I followed Guido Gonzato’s ‘low tech whistle’ design (http://www.ggwhistles.com/howto/) but made a 3D printed whistle head instead of a regular PVC pipe with fipple-block.
This is a B whistle with a 15mm PVC pipe.
It took a few versions to get a good sound. The one on the right is the best one. It has some masking tape wrapped around the base to get an airtight fit with the pipe.
The lip is angled down so that the inside can be filed away to adjust its height easily.
Printed on a Makerbot Replicator 2X at .2mm layers, with raft and supports.
You can get the model here to print your own: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1079872
It’s free and I’m keen to see if anyone can improve on the design or make one that works for a D whistle.
Did you use Wings3D for your model? If so, would it be smoother if you created more surfaces in the model (i.e. tessellated it)? This is a GREAT idea, btw!!!
The model was made in 3D Studio Max. You’re right, the circular parts could be rounder. I tend to like working with low polygon models as it’s quicker to make large-scale changes. Once I’m happy with the design (I still think this is a prototype, as it’s not very consistent) I’ll round it out and bevel some of the edges.
In theory they should be the same, but this kind of printer isn’t 100% accurate, so each print can have slight differences, and these are enough for a whistle-head to either work, or sound very hissy. A higher-quality printer (one that prints using a laser to harden resin or to melt power) could print exact replicas every time, but I’m using more of a consumer/hobbyist printer which prints by extruding melted plastic, basically like a hot-glue gun on a robot arm.
However this is a good way to test designs. Each print takes about 45 minutes to complete. Once I’ve found a reliable design I could send it to a high-quality printer like http://shapeways.com to get perfect replicas.
If you already own a 3D printer, it would take about 20c worth of filament to print this piece, perhaps less.
If you were to hire someone else to print it, or upload it to Shapeways.com and order it there, then the largest element of the price would be the shipping. Could be anywhere from $5 to $20 depending on how far you’re getting it sent.
