[ Carl Zwanzig wrote in 030309 MMDigest: ]

> Building a windchest, keyboard, and air supply seems within reach.
> This leaves whistles/pipes, which is where my knowledge fails.
> What voices of flue pipes would work relatively well?

It has been a while since I posted.  I thought that for someone seeking
simple pipes to make, take a look at Mark Wicks' "Organ building for
Amateur".  This is available from the Organ Literature Foundation (or
Amazon.com), ISBN 0-913746-10-0.

In this book Wicks describes how to make pipes from a sort of rolled up
paper mache'.  This is a good simple and fast way to prototype simple
pipes and learn more about their hidden temperaments and tones.

You start by rolling a pipe onto a mandrel.  Then you roll the next
sheet over it to make the next size up.  In this day it is a bit easier
as you can use an Excel spreadsheet to calculate the lengths of paper.
The main trick is that you have to keep the glue off the last turn of
paper or you never get the pipe off the mandrel.

I have been restoring a Wurlitzer Caliola myself (takes years!).
I think I have most of the pipe scale documented.  (The printed scale
published by Doyle lane does not match actual instruments measured.)

Wurlitzer shipped these instruments with an option for either brass or
wood pipes.  The wood pipes, which I am replicating, are wide of scale.
A friend of mine built a calliope and showed me the brass pipes he made.
I would not try making a full 360-degree whistle in metal unless one
was a master machinist.

 [ Years ago one could buy the brass tubing in the proper sizes for
 [ repairing calliope whistles.  'Twas quite expensive, though.
 [ -- Robbie

It might be possible (I have not tried) to make toroidal pipes using
the Wicks method.  Perhaps mold the languid out of epoxy?

I should also point out that Nancy Fratti sells a paper organ that uses
square pipes.  The languid in these are built of sheets of cardboard.

Julie Porter