another whistlemaking effort

[chas]

Actually, it's several, only one of which made a full whistle. Pic is below. bottom to top is a padouk mouthpiece with stainless (shaft shattered drilling fingerholes); cocobolo mouthpiece w/brass (ditto on the shaft); purpleheart shaft w/brass (can't remember what happened to the mouthpiece); Honduran rosewood whistle w/brass; first whistle, in cedar with Asian boxwood. I also destroyed both pieces of bocote from which I was gonna make a whistle and the mouthpiece of a second cedar whsitle.

I think the problem with drilling fingerholes is fixturing or the wrong kind of bits. I'm using high-speed drills, I wonder if I need to get a set of the funky ones with the cutting edges on the outside.

The two hardwood mouthpieces look a bit ratty but play like a dream. Fairly pure, very sweet, not particularly loud.

[raindog1970]

I think the problem with drilling fingerholes is fixturing or the wrong kind of bits. I'm using high-speed drills, I wonder if I need to get a set of the funky ones with the cutting edges on the outside.

I haven't found anything better for drilling finger holes than 2-flute center cutting end mills, but I don't know how well they would work in a drill press.
Keep up the good work!

[King Friday]

Wow, hit me up first if you ever start selling them.

[Flogging Jason]

I still stand by the PM I sent you a few months ago.....I'd be more than happy to try one out whenever you feel comfortable putting one in someone else's hands. I can't offer technical advice but I can tell you how it sounds and what it's like to play it. Keep up the good work chas!

[Tommy]

They look real nice. The holes you have there look great.

I use the same kind of drills for brass tubing and some wood tubes I have turned on a work arbor. I grind drills with a very sharp cutting edge, and also grind some of the trailing edge off. If the cutting edge is lower than the trailing edge the drill acts as a wedge and will split the wood. If the drill is fed into the wood to fast it will split it also. I ordered some drills with the spur from Lee Vally, and will comment on them when I receive them.

[Whitmores75087]

They look great.

[brewerpaul]

Nice work Chas! I'd love to try one sometime.

I use bradpoint drills, which have those little wings you're talking about. If you're not using a jig to locate the holes, the brad in the center is good for starting the hole too.
Do you put a dowel in the whistle when you drill? It helps keep the inside wood from splitting out.

I've heard about the end mills that Raindog mentions, but never tried them.

[chas]

Bradpoint, that's what I was thinking of! ( All I could think of at the time was forstner. ) Yep, I'll have to get me a set of them, another complaint with high-speed drills is they tend to leave a little fuzz at the bottom of the hole. I do have a dowel in the tube, and use gage blocks to locate the tube, but always do the initial position bye eyeball.

One more question: any suggestions on a good set of small files for hardwoods, something to finish the ramp and smooth the toneholes?

Thx, C

[brewerpaul]

One more question: any suggestions on a good set of small files for hardwoods, something to finish the ramp and smooth the toneholes?

Thx, C

To create the ramp, I use a triangular file which has teeth on only one side. I don't know what these are called or where to get one : Glenn gave me mine.
For smoothing fingerholes, ramps etc, a set of fine diamond files is great. There are some inexpensive oriental imports that work just fine.

[Loren]

You're still using files Paul??? You gotta learn to HAND CARVE those ramps and walls man!

On second thought, I almost went insane in the process of learning that skill, so you're probably better off without the stess and the expense of a hundred or so wasted headjoints. Fortunately, you have lots of rejects to practice on, when you work mainly in Boxwood.


Loren

[Mr.Nate]

Chas,

I repair guitars for a living and have made a few whistles. The best files for filing the blade are little flat files with no teeth on the sides. I have a small set of files that are called jewlers files. A cheep set from China is under 20$ The better ones used to be made by the Swiss. Probably a good source would be Woodcraft. Also, I have made little sanding sticks (like an 1/8 of an in. wide) out of hardwood and glue a piece of sandpaper on one side.

Also, like Loren said you can carve it with a knife which gives you a smooth or scraped finish. Violin makers us these kinds of knives to do most of their work for fitting bridges or shaping the neck. I have seen these sold by the Japan woodworker supplyer. I think the Japaneses use them for marking things or obviously a violing makers supply would have them.

Nate

[RonKiley]

OK Chas

You can get a real cheap set of jewelers files at the Harbor Freight Tool store in Gaithersburg. It is up behind Lake Forest Mall just off of Odenhall. You can also get some nice digital calipers there as well. Have fun browsing.

Ron

[chas]

You can get a real cheap set of jewelers files at the Harbor Freight Tool store in Gaithersburg. It is up behind Lake Forest Mall just off of Odenhall. You can also get some nice digital calipers there as well. Have fun browsing.

I've been to Harbor Freight a few times. [rant mode]I went there looking to buy a mini lathe. They had several mini lathes on display, but THEY COULDN'T SELL THEM BECAUSE OF A DISPUTE BETWEEN UNDERWRITERS LABORATORIES AND THE PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF MARYLAND. I could buy one from harborfreight.com, but couldn't buy one in person. There are really some things about this state that I abhor.[/rant mode]

I have some jewelers files but they just don't seem to take off much wood. I had some warding files when I was a kid and into carving that were much better, but can't seem to find any. A few good tiny first-cut or basmati files would be a step in the right direction. In all likelihood I'm just impatient.

Thanks for the ideas, all. Cheers, Charlie

[Thomas-Hastay]

Milling bits are the best for cutting fragile blanks at slow speed. They will work just fine if you use a 115v variable voltage regulator/triac with your electric drill press. These bits cut from the outside in and are self-centering.

If you are forced to use regular bits at high speed. try sanding the tonehole area flat first so the bits won't wander and choke-up these bits in the chuck so only short tips extend beyond the jaws.

I prefer to predrill toneholes at reduced size on 1 half of a blank and then epoxy the 2 halves together. the pilot holes are easy to enlarge later. The epoxy joints are invisible and stronger than the wood itself.

[Loren]

Also, like Loren said you can carve it with a knife which gives you a smooth or scraped finish. Violin makers us these kinds of knives to do most of their work for fitting bridges or shaping the neck. I have seen these sold by the Japan woodworker supplyer. I think the Japaneses use them for marking things or obviously a violing makers supply would have them.

Nate

I've not found a good supplier yet, but I'll check out Japan woodworker. I have seen a few japanese marking knives, but the one's I ran across weren't quite right for the job of carving small woodwind ramps/walls. We made our own from scratch at the shop (okay, we didn't make the knife blanks, we just shaped, ground, sharpened, and honed them), but it's a time consuming process. The plus side is that you can make your handle from any materials you like, and shape it for your own hand.

All that said though, learning to carve well is really quite difficult, particularly when were talking about maintaining tolerances of just a few thousandths of an inch. I honestly don't think it's worth the time and wasted materials to learn the process for the making of relatively "inexpensive" whistles. $1500+ recorders, yeah, absolutely, whistles that cost many times less, don't bother, files and sandpaper will get nearly the same results. I'm glad I learned the skill, but I wouldn't do it again, just to make whistles, particularly in small quantities.


Loren