Sandpaper and Glue

Well, another week or so has gone by and the flute is coming along nicely. Shown in this photo are the early stages of the sound holes of the flute. The air will flow from the left to the right of the flute. It will eventually come up through the opening on the left, traverse the "flue" and then enter through the "true sound hole" (or the hole on the right) this hole will make the actual sound of the flute, somewhat like blowing across the top of a glass soda bottle.






This is the inside of the flute with the air flow from right to left. To the right is the slow air chamber, to the left the actual bore of the flute. I used a chisel to create the small ramps leading up to the openings from the inside, this aides with the air flow to keep things moving smoothly. Once this was completed I needed to route the flue of the flute to channel the air from the opening of the slow air chamber to the opening of the bore. I chose to add some Black Walnut to this section of the flute which meant I needed to cut two small pieces of wood to use as my inserts. Once these were cut to approximate size I sanded them down to fit and glued them in place. This was followed by more sanding to make the top flat and level. This section of the flute is called "the nest" and later in the process you'll see why its vital that this piece be completely flat and smooth. So, after some time on the sanding block this is what I ended up with. (air flow from right to left again).

With all this competed I was ready to Glue my flute together in preparation for turning the flute to make it rounded. This takes a few basic steps, first the bore and slow air chamber of the flute should be shellacked to protect them from moisture. Then a light coating of glue is applied to one half of the flute. Both halves are then pressed together and clamped in place after aligning the bore of the flute properly. So, my flute will sit like this all weekend until work resumes on Tuesday next week. (note, the image of the flute being glued is another student and his flute, not the one I'm working on. and yes, our "clamps" are made of PVC pipe.)

In the beginning...

Well, I didn't think of posting this project on the internet until a few days into the course so for my first flute I don't have any pictures of its true beginning. To sum it up, I started with a basic plank of Alder wood and cut it down to the two stacked pieces shown here. In my notes you can somewhat see what the basic design needs to be for the flute when completed. at this point in the process I have decided to make a 7/8 " bore flute and marked out the sections of the flute that will become the bore, the slow air chamber, and the mouthpiece. Due to restrictions on tools it would be a few days before I could actually use the router to route the bore into the wood.

So, on to the router. We use these fun little "jigs" our instructor invented to hold the wood in place while we use the router, this does two things for us, foremost it protects our hands from any injury the router bit might cause. (made of carbide, wouldn't be pleasant.) and secondly it holds the wood straight and steady to help ensure a straight bore, I say help because you can still mess it up.






So, here are the two halves of my flute after the bore and slow air chamber has been routed out to 7/8". Now I get to spend ages and ages sanding these spaces to make them smooth, starting with 100 grit and working my way up to about 1000 grit so tune in next week to see how far I make it. ;)