Chiff and Fipple Forums

Not a commercial message, 'cause this one isn't for sale.

Serpent bugged me about making a white Delrin whistle, and went so far as to send me the material. So, I started tinkering and came up with this:




I didn't have the exotic glue required to stick this slippery plastic, so I made everything a pressure fit. The tuning slide is machined right into the body wall. The whole thing is white as the driven snow (and believe me, here in upstate NY, we know all about snow). It only looks gray because I took the pic backlit to show the translucency of the material. All dimensions are the same as my regular wooden whistles, and the sound is very similar. This was a fun and interesting exercise in lathemanship.

Comin'at ya Serpie...

cool

I'll take one!

Mary

That's a funny subject line.

Got Delrin?

That's really interesting, Paul. Just out of curiosity what other colors can delrin be got in?

Now I was trying to think what that reminded me of. Not the Busman Jerry Lee Special that's for sure. I think it reminds me of one of Alan's flutes.

Very nice.

I'll take one!

Me too!

Maybe if they were a bit cheaper than their wooden couterparts, these could become the Busman gateway whistles. You could sell them for a reduced price and get people hooked, then they'd have no choice but to submit to WHOA and get a wooden one later on.



EDIT: Black Delrin would be good!

Bretton wrote:Maybe if they were a bit cheaper than their wooden couterparts, these could become the Busman gateway whistles. You could sell them for a reduced price and get people hooked, then they'd have no choice but to submit to WHOA and get a wooden one later on.

This is a very good idea, Paul. You could make them in white and black.

Seems to me, you don't have to deal with the lacquering, making and assembling the metal fittings, waiting for the wood to stabilize, etc. If you can make them in batches and offer them at a significantly lower price point, you could sell a lot of them.

Best wishes,
Jerry

It's pretty! How does it sound, in comparison to your wooden whistles?

Redwolf

It reminds me of an upgraded Water Weasel. Too Cool!

[quote="Seems to me, you don't have to deal with the lacquering, making and assembling the metal fittings, waiting for the wood to stabilize, etc. If you can make them in batches and offer them at a significantly lower price point, you could sell a lot of them.
Best wishes,
Jerry[/quote]

Some parts of this whistle were easier, some tougher than working in wood. I didn't have to use a set of metal fittings, but that meant that I had to individually make that head joint ferrule to a VERY close press-fit tolerance which took quite a bit of time. I actually wanted it a bit smaller in OD, since you can see it is somewhat thicker than the rest of the whistle. I was afraid of losing rigidity if I made it too thin. Not having to undercut and install the metal fittings is also a plus.
The lack of waiting time for wood stabilization is a definite plus. The cost of the Delrin is cheaper than some woods, higher than others. Most of the cost of a higher end whistle is in the labor, and this one took nearly as much as a wooden one. It would be nice if I could start with a stock tubing since a lot of the labor is involved in getting a solid piece turned into a thin walled tube. This is how Glenn Schultz can get away with selling his Water Weasels as reasonably as he does. I'm still experimenting (gotta find SOMETHING to do while the current batch stabilizes for a month or so...)

If a metal tuning slide is easier, then there's no reason not to make a Delrin whistle with metal tuning slide. Possibly, you could make it so only one side of the slide is metal.

Best wishes,
Jerry

brewerpaul wrote:It would be nice if I could start with a stock tubing since a lot of the labor is involved in getting a solid piece turned into a thin walled tube.

Trisha pointed me to <A HREF="http://k-mac-plastics.net/acetal-delrin ... htm">K-Mac Plastics</A> a few months ago when I mentioned that I didn't know of any supplier of Delrin tubes, only solid rod and sheets.
Their stock is only available in 5' lengths, and there's a $100 minimum order, but the stuff would be great for making whistles if they do a decent job of keeping their specifications consistent.
I'm having good luck with machining PVC, but Delrin is a much better choice... I use it for my fipple plugs.
My shop isn't set up for large boring operations, so I depend upon the bore of my chosen stock already being good enough without the need for additional machining.
I'd hate to buy $100 worth of Delrin tube only to have it arrive and find out that it has a rough and/or inconsistent bore that needs further machining.
Hopefully you'll check into it and see how good the stuff is, since you have the necessary tooling to refinish the bore if it's necessary.

Another source is http://www.mcmaster.com/ Put Delrin in the Find Products box. The specs list inner diameter, outer diameter and tolerances for each.

There doesn't seem to be a minimum order. At least, I got up to the last stage of ordering 8627K57, which is: White Delrin Hollow Rod 5/8" OD X 1/2" ID, 5' length, $9.24 each.