building low D: windway question

[artguy]

2 questions:

This is my first attempt at making a whistle and was following some instructions I found on the net.

1.) I'm just about to bend the lip down into the windway but want to know if the sides of the windway (see photo below) should look the way they do or if they should be filed down to be parallel to the top of the windway? It's hard to explain what I mean here so bear with me.

I know you need to file the blade down once it is bent to be thinner than the other "walls" (for lack of a better term) so don't yell at me for that just yet...haven't gotten that far. But should the side walls be parallel to the other 2 at this point or pependicular, like the image shows now. I'm thinking they should be filed down but would rather ask instead of screwing up the whistle before I even attempt to make the 6 holes in the thing, so I apologize if this is a silly question to begin with.

2.) Secondly, let's just suppose I actually finish this whistle and it actually has a decent sound to it--I'd like to polish it up and maintain that newly polished copper look. Any clue on what I could spray it with or something? A type of lacquer?

Any help would be appreciated greatly!

Bob

[rbm]

2 questions:

This is my first attempt at making a whistle and was following some instructions I found on the net.

1.) I'm just about to bend the lip down into the windway but want to know if the sides of the windway (see photo below) should look the way they do or if they should be filed down to be parallel to the top of the windway? It's hard to explain what I mean here so bear with me.

I know you need to file the blade down once it is bent to be thinner than the other "walls" (for lack of a better term) so don't yell at me for that just yet...haven't gotten that far. But should the side walls be parallel to the other 2 at this point or pependicular, like the image shows now. I'm thinking they should be filed down but would rather ask instead of screwing up the whistle before I even attempt to make the 6 holes in the thing, so I apologize if this is a silly question to begin with.

2.) Secondly, let's just suppose I actually finish this whistle and it actually has a decent sound to it--I'd like to polish it up and maintain that newly polished copper look. Any clue on what I could spray it with or something? A type of lacquer?

Any help would be appreciated greatly!

Bob

Hi Bob,

I've been making plumbing whistles for a few years now
as no one eles has posted I'll have a go.

1st the sides, I've always filed them the other way i.e. vertical
if you don't there is a tendancy for the copper to tear at the
corner.

Have you made a tool for bending the blade down, a large bolt
ground down to a square works well.

2nd finishing, I've tried a number of finishes, most with out great
sucsess, auto spray lacquer works to a fasion, it tend to chip off
and is soft unless you bake it, and it's toxic so don't paint the bits
your going to eat

most of mine I just let tarnish and polish them now and again.

Richard.

[brewerpaul]

Don't call it tarnish-- call it an "age acquired patina", and you won't mind it so much...

[artguy]

1st the sides, I've always filed them the other way i.e. vertical if you don't there is a tendancy for the copper to tear at the
corner.

After posting this question, I looked at my plastic fipples, (i don't have any ones with a metal fipple like a Clarke Original or what have you) it seemed like a silly question to ask after that since that is how they looked.

Have you made a tool for bending the blade down, a large bolt ground down to a square works well.

Thanks for the tip. I wasn't sure what I was going to use for that yet.

Don't call it tarnish-- call it an "age acquired patina", and you won't mind it so much...

Well, as long as it's considered patina, I'll live with it. Seems like a lot less work. (Nice whistles, by the way.)

Thanks for the help! I'll let you know how I make out in the end in case anyone is interested...or even if you're not, I'll tell you about it anyway.

Thanks again.

Bob