New aluminum proto!

ctilbury · Post by **ctilbury** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 9:36 pm

Here is a pic of my new aluminum prototype. I really like this instrument. I was just messing around with a couple of ruined whistles just for fun and "accidentally" whomped out a pretty good instrument.

It is quiet and has a mellow tone with just a bit of chiff. Very low air requirement. It is very well balanced and easy to play into the 3rd octave. The low D note is just a little unstable.

Let me know your thoughts!

Tommy · Post by **Tommy** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 9:59 pm

It looks real nice. A small fipple window favors the upper octave. Might need to open it to stabilize the low d. Can you give us a better look at the window?

ctilbury · Post by **ctilbury** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 10:06 pm

Unfortunately, I cannot right now. I took it to a family reunion and my nephew (who is serving in Iraq) liked it, so I gave it to him. I am going to make another one as soon as I can get a hold of the materials, and I will post then. It will be a couple of days at least. Sorry.

talimirr743 · Post by **talimirr743** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 10:07 pm

Looks nice!

talimirr743 · Post by **talimirr743** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 10:09 pm

Oh yeah, when you get a new one made post a couple of sound clips. I'd like to hear how it sounds

ctilbury · Post by **ctilbury** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 11:13 pm

I will. Thanks!

buddhu · Post by **buddhu** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 3:25 am

Cool. That looks interesting.

talimirr743 · Post by **talimirr743** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 7:58 am

How did you make the fipple?

ctilbury · Post by **ctilbury** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 10:10 am

The fipple is 3 layers of 6061-T4 Aluminum. The middle layer makes the body of the fipple and has the windway cut in it. The center is a 1/2" round bar. I cut the labium and wind way with one pass using a flat end mill. The labium has a curved edge. The windway is curved like on a Weasle or a Susato.

I am going to make a few of these, just to make sure this one was not a fluke. When I do, I will post some sound and more pics.

IDAwHOa · Post by **IDAwHOa** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 12:46 pm

ctilbury wrote:The fipple is 3 layers of 6061-T4 Aluminum. The middle layer makes the body of the fipple and has the windway cut in it. The center is a 1/2" round bar. I cut the labium and wind way with one pass using a flat end mill. The labium has a curved edge. The windway is curved like on a Weasle or a Susato.

I am going to make a few of these, just to make sure this one was not a fluke. When I do, I will post some sound and more pics.

Hopfully you will stumble on a way to stabilize that bell note too!

ctilbury · Post by **ctilbury** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 1:37 pm

Hopfully you will stumble on a way to stabilize that bell note too!

Oh ya. Thats no problem. All I have to do is shave a little length off of the labium. I just skipped it because it is a prototype. I left it in a relatively unvoiced state. I feel that the concept, and especially the construction technique, is proved.

This instrument is different than other ones I have made from Al.
1. there is no adhesive at all in the instrument. It is all pressed together. Before, I was using really good epoxy to bond it. I could not really tell if an instrument was going to hang together until I purposely broke a few. Wasteful.
2. I am using the same tuning slide concept as on my brass instruments and it seems to work perfectly. Before, I was trying to use leather as a gasket, and that was really hard to get right. Slip-fitting the tubing using a flare is much easier.

Wynder · Post by **Wynder** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 7:35 pm

Out of curiosity, what kind of tools/machinery is required to produce something like this?

I'd /love/ to try making a whistle again (tried one once with copper), but never had proper tools to really make an accurate prototype. Along those lines, is there a freely available design document that you used or could reccomend?

ctilbury · Post by **ctilbury** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 9:28 pm

Bare in mind that my goal is to make thousands of instruments per minute...

I would say the bare minimum to make a presentable whistle would be some kind of drill press and a drill vice. It does not need to be fancy, but starting a hole in thin material on a round surface has always been a problem for me. Having a machine to steady the drilling is important.

I could not say what the minimum to make the one in this thread would be. I have only simple machine tools. A mini-mill and mini-lathe. You can google those words and turn up all sorts of cruft. Oh ya, a good set of needle files is useful, too.

talimirr743 · Post by **talimirr743** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 10:08 pm

Why don't you make one and send it on tour?

talimirr743 · Post by **talimirr743** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 10:09 pm

how does it sound bty?