– Whistle Tech Talk –
A question for everyone who has built a whistle from scratch (experiment or production) On average, how long does it take to cut all the parts, mark & drill the holes, make the fipple (no ready made mouthpieces on a length of pipe) set it up, do all the voicing and proper finishing.
Plastic or metal… be specific with your reply.
I’m guessing the range might be 2-3 hours for PVC and 6-7 for metal with hammered fipple (wood or acetal plug) am I close??
After several advancements in my production methods, I can now complete one of my Copperhead retrofit heads in about 3 hours.
My heads are assembled from 4 pieces of copper and one piece of cast polyester resin, so my design probably requires a bit more labor than most.
I’m just beginning to experiment with making my own tubes, so I can’t really give a good estimate of how long that process takes.
I can honestly say that I can complete an entire whistle in 20 min. The voicing design must be of “Susato” type though and the whistle is “non-tunable”.
The bore/body is cut from PVC stock of correct diameter. I place a length measured from lip edge to bore end, calculated for 1/2 wavelength, in the lathe. The top edge is beveled with a skew cutter to 30 degrees. I remove the blank from the lathe and drill all the toneholes on my Mill(set up with digital vernier “X/Y/Z” readout).
I place a length of short PVC tube, calculated for the length between the lower end of the labium ramp and the tip of mouthpiece, into the chuck(one side only) of the lathe and cut a matching 30 degree angle on th INSIDE of the tube “cap/fipple”.
I take this “cap” to the Mill and set it “bevel end up” in the vice. I choose a bit that is the width of the “window” and lower it into the tube. I cut sideways forming a 3 sided “squared” cut that will be the voicing window.
The “cap” is glued to the completed bore matching bevels and creating the window and labium ramp. A 2 part fipple plug is made by cutting a channel in a delrin tube of 1/16th thickness that fits inside the cap,with the same bit used to cut the voicing window.
A short delrin dowel is inserted in this smaller diameter tube forming a filled “C” shaped fipple plug/windway and inserted/glued in the cap. A small cut to form the “beak” of the mouthpiece is made and little polishing with Acetone and it’s done.
I make these in “batch form” in sets fo 50. Later I tweak them all for proper tonehole frequencies with an electronic tuner and a regulated constant airflow at the mouthpiece.
I don’t sell my whistles on the net because I have a full time career as an electronic engineer. I do make them for extra money(time permitting) for sale at local flea markets and will probably use woodwind making as a “retirement ocupation”.
It takes me between 6 and 10 hours. It varies depending upon whether I make similar parts all at once or do them individually.
Anywhere between 1/2 hour for a non-tuneable PVC whistle, 1 1/2 hour for brass or nickel-silver whistle and a full day and then some for a chromatic.
Daniel,
Do you see any problems soldering the key holders on a brass (or copper) tube instrument?
Tony, I’m not Daniel, but the only thing that might get in your way is that as you solder that area (using silver solder, probably) you will also be annealing the area. Just make sure that it doesn’t occur in an area that you wish to be hard.
E
I use a Silver Bearing Solder, not Silver Solder. That makes it a much lower temperature and doesn’t weaken the matieral.
There are brazes that you can use that are designed for music instrument repair but those will affect the hardness as the previous posting stated.
If a person uses a braze, they could place the instrument in an oven and heat treat the instrument. A local trumpet builder http://www.milestrumpets.com/ told me the the braze remelt temperature is slightly higher than the original melt temperature and this is critical in obtaining the proper heating for tempering the brass.
Is it a problem that the brass is annealed only in the area where the key is added?? I would think strength isn’t a factor. Isn’t brass stronger than aluminum?
No, Tony.
It shouldn’t be a problem. Only thing would be if it were close to a joint that it might effect - like if you didn’t want a tenon to be maleable. Other wise varying hardnesses shouldn’t effect playability.
Also, there are other super low temp solders (down to 275 degrees - some around 400, also) if you really have a concern. Otherwise, I’d just use a standard medium temp. solder (1250 degrees).
Daniel, what temp does Bearing Solder melt?
Erik
Silver Bearing Solders have less than 1% silver in them. They’re typically one step above the usually plumbing solder. They used to be mostly tin/lead/tiny amount of silver but now their tin/cadmium/tiny bit of solder.
For keys, I use the Radio Shack Tape solder. You can put flux on the pipe’s surface, a thin piece of tape solder and then flux the key mount’s surface. Then sandwich them together and heat the assembly and it melts quickly. The tubing for the low whistle is 0.028" wall thickness on brass and 0.032" on copper. The heat does not bother it sufficiently.
It you heat the brass up greatly and then quench it, then you might over soften it.
I’ve been making these keys over a year now and they’re working out fine.