Chiff and Fipple Forums

Thanks Tunborough. That's very good to hear re glossary. Been too long since I looked at it to remember which terms were difficult. Sometimes it wasn't the dictionary meaning of the terms, but how they worked in context, such as the requirement to enter a number but I didn't understand what the rang...

That's good news. I really like that the word "simplified" is in the description, if only in one aspect. WIDesigner looks like a magnificent programme with amazing potential for minimising time spend on making prototypes, but I found it quite bamboozling when I tried to learn it about a ye...

Eh?! I don't know who's charging you 10 AUD a month, but it isn't WIDesigner. WIDesigner is open-source software, free to download and use; no costs or subscriptions. Ah! My hasty skimming of it all misled me. There's no obvious download button on the page you sent me to, so I clicked on "Pric...

Thanks again Tunborough! Just checked out github.com, and indeed I remembered briefly visiting there before - probably because you mentioned it. I was looking for something simpler then, and didn't explore much, and forgot about it. Thanks for pointing out its relevance to my question - it looks lik...

Thanks Tunborough. I'll proceed in that way unless a stormy debate on the issue ensues!

Calculators don't seem to help with the length of a tapered bore (if there is one please point me that way!) I imagine the maths is fiendish, especially as you have a (usually) straight head bore before the tapered body bore. I'm wondering if there are some general, approximate principles here to ge...

I'm having fun playing with Hans Bracker's very user-friendly Whistle Calculator (thanks so much Hans!). At the moment I'm about to make a wooden whistle with a curved windway. My question is: For the Width of the Window, do I enter the linear width across or the length of the arc of the windway/sou...

Hi Dr Phill, as someone starting out in whistle making I'm grateful that resources such as yours are there. I keenly anticipate your development of a tapered bore option in TWJCalc!

From Guido Gonzato's "The Low-Tech Whistle": [Q:] "The whistle is OK, but the bottom D is too quiet and a bit flat [A:] You need to enlarge the foot as shown in the figure below: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1tN4I-g4M0TcF2UojcIwtLZLoHqqPHaX6 Remove just a little, check the bottom ...

I'm interested in the question in relation to tapered bore vs cylindrical:

- Do tapered bore whistles have a quieter bell note than cylindrical whistles?
- Does enlarging the bore in the last centimetre or two at the foot of a tapered bore whistle improve the bell note?

Tommy - yes, I have done a lot of work on alignment. I have a bed extension on the lathe, and had to get a digital inclinometer to get the alignment right. Need to do a few more bores on the weekend with the quill held better by the locking screw to see how much play is left. Irish Muse - Thanks, Wo...

Thanks so much Terry. Just got hit with a $1600 dental bill, so the metal lathe may be a way off, but it's really good to know what my options are. I've discovered the origin of some of the forstner bit wandering - loosening the locking screw on my lathe tailstock allows just a tiny bit of play, whi...

You may be able to pick up a suitable gun drill on Ebay, or you'll find makers on line. You don't need one for every size of bore you want to drill, but at least get the minimum size and then you can use other simple tools to expand the hole to the desired size. We can chat about options there. The...

Hi Matt NQ Just happened to be wandering by, keeping an eye on what you whistle players and makers are up to, and noticed a mention of my stuff on wood-encased metal tuning slides... All the more important if your part of the Sunny North is a high humidity area. You send a whistle to Arizona and yo...

Teflon inside the mouthpiece seems like a brilliant idea although my wife has banned non-stick cookware from our house for alleged health reasons. I know there are other hydrophobic coating out there that shed water--great idea. In a wooden whistle, would a pure tung oil treatment achieve something...