I"ve started another bagpipe project, this time the Great Highland Bagpipe (aka 'GHB'). I started with the bass drone top:
Of course, I did say "little Scottish bagpipe..." :
It is, in fact, a 1:6 scale (aka "play scale" same as "Barbie Scale") model! I was first thinking of 1:12 scale to suit the models I've already made, but 1:6 is difficult enough!
Here's the top end:
Made of African Blackwood (same as the top-quality real thing) left over from the 1x1x12 turning square I bought for the NSP project. I bored the 1.92" long blank 1/8", then put a 1/8" hobby-brass tube down the top where the tone-bore would be, just above the tuning-slide area at the bottom; provides the simulation of the center bushing seen on a real drone, while making the center-section stronger, as it's only about .145 OD in the slim section. The really hard part was making the top rim brass ring and turning the tiny rebate for it.
I'm seriously considering making the projecting-mounts and chanter-sole from the small scraps of mammoth-ivory left from the NSP project.
We have a resident's craft-faire coming up in June, so this was an idea of something to display, and possibly sell (I'd have to charge a pretty respectable price, though; it takes almost more time to make these tiny pieces than it would to make them full-size!). This was the first idea I could come up with related to making something that could be sold.
I'm making an initial estimate that it will probably take about 50 hours work to complete all 17 separate tiny wood pieces that make up the GHB; this first piece took several hours, from cutting down the wood to finishing (that time also includes searching for the bottom ferrule after I dropped it; had to move the lathe and sweep up before I found it!).
Regards, John
Of course, I did say "little Scottish bagpipe..." :
It is, in fact, a 1:6 scale (aka "play scale" same as "Barbie Scale") model! I was first thinking of 1:12 scale to suit the models I've already made, but 1:6 is difficult enough!
Here's the top end:
Made of African Blackwood (same as the top-quality real thing) left over from the 1x1x12 turning square I bought for the NSP project. I bored the 1.92" long blank 1/8", then put a 1/8" hobby-brass tube down the top where the tone-bore would be, just above the tuning-slide area at the bottom; provides the simulation of the center bushing seen on a real drone, while making the center-section stronger, as it's only about .145 OD in the slim section. The really hard part was making the top rim brass ring and turning the tiny rebate for it.
I'm seriously considering making the projecting-mounts and chanter-sole from the small scraps of mammoth-ivory left from the NSP project.
We have a resident's craft-faire coming up in June, so this was an idea of something to display, and possibly sell (I'd have to charge a pretty respectable price, though; it takes almost more time to make these tiny pieces than it would to make them full-size!). This was the first idea I could come up with related to making something that could be sold.
I'm making an initial estimate that it will probably take about 50 hours work to complete all 17 separate tiny wood pieces that make up the GHB; this first piece took several hours, from cutting down the wood to finishing (that time also includes searching for the bottom ferrule after I dropped it; had to move the lathe and sweep up before I found it!).
Regards, John