I just started playing around with making my own whistles. I have a set of highs done, no alto yet, and my low D did not turn out well. I am using cpvc for tubing.
I ordered a couple of susato heads and will make a set of bodies for them.
Does anyone know of a good place to buy aluminum or brass tubing in 7/8 and 5/8 OD? cpvc is ok but I would like to do them in metal if possible.
Ideally I would like delrin but I have no lathe to bore with. Yet … hehe
Greetings Dagda,
You don’t say where you are in the world, but since your post uses imperial, not metric measurements , I’m guessing you’re in the U.S of A. If so, I think most people your side of the pond use brass tubing from K&S Engineering (who produce telescoping sizes of tubes for the hobby market). I know they do a 5/8. I’m Down Under in Australia, and buy my K&S tubing online for about AU$10 a linear foot from an Ozzie hobby supply company “Railcar” . It’s imported from America as there don’t seem to be any Australian makers of such tube. I can however buy 1-1.5 mm thick aluminium tubing for altos and low whistles quite readily in the local hardware superstore chain. If I were you I’d do a phone round your local hobby shops (esp. those that do model cars, planes or trains) ans see if they do K&S. Otherwise a websearch will throw some up some online retailer for sure. The beauty of the telescoping arrangement is that you can also mess around with tuning slides if you want to, but that way madness lies.
Be careful what you wish for with the delrin too. When you cut it with a saw, it smells like you’ve slaughtered a skunk. I’ve been threatened with expulsion from my woodturning club for even bringing it into the shed. 
Hope this helps. Good luck with your projects.
Thank you very much irishmuse, it helps alot to know a manufacturer name to find things.
Yes I am in the USA. I do have a large hobby shop that has a huge train department near me. I’ll give them a call first. I know I have bought solid brass wire from them for my cribbage boards I make. I don’t remember seeing tubing there but it’s in an old mill building and is huge so they sometimes have something I can look for days and never find 
Maybe they can order if for me.
I have found most of what I use at these two links.
http://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant.cfm?id=84&step=2
http://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-red-metal-hollow-tubing/=jvijmu
Thanks for the tip on “Railcar”, their prices don’t seem too bad compared to the usual here in Oz. Still high compared to over there though. Anyone in the USA can look at Votaw Tool Company for brass tube or perhaps Special Shapes for bigger sizes.
That sounds odd for Delrin!! Never had that problem myself. Where are you getting it?
Fifteen two, fifteen four and the rest don’t score. That takes me back Dagda, used to play with my great-grandfather!
http://www.specialshapes.com/BrassTubing.html
They are in Chicago. I get aluminium tubes from onlinemetals.com too.
Tommy
Hi Erle,
As an expatriate Scot, I’m always glad to play into the stereotype and help in saving a buck. I’m on the Gold Coast and buy the delrin from a local plastics place (P&M Plastics & Rubber) in Burleigh Heads, that also produces marine rubber products,signage and so on. I also got some food-grade polyethylene rod from them to make fipple plugs for low whistles (the ‘clear to white’ stuff used to make chopping boards). It was cheaper and fairly easy to work with. The delrin or 'acetal rod" as it was sold to me is black, and even cut with a hacksaw produces an acrid odor that takes a while to clear from the garage (where I do most of my work). I also do a bit of amateur woodturning and took the delrin rod in to the club to bore on the lathe, with a view to hollowing out a piece to form a headshell for a whistle. Even on slow speed, where I am sure friction wasn’t an issue, there were complaints about the smell, including direct, albeit humourously-intended, accusations that it was I ( and not the delrin) that was the source. Purists at the club don’t even like us working with acrylics to produce pens etc. so I’ve ceased and desisted as it were.Someone had also ruined the club’s bandsaw blade cutting corian the previous week, so non-woodwork was going well out of fashion. I did google the problem and it threw up a few similar experiences, mostly put down to the presence of acetic acid in acetal itself, hence the acridity.BTW I’ve also used the acrylic pen blanks for fipple plugs on soprano whistles, and they make an interesting variation on the plain wood or plastic look. Turned to a cylinder though, they are not thick enough to then bore and use as heads, hence my experimentation with the delrin.