I am considering making my own Irish whistle and am wondering if anyone knows of a good supplier of delrin rods of the right dimensions for building whistles. If I get into the art of it I may do it as a retirement project business. I think building these would not only be fun but also rewarding. I have found a few plastics companies but figured this site might have the best suppliers of whistle products already picked out. Thanks for any advice or assistance.
I would recommend Online Metals, Small Parts, or Industrial Plastic Supply.
Lots of online vendors stock acetal rod, but these are three that I have always received quality products and service from.
Note that for a whistle you’ll have to start with a solid rod, bore it out, then turn down the outside to the correct OD. If you just want to make a whistle or two for fun, consider PVC pipe.
Welcome to the C&F whistle makers neighborhood! 
I am retired and make whistles myself.
Paul makes a very good suggestion. I you have not yet made any whistles, I would second his recommendation that you start out working with ready made tubes. A lot of materials exist which do not require boring operations right off the bat like copper, brass, CPVC and even delrin. Since you are in the USA, 1/2" CPVC copper tubing sized plumbing pipe is a good place to start. It’s readily abvailable at most home/hardware stores, it’s inexpensive and fairly easy to work with. Excellent whistles can come from plumbing products. The main advantage of the starting with CPVC pipe over solid delrin rods is that you can concentrate on putting the math and physics of whistle design and getting a good head design and hole layout proved out right away (and at a lower cost in materials). The “boring” stuff can come later.
If you are looking for small amounts of delrin to get started on, several suppliers offer rod stock in the appropriate dimensions on eBay. Online Metals is one of those. And delrin, actually acetal (a similar material), is available as tube stock too, including a 5/8" o. d. by 1/2" i.d size which is good for high D whistles. I have only seen it in the natural color though.
How’s your shop equipped, scottie?
Feadoggie
Hmmmmmm… retired from a job. However Feadoggie is not retired from one liners. That is two days in a row now with the humor. 
Thank you, thank you very much… we’ll be here all week!
Here is another place with good supplies. http://www.mcmaster.com/
A few years ago I made a very small number of DIY whistles using the acetal tube stock. It makes a decent C whistle as well as D. McMaster’s did have the tubes in black. US Plastics was another good source for white tubes, called bushing stock, IIRC. PVC is easier to work and I could never hear a great deal of difference between PVC & acetal whistles due solely to the materials. IMO, the differences in whistle sound come from how the whistle is made (window size, airway measurements, etc), not from what material.
(Will admit I can be totally wrong in saying material doesn’t make much difference. This conclusion is based solely on my ears and no one else’s. YMMV )
That’s my experience as well. Thanks for the scoop on McMaster as a source for black tube stock though.
Feadoggie
The only reason I am looking for delrin material is for the fipple plug. I do not care to be drilling out a rod at this time. The pvc and cpvc will be my first attempt. Then I would like to go to copper or brass tubing. Thanks for the info.
I do like acetal/delrin as a plug material. It machines really well. It’s physical properties are rather ideal. It’s a pain to glue but can be pinned in place easily enough. I have used/tried quite a few other polymers as well. CPVC rod is a good choice, IMO. CPVC can be machined to a smooth finish. It’s durable, affordable and can be glued in place. But CPVC is just not as heat or chemical resistant as delrin/acetal. I’ve also cast plugs out of resins which is a neat way to go if you don’t have a lathe to machine plastic rods down to your desired dimensions.
Feadoggie
Thanks for the info Feadoggie. I did not know there would be a problem gluing the delrin plug. Presently I do not have a lath so turning a solid cpvc rod would be impossible. I may have to look into some other options or choices at present or wait til I have a lathe. Thanks again.
Good sources for supply of plastics are Laird, Modern, Midland, Calsak, K-Mak and MSC.
Acetal (aka Delrin aka Polypenco) does not like to be glued or solvent-welded. For that reason, I chose Polycarbonate. ABS will work, but it’s kinda soft (better for molding than machining). When I drill deep holes in plastic, I inject a spray mist. Paul Busman does it without such equipment, but I believe it takes him a while to do each bore.
Walt
Right Walt-- I use a gundrill with a compressed air feed which both cools the drill and plastic, and blows the chips out.
For the original poster-- if you’re just experimenting, you can make wooden fipples from dowel. Get the dowel just a bit oversize and chuck a short piece in a drill press. Spin it and sand it down right in the drill press. Shoot for a pressure fit in your PVC tubing.
I just found the company below. Convenient, no minimum, and free shipping!
Thanks for the information. I will probably do that since I am working away from home and have limited resources and tools. I do have a lath at home but I need to still get a motor to drive it. I know it has about four positions for a drive belt to run the unit at different speeds. I will also have to buy some late tools for cutting the wood or delrin etc. when I decide to do this at home. Until then I may do as you say with the wood dowel and sanding it to fit tightly in the pvc pipe. Do you have to coat the wooden dowel with anything to prevent moisture from getting into the wood and swelling it which I would think might decrease the airway?
Thanks,
Scottie
Have you found a good source you would like to share?
Coating a wood plug with super glue prevents moisture from changing the surface.
A delrin/acetal plug costs more but is less work.
Scottie - I’ve tried making wooden dowel fipple plugs and between the sanding and coating them, I much prefer casting my own out of polyester resin. Just take about 1 1/2" of the pipe you’re using, coat the inside with chapstick, cover one end with masking tape and fill with catalysed resin. Stand it in a can of water about 3/4" deep to absorb heat, and you wind up with a perfect fit, very sandable fipple plug. After you cut to length and sand the ends, you can sand down the windway to size. I use neoprene cement to bond the plug to the pipe. You can even use pigment to make the resin any color you want.
That’s a good suggestion for a first whistle build.
I described my process here. And there is no need for a commercial release agent, as retired points out, you can coat the inside of the mold with auto wax, furniture wax or PAM for that matter. A thin coat is all that is needed, make sure it is smooth.
Another decent method for a first build is to use Sculpey or another polymer clay as the plug. It is basically a soft and malleable PVC. You bake it to make it hard. You can mold in patterns by rolling various colors together. Again use a length of your whistle pipe as a mold. I bake it in a toaster oven outside to prevent any problems from off-gassing but jewelry makers bake it in their kitchen ovens all the time apparently. YMMV
Be careful, a tight fit is probably not what you want in PVC/CPVC. It can be stretched and will expand if the fit is too tight. That will mess with the geometry between the bottom of the blade and the floor of the windway. (Unless your design is different than most.) You are looking for a firm slip fit for the plug.
Feadoggie