I have recently finished my prototype set, my final version will follow later. The differences can be seen in the drawings and the photographs.
These pipes are very easy to build and provide a wonderful way to practice the pipes in a domestic environment.
Background
When I was at the London Early Music Show, back in 1993/4 I saw Jon Swayne playing on his little 'pipe in a bag', a small boxwood pipe with a chanter mounted drone, like a Musette de Cour. In this quiet little pipe I caught a glimse of a way to continue my piping.
At the time I had all but given up playing the Great Highland Pipes because of the practice problems of playing in a very built up area of London and band practice only twice a week and the consequant reed problems of intermitant playing.
Later I was further inspired by an article in the Bagpipe society's magazine Chanter which featured the pipes made by Mike MacHarg .
One of the instruments pictured was a french style smallpipe, which in turn had been inspired by a Chi Allen instrument, and a Hümmelchen plan of Dave Vandoorn! I arrived at the my own design quite rapidly but it has taken a few years to actually find the time to make with many other commitments.
The drawing is in GIF format which will hopefully not prove too much of a problem, but it is quite large so please bear with me!
For simplicity and ease of construction my design has a scottish practice chanter bottom, with the plastic mouthpiece utilised on the blowpipe. The chanter in the photograph is my faithful blackwood Macpherson, altered slightly over the years with a reshaped button and the sole reduced to a more elegant smallpipe looking profile. For this first prototype I used timber I had easily available; acacia, and maple, stained to match with a Tagua nut ringcap on the drone. The drone made is made the easiest way using brass pipe for tuning and plastic chanter reeds.
Making notes
This is not a complete list of instructions for manufacture but a general guide.
You can find out more information on making pipes and woodturning at the MIMF forum, please jion them and support them!
You don't need expensive equipment! (First encouragement!)
For the turning I have used a Wolfcraft universal wood turning Lathe, which is actually a lathe powered by your power drill. It is very cheap, and is fine for this project, although you might do better with a variable speed drill (I have only a 500 watt 2 speed, and its too fast.)
In the notes below I will try to give an idea of how I use this tool with wooden chucks (more like a mortice, see illustration below)
Chanter / Drone Stock
If you have access to a bench drill that can drill the 4 inch hole for the stock, then great. I drilled mine out with a 16mm flat bit by hand and athough it started out fine it ended a little off centre by the end.
The better approach would be to drill a leading hole using a jig, and then enlarging. Those first few inches are what dictate the rest of the hole. The outside was carved and sanded to shape.
Mouthpiece
See Drawing of wooden hole boring jig
This is how I did it. It certainly was not the best way but it got the starter hole through ( 4.5mm ) I then drilled it out to 8 mm with 5mm hole beside the mouthpiece.
Again I refer you to the mimf forum for more sensible ways.
For the check valve use the scottish method or try this site
Blowpipe Stock
To facilitate the turning after I had bored the 16mm hole I used the Bowl turning faceplateand some scrap wood to make a tenon to fit. This made turning a little harder but meant I had clear access to the workpiece.
Drone
This is really the simplist form of drone I know. You can turn it as a complete section and then part it afterwards. I think its best to keep the bore diameter the same as the inside of the brass tube, but mine ended up the same as the outside diameter and still works fine. Keeping it airtight is the important thing, Ive used ptfe tape on mine.
Bag
I based mine on the design in the College of Piping book two, with a slight goose shaped neck. For my first attempt I used pond lining rubber, but after much difficulty I used the method on D Havlena's site using nylon backed vinyl, which is what I would recommend to you, unless you want to use leather in the scottish fashion.
Good luck!!
Please feel free to email me with your comments about this site
let me know if you make your own set, I will be happy to display your pictures.
Happy piping!
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