Friday, December 10, 2010

The Chanter


It's December now, and I have been working toward making chanters.    Though I have made a single chanter before, the plan is to make the next one differently.  Before I could finish the chanters, I still needed to finish the reamers, and finish modifying the metal lathe so that I could use it to drill tone holes.   That work was completed last week. Then I began drilling some tone holes.


As of yesterday, I now have a chanter that can be played.  Like my first chanter, this one does not yet have keys.  This second prototype chanter will have three keys, when completed.   This chanter is made from Indian rosewood.



Included is a picture of the tone-hole setup, with the first tonehole, and another of the chanter in its current state of development.  The chanter still needs fine tuning, some mounts, a windcap, keys, ferrules, and finish work.
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2 comments:

  1. KevinJanuary 11, 2011 at 12:15 PM

    What model of JET lathe do you have there? Did you make your own tapered reamers on that lathe? Does that lathe have the capability to make spiral flutes on the reamer? Thanks! Your work looks great!

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  2. DirkMarch 4, 2011 at 9:42 PM

    Thanks Kevin! So, this particular lathe is a 9x19" metal lathe. I do use it to make tapered reamers, but they are not spiral-fluted. All the great makers I know who make their own reamers actually make them in a D profile, or sometimes a 3/4 pie profile. Following their example, I make D reamers. I do have some spiral fluted reamers, but they are straight-cone reamers made by Gammons. Mostly, I use those to remove material more efficiently. I don't use those alone, though, because my chanters don't have a straight-cone bore in them. More pictures soon!

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