My Irish Uilleann pipes, which I made in 1983 of Mexican Rosewood and brass, are currently what is called a "half-set":
which means they have a chanter (melody pipe) and drones (steady bass), but do not have what are called "regulators", closed keyed pipes that provide rythmic accompaniment, and correspond roughly to the buttons on the left-hand of an accordion.
The difficulty of traditional construction of regulators is they are conical bored, which means expensive reamers are needed. Turns out, however, that a tapered bore doesn't have to be round, it can be flat-sided as long as the cross-sectional area is the same. I found out about this in this article on how to Make a Square Uilleann Pipe Chanter and have adapted this to plans for a regulator.
As per the suggestions there, I'm experimenting with inexpensive materials to gain experience:
The MDF top, bottom and sides were shaped using masonite templates on the router table; the faces have been rabetted for the sides after drilling the key holes. After gluing up, the tenons were turned on the lathe:
I did run into a little turning problem with between centers capacity due to the 13-3/4 inch length of the baritone regulator (note the tailstock position!).
After making key blocks, an aluminum ferrule, a rosewood plug and bead for the tuning pin, this is how it looks assembled (sans keys):
The key blocks are ordinary half-round molding; the ferrule is shown fitted with the plug and tuning-pin (the pin goes through a cork inside the ferrule). I'm thinking over two different designs for making the keys, and may remove the blocks in favor of another design involving brass plates affixed to the sides. Once I get all the details worked out, I have a nice piece of Honduras Mahogany to use for the "real thing".
John
which means they have a chanter (melody pipe) and drones (steady bass), but do not have what are called "regulators", closed keyed pipes that provide rythmic accompaniment, and correspond roughly to the buttons on the left-hand of an accordion.
The difficulty of traditional construction of regulators is they are conical bored, which means expensive reamers are needed. Turns out, however, that a tapered bore doesn't have to be round, it can be flat-sided as long as the cross-sectional area is the same. I found out about this in this article on how to Make a Square Uilleann Pipe Chanter and have adapted this to plans for a regulator.
As per the suggestions there, I'm experimenting with inexpensive materials to gain experience:
The MDF top, bottom and sides were shaped using masonite templates on the router table; the faces have been rabetted for the sides after drilling the key holes. After gluing up, the tenons were turned on the lathe:
I did run into a little turning problem with between centers capacity due to the 13-3/4 inch length of the baritone regulator (note the tailstock position!).
After making key blocks, an aluminum ferrule, a rosewood plug and bead for the tuning pin, this is how it looks assembled (sans keys):
The key blocks are ordinary half-round molding; the ferrule is shown fitted with the plug and tuning-pin (the pin goes through a cork inside the ferrule). I'm thinking over two different designs for making the keys, and may remove the blocks in favor of another design involving brass plates affixed to the sides. Once I get all the details worked out, I have a nice piece of Honduras Mahogany to use for the "real thing".
John
