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Thread: Burdekin Plum flute build
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30th September 2017, 06:24 PM #1
Burdekin Plum flute build
I recently acquired some lovely Burdekin Plum blanks from a member here and thought I would chart the progress from blank to flute.
The flute took one day (yesterday) to turn, tune and begin to finish.
My design for a keyless Baroque pitched (415Hz vs modern 440Hz) is adapted from a 1600s Claude Rafi 385Hz tenor flute which resides currently in a Brussels museum. Rigorous external and internal measurements were made of it in the late 1970s.
Terry McGee, Australian flutemaker, made a faithful copy in the mid-80s using an authorised copy of these drawings and I acquired the flute a few years ago.
My own measurements plus a examination of Terry's copy of the drawings has led me to start making my own Rafi inspired flutes in different pitches.
This particular flute is a two-piece design with a removable tenon socket joint. It has a cylindrical bore of 18mm for a total length of around 640mm and sounding length of about 592mm. Sounding length determines its pitch. The original Rafi flutes overall length is around 670mm.
I chose appropriate blanks and put them against my drawings:
IMG20170929091753-2304x1296.jpg
Rough turning:
IMG20170929094348-2304x1296.jpg
I was surprised to find it was very similar to turning Jarrah. Very rough, splintery and not fun at all! I might be spoilt by Rock Maple and Gidgee.
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30th September 2017, 06:32 PM #2
Boring a cylindrical flute is easy. A long auger does the job nicely. A shell auger is also good but unecessary for this design.
Headjoint:
IMG20170929101921-2304x1296.jpg
Body:
IMG20170929103757-2304x1296.jpg
IMG20170929105048-1296x2304.jpg
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30th September 2017, 06:45 PM #3
More turning. I turn mostly by eye and calipers. Mostly eye.
By now the two pieces are just simple wood tubes.
I turn them down from around 8mm wall thickness to 3-2.75mm wall thickness.
At any time a crack or defect in the wood could easily explode the entire joint apart. I've had plenty of lovely flute joints pop apart in the final turning stages. They really explode! I was lucky yesterday: the Burdekin Plum is a good instrument wood it seems!
IMG20170929112609-2304x1296.jpg
IMG20170929123455-2304x1296.jpg
With some thinned linseed oil added to check the lovely colours:
IMG20170929115809-2304x1296.jpg
IMG20170929125048-2304x1296.jpg
Very thin wood at the end of the socket joint:
IMG20170929125342-1296x2304.jpg
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30th September 2017, 06:59 PM #4
Time to say bye-bye to the lathe...
IMG20170929130445-1296x2304.jpg
Mark up the embouchure (blowhole) and toneholes:
IMG20170929163809-2304x1296.jpg
And say hello to the drill-press:
IMG20170929165458-1296x2304.jpg
IMG20170929172617-2304x1296.jpg
All the holes are drilled undersize by around 25%. They'll be hand filed to size according to tuning needs.
IMG20170929165615-2304x1296.jpg
IMG20170929172809-2304x1296.jpg
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30th September 2017, 07:09 PM #5
Hand filing is tedious and time-consuming but very important. Tuning can be altered with every stroke.
Start from the lowest note working up. Undercutting is the best way to try and achieve even sized/spaced holes.
In order to tune I shape and smooth the embouchure first and then thread wrap the joint so the flute is playable. Later once finished I will glue lapped cork to the socket tenon.
IMG20170929192635-2304x1296.jpg
IMG20170929191258-2304x1296.jpg
Once happy with the tuning (for now anyway, I'll probably change my mind later) I fine sand the holes:
IMG20170929195645-1296x2304.jpg
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30th September 2017, 07:15 PM #6
After fine sanding the flute bore the next thing is to wash off the dust and soak in a mix of Sweet Almond oil and Olive oil. Around 12 hours:
IMG20170929202004-2304x1296.jpg
After that it's wiped down and set to dry. Then play, dry, oil. Play, dry, oil and in around a week it'll stabilise internally and usually require more fine tuning.
