Hi all contributors to this thread.
(actually just Barry and Francis, who will already know all this, but I'm
still sending it to encourage potential amateur makers with the
information
that you don't need expensive drills to make pipes)
Long drills. There is no doubt that modern "hi-tech" methods will produce
very fast and very accurate results - after significant investment in
expensive tools. For drilling long holes there are drills with
compressed-air chip clearance - but there is also the home-made approach.
Get some lengths of silver steel in the required diameters for chanter &
drones, and file or grind about half an inch at one end down to the
diameter, so the end view is now a half-circle or 'D'. Then grind the end
to
a slight angle both vertically and horizontally to form cutting edge and
clearance (easier to show in a diagram than to explain in words, but very
easy to do). If you want to do more than a few holes, it is sensible to
harden the end by heating to red-hot and quenching. This is now a 'D-bit'.
It's old technology, but as long as the hole is started dead central with
a
normal drill (only deep enough to hold the D-bit in place) and then the
D-bit is then fed in straight and constantly withdrawn to clear the chips
it
works very well. Silver steel in standard lengths (used to be 13 inches,
probably 325 or 330 mm now?) is available from engineers' suppliers.
For a smooth finish, it is best to drill undersize by 0.5mm - or less if
possible if you can use both imperial and metric sizes - and then ream to
final size with another piece of silver steel filed and honed to a long
tapered diagonal slope at one end. For example, drill chanter blanks with
a
4mm D-bit, and ream with 11/64" which is 4.3mm. Once again, the home-made
reamer is easier to draw than describe. This also needs frequent
withdrawing
to clear the chips, but not nearly as much as the D-bit. With luck, and a
delicate touch, the swarf from the reaming will all come out on the reamer
as you withdraw it, but sometimes it can compress in the bore, and then
the
lathe needs to be stopped and the plug pushed out from the opposite end of
the hole with the blunt end of a smaller drill. Otherwise, the plug of
swarf
can make ridges in the bore. However, with care, an accurate and
mirror-smooth bore can be made in a surprisingly short time.
Amateur makers and lathes - yes, I agree that it may well be an endangered
art. Maybe very much to do with the demise of old-style "woodwork and
metalwork" in schools, and not much, if any availability of school CDT
rooms
for evening classes. I'm sure it's no accident that at least some of the
amateur pipe-makers named were CDT teachers. The upsurge in availablity of
small lathes, though, has surely been for the amateur wood-turning market.
Normal woodturning skill, with gouges and skew chisels etc or "softwood
turning" as it used to be called to distinguish it from the ancient trade
of
hardwood and ivory turning, is not really needed for pipemaking. Like
other
wind-instrument making, pipemaking is more akin to engineering in
hardwood;
even the hand-turning side of it is like the old hardwood & ivory-turners
skills - using small form-tools etc. Then there's the silver-smithing side
for key-making. The model engineers - typically men in garden sheds making
beautifully accurate working models of steam locomotives - actually have
far
more in common with pipe-makers than do wood turners producing bowls.
Apart from what I learned from Colin, much of my pipe-making knowledge
came
from study of model engineering books, ornamental turning books
(Holzapffel
et al.) and historical woodwind-making techniques.
Philip
----- Original Message -----
From: "Barry Say" <barr...@nspipes.co.uk>
To: "NPS Discussion" <discuss...@northumbrianpipers.org.uk>
Sent: Saturday, January 30, 2010 10:23 AM
Subject: Re: [NPS-Discussion] Borrowing long drills
Hi Francis,
I follow what you are saying but this memory goes back a long way and
probably predates Colin Ross and David Burleigh making pipes on a
professional basis.
There was a time when piping was kept alive by makers with craft skills
making a few sets in their shed (Tom Clough for instance). Those
familiar with the history of the NPS will know about the contributions
of Fred Ord, particularly in the time before he move to Norfolk. Bill
Hedworth made an immense contribution to the growth of piping. And we
must not forget the makers associated with the Cleveland Branch
including Bill Bohill and Dave McQuade.
I have been told that in the days when NPS meetings were held in the
Black Gate there was a regular gathering of pipemakers who would discuss
techniques, but when the Monday meetings moved to Morpeth this rather
died out although Colin did sill hold 'surgeries' to fix pipes and Fred
Ord and Henry Knox would turn up. Fred regularly cane up with great
ideas to make pipe making easier.
When those who come after us look back at the late 20th Century they
will see David Burleigh and Colin Ross as the most prominent pipemakers
of the age. They have each made an immense contribution to the current
healthy state of Northumbrian piping.
Amateur pipemaking has rather declined, partly due to the lack of
training in turning skills. The growth of CNC lathes has reduced the
need for craft skills in the workplace. However, over the last twenty
years, tools including lathes have become far more affordable and I have
met several players who would like to try pipemaking, so perhaps we will
see a resurgence in amateur making. I think the NPS should actively
encourage this trend.
Barry
