Pipe Making
From Uilleann Wiki
Contents |
Materials
Wood
Woods commonly used in Uilleann pipemaking are African Blackwood (dalbergia melanoxylon), Ebony (diospyros spp.) and Boxwood (buxus sempervirens).
Examples of other woods in current use are: Cocobolo (dalbergia retusa), Brazilian Rosewood (dalbergia nigra), Lignum Vitae (guiacum officinale) and Holly (illex opaca).
Historic examples of union pipes, for instance many of those made by the Coynes, were sometimes made of native woods that have yet to be positively identified. They are generally referred to as "fruitwoods", and were hard and fine-grained. Sometimes these instruments appear to have been stained to a darker color. A few 19th century examples were made of Laburnum (laburnum anagyroides), which was a fine furniture construction wood of the time.
Seasoning/Drying
Correct seasoning or drying of your wood is vital. This ensures most of the shrinkage and distortion has happened before you start to work on the wood. It is advisable to obtain information about the condition of the wood from the supplier. Then store the wood for several months (or longer if necessary) in conditions similar to the usual environment the instrument will encounter when completed. Find a Wikipedia article on wood drying here: Wood Seasoning/Drying
Other Materials
Other materials traditionally used in the pipes include leather (bag, bellows, valves); bone, ivory, or horn, or imitation ivory since the 1989 worldwide ban on real ivory (mounts); brass, 'nickel silver' (a cupro-nickel alloy), or silver (tubing, ferrules). Waxed thread, sometimes referred to as "hemp" although typically cotton or linen, is commonly used to bind both sliding and fixed joints to one another.
In recent times, vinyl is sometimes used as a substitute for leather in the bag (though it is less suitable as a substitute in the bellows gusset). Stainless steel is sometimes used (notably by Alain Froment) for metalwork. Due to restrictions on the sale of ivory and limited modern availability of suitable bone and horn, plastic (a.k.a. 'imitation ivory') is commonly used for mounts. Unstained boxwood may also be used for contrasting mounts in place of ivory, and it can approximate the yellowed look of antique ivory.
The 'timber' parts of pipes have also on occasion been made of alternative materials, notably Delrin(TM) (acetal copolymer) or brass. Chanters have been made of acrylic and of "nickel silver" - for instance Felix Doran's "silver pipes" were reportedly made of nickel silver (also known as "German silver").
Tools
- Saw/bandsaw
- Wood lathe (for turning cylindrical pipe sections)
- Engineer's lathe (can be used for all wood turning a well as producing reamers)
- Boring tools (any of the below may/will work):
- Hollow tailstock
- Jawed chuck in headstock and drill chuck in tailstock
- D Bits
- Gun drills
- Twist drill bits ranging from 1/8" to 1" (for roughing out bores)
- Bench grinder (for custom reamer making)
- Bore reamers (custom made to produce the correct bore)
- Lathe tools
- Abrasives
- Polish
Techniques
Long Boring
One of the tricky aspects of pipe making is drilling long, straight, narrow holes. Twist drills tend to veer off a straight line so this has tended to be done using a D bit. A D bit can be easily built to cut any size providing you have some steel rod of the required diameter.
The pilot is often started with a twist drill in the tail stock of an engineers lathe. The work is mounted in the chuck and supported at its free end using a fixed steady.
The D bit is then repeatedly inserted and withdrawn (to clear out the debris) progressing a few millimeters at a time. It is a slow but relatively inexpensive tool.
Many contemporary makers use Gun Drills. A gun drill efficiently cuts a pilot hole usually with an excellent finish to the hole itself. The gun drill's efficiency is due to compressed air driven down the length of the drill. This clears out the debris very efficiently and also cools the drill tip.
Step Drilling
The sections that have tapered bores (chanter and regulators) are best step drilled before using specially shaped reamers to produce the final bore profile.
Step drilling helps to keep the reamer centered more readily than reaming straight into a pilot bore. It also speeds up the reaming process, reduces heating of the wood caused by friction and reduces wear on often valuable reamers.
There appears to be two approaches to step drilling. Drilling a pilot and then using a normal twist drill to open out the bore is not one of them. Twist drill tend to drift slightly away from the pilot bore leaving steps that drift side to side.
One method is to step drill after piloting using twist drills that have had their tips modified to start with a straight section the same diameter as the pilot. This ensures the step drill will not wander from the line of the pilot.
Another method is to combine piloting and step boring in the same operation. This method tends to be done with gun drills. The largest step is drilled in to the blank and the drill withdrawn. A specially made cutting tool is then inserted. This has the same diameter as the 1st step with a cutting tip the same diameter as the second step. It cuts just deep enough to allow the second drill to align correctly. The second step drill is then used to the required distance and the process repeated with smaller drills as required.
Re-Centreing
Once the piloting and/or step drilling is completed the piece of wood must be centred up again. This has to be done because the pilot bore will almost never emerge from the end of the wood at its centre.
The piece of wood is then mounted on the lathe with the exit bore at the tailstock end. The tailstock centre should be positioned in the exit hole.
The outside of the wood can now be turned until it is concentric with the pilot/stepped bore.
