason the makers of clothes that used to fit me decided that men like pants that barely hug the hips yet have
enormous inseams for cargo shorts (all that I wear around home even in winter). So the result are these really baggy pants that are
insufficient to tuck a shirt into yet hang down to one’s ankles. And not enough elastic to stay up. Its kind of embarrassing.
So I wear increasingly worn out shorts that are getting rather see through. Tshirts as well - the most comfortable ones have
rips around the armpits for ventilation. Am trying out clothes ordered online since all the stores here have clothes designed for
my body 20 years ago. Its a problem with my Scottish and Michigan derived genome. My dad at this age was even larger by another 25%.
I need to go back to the Dayton Miller Collection in pursuit of some interesting projects sometime, probably in the fall
next year when I can also catch the fall foliage. One of the things I want to do is look at the photograph/document collection
carefully. I also need to visit the Smithsonian for both fossils, old instruments I might copy, as well as a few air museums including
the Udvar-Hazy. Then up for the same and more in New York at the Metropolitan Museum. Interesting stuff back there. If I go, I’ll
have to be better dressed. I am trying. What do you think? Any improvement?
Before:
http://www.caseyburnsflutes.com/misc/oldclothes.jpg
After:
http://www.caseyburnsflutes.com/misc/newclothes.jpg
I have nothing to hide, being well married and am 55 (I know many at my age who look much worse and for me, there is
no chance of improvement - yet) so I didn’t reduce these. This is how I really look. Looks have nothing to do with how well
my flutes play, I hope. Both photos taken last year. So here is the Full Frontal Me, before and after. Children and people with
sensitive constitutions be warned. This is what a gnarly old flute maker really looks like. Seriously. I suspect many will take up
something else like the Banjo after seeing these pictures.
First image - at the sleep study that showed I have Sleep Apnea, not Lyme Disease. Clothes by “George” (WallMart). The wiring
by Virginia Mason Hospital. CPAP by Advanced Respironics. This is my most comfortable outfit and I have several copies. When
it fits well, I buy as many as are available.
Second Image - at Lark Camp. That’s musician Danny Carnahan of Caswell-Carnahan / Wake the Dead fame on the left. He is
more or less family. Clothes by the Men’s Wearhouse. Montara (Galician pipers’s hat) an Acrylic copy of a woolen Galician original
I own, copy by Sacramento Theatrical Costumer Nicole Sivell. This one I can wear comfortably on a hot day and I am not allergic
to it. Gaita Gallega by Xose Seivane, the grandfather of Susanna Seivane and father of the two Seivanes who now make these excellent
bagpipes. I had put some pounds on since fitting these pants thanks to the generous portions at Lark Camp not to mention the Buffalo
Cookies and was about to seriously pass out from constriction at the waist when this photo was taken. But I wanted to look “cool”.
Mark Nelson of Hawaiian Music fame said enthusiastically that I had finally “found my look”.
Casey
Cool! Life-size pictures of Casey. Now I have something to put out in my garden next spring (the drought killed everything this year).
BTW, I’m really enjoying the new flutes, Casey.
dow
Casey, those oversized photos were crashing my browser. So I substituted the links. Thanks - Mod.
Huh? Sorry, not following the action. No, don’t recognise the workshop; it doesn’t look like Rudall Carte’s. Here’s one RC image:
More at http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/RC_Wshop1922.htm
Terry