I’ve been trying to 3D design and print my own whistle.
I found a website that has a calculator to find ideal bore length, hole sizes, etc.
What I haven’t been able to get right is the mouthpiece. I am currently seated at my desk surrounded by over a dozen failed attempts, some where I made the window larger, smaller, narrowed the airway, widened the airway, brought the blade closer to the opening, further, etc. Every single time the whistle is so breathy that it barely produces a pitch, and the ones that do produce a pitch are incredibly quiet and require me to blow as little air as possible into the mouthpiece to prevent it from overblowing.
I even printed other people’s successful whistles to compare and try to emulate, but I just haven’t been able to get the same results as theirs.
I was wondering if there was some kind of a guide or other resources I can use to try and nail the dimensions as best I can. It’s also worth noting that I’m printing the entire whistle as one piece, so there can’t be an air gap between the mouthpiece and the body.
You’ve mentioned a lot of variations you have tried, but nothing about the relationship between the height of the wind way floor and the bottom of the ramp. In my (admittedly limited) experience with whistle making and tweaking, this is critical.
A good test is to look up the whistle towards something well lit. You should only see a thin line of light. If you look down the wind way, you should see the bottom of the ramp.
Put another way, the bottom of the wind way should be in line with the bottom of the ramp. Whereas we imagine the air jet being “split” by the tip of the edge, this is not what we want. We want it to be redirected out of the window by the low end of the ramp.
I also don’t have much experience with 3D printing, though I am involved with a maker trying to develop 3D printed Irish flutes. An issue we have come across is the roughness of the surfaces left after printing. It impacts the response of the flutes significantly, so I can imagine the same might happen with the whistle.
You mention printing the whistle in one piece. This would seem to me to make it very hard to smooth the insides of the whistle in the critical head area. Or to fiddle the whistle “voicing” by some careful filing. Or clean up any edges that the printing process might have left.
Hope there’s something in the above that will help. Feel free to ask questions if the above is unclear.
I can’t add much to this topic, but I did play around with 3D printing whistle mouthpeices years ago and attaching them to copper pipes to make low D whistles. with the suitable sized windway for a low D I was able to find a small enough file to smooth the windway, which from memory made a big difference (like the difference between notes sounding or just air flow noise). I also put some effort into sharpening/shapping the blade post print. The printer I was using at the time was pretty crap compared to even the lowest cost ones these days, so maybe not as important on a modern printer. I think the more efficient the original design is, the less tweaking you need to do afterwards to get it working. And as Terry suggests making sure things line up properly seemed most important.
Are you printing the mouthpeice separately? that would help with allowing many rapid prototype experiments to get it right.
I’m thinking if I was trying to print a whistle, I’d start with a known good whistle, take the head off it, and print a new head to fit the whistle body. Then I would know that any problems are coming from the new head.
Once I solve those problems, I’d move on to printing a new body. Again any problems must relate to the new body.
And then, armed with the experience of printing the separate bits, I would then feel ready to start exploring what changes I would make.
Now this raises an interesting question. My son recently bought a 3D printer and has been enjoying the process of printing stuff. So, in theory, if someone was making whistle heads and was prepared to share their code, I could try printing a copy of their head here on his machine? And send back comments on what I think needs improvement? Or am I overlooking an obvious fly in the ointment?
First off, thank you and all the other helpful folks on here for your advice. It’s slowly but surely getting better, but not quite there yet. I’m still cross-examining with other mouthpieces to perfect mine.
Yes, I’ve started only printing the mouthpiece. Even if it’s just a mouthpiece, it’ll let out a whistle when you blow into it if it’s set up correctly.
Sharing code is a good idea. Let me give it just a few more attempts to see if I can get it down but if I am truly stuck, I’ll share the code with you guys and see what you think.
Ok, I made a few adjustments. I shortened the length of the mouthpiece (I think the air had too long to travel between the end of the mouthpiece and the window), and CRUCIALLY I shortened the width of the window and airway. NORMALLY I think the width of the window would have been fine, and I think if I were making a whistle out of, say, PVC or something, this shortened width I have now would be a touch too short. BUT since I’m 3D printing here, the wide window was causing problems. It meant there were bigger gaps in the openings of the mouthpiece. Since I’m printing without support, this was causing uneven/bowed overhangs in the back of the bore and the airway that was disrupting the airflow. Since all the gaps are much smaller now, there is less space that the printer needs to bridge and the print is much cleaner and more precise. Now it’s quite clear and about as loud as my proper pennywhistle!
Thank you all for the help. Hearing your guys’ recommendations and your experience with similar problems has been extremely helpful
Yes! I love instruments, I’ve built an electric guitar out of a kit, and I do want to get into making them because it’s fun and cheaper than buying them! Flutes and whistles are relatively simple and accessible too. This project that I’m working on is a bit different than regular whistles though, I’ll definitely make a post showing off my contraption once it’s complete!
Now, without knowing what your “contraption” is going to look like, but just thinking about 3D printing whistles, I’m guessing that you couldn’t print anything as thin as the metal tubes that cylindrical whistles traditionally come with. Wall thicknesses around 0.3mm from memory.
So I wonder if that means 3D printed whistles will ideally need to have conical bodies? Thicker walled cylindrical whistles tend to introduce tuning issues from memory.
Not that I imagine that presents any problems. Indeed more opportunities, as I suppose it’s just as easy to print a narrowly tapered tube as it is to print a cylinder?
Yep! It’s tapered, which is super easy to do in Fusion 360. About 1mm difference in thickness between the two ends. Although, 0.3mm is right about the absolute minimum thickness you can get with 3D printers (or maybe a little less), so I wonder if it’s necessary. Mine will probably not be in perfect tune, but I’m only thinking of it as a prototype for now, so I can live with imperfections!
a 0.3mm wall is doable but tricky for consumer printers. It’s possible to design a flute with thicker walls for strength and then contour the outside of the toneholes to reach a 0.3mm chimney depth
Since I’m printing without support, this was causing uneven/bowed overhangs in the back of the bore and the airway that was disrupting the airflow
I’ve designed mouthpieces for overtone flutes and dealt with the same problem. Even with supports the airway was ugly. Have you considered splitting the mouthpiece and printing it in multiple pieces to avoid overhangs?