Uilleann Pipes in C

This will be a "flat" set of uilleann pipes pitched in C, made of katalox, brass, and imitation ivory. I had originally bought some katalox specifically for this set, but i wound up using some for the previous project. While it's not my very favourite wood to work with (mopane is still my personal winner so far), it is certainly up there among the good woods for me. And it has jumped straight to the top of my "beautiful wood" list. So having made one drone from it, i'm quite looking forward to doing more. This set will be a personal set for me, so it might go in fits and starts, and may wind up to be less or more complete. My "desert island" uilleann pipes would be a 3/4 set in C, so my intention is to make it up to that point.

It occurs to me that this will be the first uilleann pipes i've made in 12 years or so. I'm planning on including several ideas for updates and improvements to my designs and methods i've been collecting during that time.

My usual practice is to start with the blowpipe and its stock.

Here are the mainstock cup and the front ferrule. Now that i've learned how to do chemical etching, i'm able to put a nice deeply etched maker's mark on the ferrule. Another innovation (for me anyway) on this set is that i'm doing an all-metal mainstock cup, with a machined fitting holding it on to the bag.

The mainstock is made of walnut. At this stage all the holes are drilled, and the outside turned. Next up is the switch assembly, and then the very custom fastener which hopefully should attach the stock cup to the bag.

And here is that very custom fastener for the back of the mainstock cup. I've seen examples of this style of mainstock cup from at least a couple of makers, but it's been long enough that i don't remember the exact details of the parts of either of them. Anyway this is what i've come up with. The trick here is to make it so that both the nut and the hollow bolt are drivable from outside of the bag. My solution is to machine a 3/8" hex socket in the end of the bolt. Any old 3/8" hex key will fit right through a 1 1/8" socket which holds and/or drives the nut. This fastener along with a washer will go into the bag via the blowpipe cutout.

Tied up and ready for all the musical parts. With the machined fastener, the mainstock cup is absolutely the quickest "tie-in" i've ever done, and so far it seems to hold air. I suspect now that i know how to make them, i shall continue to do so. Somehow i prefer the little machining project to tying in a mainstock. (Actually, tying in stocks has always been one of my least favourite parts of bagpipe making, so i'm happy to have any shortcuts i can make use of.) The bag is from Bennett Pipe Bags in Scotland. This is the second bag of theirs i've tied in, and they are excellent.

Today was a brass tube kind of day. The zoomed in bits are the metalwork for the drones, and at the bottom is a brass tube mockup of the bass drone. I'm planning to do a triple bored standing part, which means monkeying with the source measurements somewhat. It seems prudent to confirm that the modified design still plays well before actually building it.

And today was an imitation ivory kind of day. The specific product i'm using for this project is Elforyn Super Tusk. It's a beautiful material, nicely grained to resemble real ivory, and it's nothing like as brittle as the imitation ivory i've used in the past.

Here are all the wood parts for the drones. The thicker piece at the bottom will be the standing part of the bass. I'm planning to do a triple-bored bass drone - which is 40% fewer bores than the last time. Easy peasy!

These are all the straight parts of the drones, plus two plugs for the regulator sockets. The ivory rings aren't glued on to the regulator plugs; they will be reused on the actual regulators when i get to making those. I'm doing a straight bass drone outer section as opposed to a U-bend (with or without a resonator "puck") mainly because i think that vibe especially works on a flat set. Also since the bass drone inner section won't have metal bends, it'll be a cleaner and more cohesive look overall. It will come at the cost of a longer reach to the end of the bass drone, but right now at least i expect to be happy to live with it.

Here is the bass drone standing part, ready for end caps and then the stems for the reed seat and tuning slide.

The drones are complete! I'm very happy with how they turned out. The all-straight bass drone seems to me a bit more elegant than a typical bendy bass drone. Maybe a tiny bit less of a contraption feeling about the instrument.

For now i'm going to switch gears to a sewing project that has a deadline attached, and i'll hopefully be back at the lathe before too long. Next up will be getting going on the two regulators.

September was a bit of a writeoff with concerts and then a flu. (That's what i get for ever going outside.) Anyway we're back in bidness. These are the regulator end caps. You can see this imitation ivory is grained to simulate the Schreger lines characteristic of genuine ivory. The tuning wire i use is plain steel guitar string, usually the thickest unwound string i can find. It's soldered into the ends of the tuning pins.

Here's the tenor regulator, ready for keywork.

Working on regulator keys. Here's a collage of in-progress stages. First is to silver solder two pieces of brass together. The "spine" piece is just a little thicker than the key slot, on purpose so i have to file it down to ensure it's a good fit for the slot. Then it's mostly filing and sanding away everything that isn't a key. Finally i make a spring from phosphor bronze sheet, and attach it with a brass rivet.

Here are the first two keys completed. The key pads and the cushions under the touches are leather, attached with stick shellac.

Further updates as circumstances warrant...