| October 2011 Meeting
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Bob Seeburger came to our October meeting to show us how he makes his slide whistles. Bob makes and sells dozens of various whistles every year so he knows a thing or two about making them!
Bob starts off by marking the center on a spindle blank about 5" long. The wood might be 1" square depending on the whistle diameter. He likes to hold one end with pin jaws loosely while he centers the far end with the tailstock before tightening the pin jaws. Once the blank is held firmly with the chuck using pin jaws, Bob explains that we'll need to drill a hole roughly 4 1/2" deep with either a 1/2" or 3/8" brad point drill depending on the diameter of the finished whistle.
Once the main body has been drilled to depth, Bob then mounts the body on one of his custom made mandrels. He makes his mandrels by cutting off very long 1/2" or 3/8" long bolts and polishing up the smooth section of the bolt. He then glues the bolts into a pre-drilled block of wood. Once you have the block round, Bob suggests you mark off 5/8" from the mandrel end and 1 1/8" from the mandrel end (the 5/8" section will be used for fitting the fipple block later and the extra 1/2" section will be a guide of where to start sawing later). He likes to make these marks decorative by making a v-notch and burning a reference line into the piece. He also likes to add spiral decorations using a small Sorby texturing tool. Once the main body is up to his high standards, Bob then completes it by drilling a 17/64" (or 1/4" if not available) hole using a tailstock drill chuck and brad point drill so the the body can accept the slide dowel through the last 1/2" of wood.
Now it is time to make the plunger, knob, and cut the sound hole. The plunger cylinder should be slightly smaller than the hole bored in the main body. Bob explained that he punches out foam from a sheet and glues that to the bottom of the plunger to seal it in the main body (per the diagram above left). The sound hole gets cut with a band saw or razor saw. To make the hole two cuts (one straight in to the center and one at an angle) are made into the main body until they intersect about 1/3 into the main body. The angled cut is started at the 1 1/8" line and is angled back to the 5/8" line, while the straight cut is made at the 5/8" line. The knob for the end of the dowels is turned after a 1/4" hole is drilled to accept the dowel.
The fipple block is made using a piece of wood cylinder (birch or poplar are Bob favorites) the same diameter as the main body. It is sanded so that about 2/3 of the radius is left on one end while 1/2 of the radius is left on the other end. The piece should be 5/8" to 3/4" long so that it can be adjusted slightly before it is permanently glued in place according to Bob. He also mentioned that you don't want the fipple block in so far that it covers the angled sawn hole. The length of dowel for the slide also has to be determined. When it is finished, you should have the plunger at least 1" toward the center of the whistle from the sound hole. The dowel then gets marked and cut. The last steps are to glue the knob on the end of the dowel rod and sand the mouthpiece on a 1 1/2" drum sander. There you have it!
I enjoyed Bob Seeburger's demonstration and am always impressed with his preparedness!
The pictures below show some of the items brought in for the monthly President's Challenge entries and show-and-tell. Congratulations to our President's Challenge winner Jim Nickless shown with his segmented and stained pumpkin! We also had a second place winner with Ted Wilkins and his very nice little carved pumpkin. As always, thanks to all of those that brought in items for the President's Challenge, show and tell, and those that brought in flag bases for our veterans.
Our November President's Challenge item is any turned toy. Ted has CA (super) glue and accelerator for sale. He has 2 oz bottles of thin, medium and thick for $6 each. He also has black glue for $8 each. Don't forget about our special challenge of turning wooden flag holders for our veterans at the Ann Arbor VA hospital. All bases should have a 3/16" hole to accept the flag. We are starting a mentoring program for our membership. If you are willing to help by fielding questions, please get in touch with Craig or Scott.
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