I'll post final pics of the finished flute in a week or so
Cheers, Vaughan
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30th September 2017, 07:44 PM #7
Thanks Vaughan, really interesting. Will you be playing it for us at the next Blue Mountains GTG?
Those were the droids I was looking for.
https://autoblastgates.com.au
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30th September 2017, 07:45 PM #8
Vaughan, this is a really interesting thread - thanks for posting!
I'm surprised that your are using normal twist drills rather than Brad Points or other spurred drills to get really crisp entry to the holes. The exit wouldn't matter much because of the broomstick support.
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30th September 2017, 07:46 PM #9
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30th September 2017, 11:17 PM #10
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30th September 2017, 11:31 PM #11
Honestly, I don't have bradpoints because I never see them for sale when I need new bits (I'm lazy maybe and need to go beyond the local hardware shop?).
I know they're cleaner but every hole on these flutes has a lot of extra material hand-filed away that I don't worry about tearouts. Plus I drill very low speed and with hard woods.
Indeed the dowel stick inside the bore helps limit the internal tearout and the tonehole undercutting done with files leaves a profile something like /'''''''''\ so never is it a problem (at least at my amateur level) if it does occur.
Look forward to the BM GTG
V
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1st October 2017, 08:58 AM #12
Sunny morning flute testing
IMG_20171001_084217-1944x3456.jpg
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2nd October 2017, 02:03 PM #13
A very interesting thread. I really enjoyed it. May even take a break from strings and try a simple wind instrument. I take it the sounding length and hole placement is akin to scale length and fret spacing on a strung instrument. Any pointers of what to read up on?
Anyhow beautiful instrument you have made.
Regards
John
PS if you want to give it a try out there is a music session at the Ori Hotel Springwood tomorrow 7pm. Mostly Irish and folk music. Anyone with any instrument is welcome.
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3rd October 2017, 06:41 AM #14
Thank you John, glad you liked it. I have fun making them!
I'm sure you'll find it easy enough if you make stringed instruments, especially since it is only essentially one major/minor scale (with a few chromatic notes achieveable with 'forked fingerings') tuning is not too taxing especially if you a good ear.
The sounding length is measured from the middle of the embouchure to the end of the flute. The longer the length the lower the pitch; shorter equals higher. Overall flute wall thickness, and the size, angle and position of toneholes determines each hole's pitch. A shorter or larger length between it and the embouchure equal higher pitch of the note. Imagine a string vibrating between the two open holes.
A good book is Trevor Robinson's 'Amateur Wind Instrument Maker'. It has basic and advanced advice and some diagrams, etc.
https://books.google.com.au/books/ab...d=I_WBTjfCurgC
After beginning playing a Simple System (modern concert flutes are usually Boehm system) a few years ago I started making futes with bamboo, Golden Bamboo is perfect, knocking out the nodes with a length of all-thread but saving one as an end-stopper above the embouchure. They sound very haunting and etheral but since I mostly play medieval, Baroque, classical and folk tunes the necessary Western tuning was too hard to achieve well with bamboo. Too much random variance in their 'bores' - so I moved onto PVC pipe.
PVC flutes are the easiest to make and to learn how to grapple with the eccentricities of flute tuning, Mark Shepard has a good book and also a webpage showing a way to make them:
The Plumber's Pipe (Making PVC Flutes, Make a Flute)
I recommend you try a few PVC pipe flutes first before wood.
Tuesday nights at the Ori? Sounds good! I'll try and wrangle the night off. I won't bring the Burdekin Plum flute yet though. It's C# and B notes need work. I might just listen and get an idea of the tunes played.
Cheers, Vaughan
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3rd October 2017, 08:54 AM #15
Vaughn,
Thanks for the reading list. Be something to study up on when I get finished with laying flooring and painting the house.
The Ori sessions are first and third Tuesdays of the month and also fifth if there is one that month.
Regards
John
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