I must admit that I had taken a bit of a break from any
junk punk making. Having a baby in the house and a
full-time job has occupied my time quite well.
But recently I have taken up the block flute (recorder),
with the original plan being something to do in little
snatches of time, such as the gap between school lets out
and when the traffic clears from parent picking students
up.
This got me thinking about the design and had me almost
making pan flutes, but then I went for fipple flutes, which
is a grouping that includes the recorder, the "tin" (Irish)
whistle, and Native American flutes.
As of this writing, I have made three fipple flutes. The
first two were out of PVC I had laying around, with the
first being an absolute monstrosity where I thought I could
lay out the holes wherever I wanted and then just enlarge
the holes, which led to holes so big I could cover them
with my fingers.
The second PVC flute went a little better, though I do have
to blow the hell out of it to make it play -- but
performances of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" came to much
admiration when people saw I made the instrument I was
playing it with myself.
Shortly thereafter, I saw two large cardboard rolls in the
trash, the kind that have wrapping or butcher paper rolled
around them. I have made my best fipple flute yet,
leveraging knowledge from the other two. There is enough
material left to make three more flutes, and I plan on
reporting on results here in future. I also have some more
PVC pipe, so it is possible I return to that as well.
So far I have not made a single purchase to do any of the
making. The glue, tape, tools, and materials were all
laying around. But even if I use any of those up, and need
to make a run to a store, the costs will run very few
dollars.
--
This work is hereby in the public domain.
Do what you want with it.
