Bamboo Whistle

by evilad

64K13417

Intro: Bamboo Whistle

I've always wanted to make a whistle out of bamboo, and couldn't find anywhere on the internet that documented it, so with some trial, error, and patience here it is, in some really simple steps.

You will need:
• a knife
• a saw
• glue (preferably a hot glue gun)
• 2 pieces of bamboo that will fit inside each other.

STEP 1: Choosing the Bamboo

The two pieces of bamboo you need, must fit snuggly inside each other, without too much force, otherwise the inner piece tends to split the outer piece. Also any that fit too loosely will be harder to block off holes later. You may find that by using different parts of the same length of bamboo, you can find an ideal thickness.

STEP 2: Cutting

Cut a length of the wider piece of bamboo, about 120mm long (this measurement depends on the pitch that you want, see notes), and two lengths of the narrower bamboo about 15mm each in length. Then scrape away any contents so that the bamboo is nice and smooth on the inside (i usually find that another piece of split bamboo works well).

STEP 3: Mouthpiece: Part 1

Take one of the smaller lengths and using a knife, shave off one edge leaving a flat side. Be careful not to cut too close to the centre and risk going all the way through.

STEP 4: Gluing

Take the two smaller pieces and fill with glue, so that the centres are completely airtight.

STEP 5: Marking

Place the large piece and small flat-edged piece parallel, lining up their top edges and mark on the large one how far down the small piece comes. Where the mark was made, saw down into the bamboo until you have just penetrated the centre.

STEP 6: Mouthpiece: Part 2

Next, take a sharp knife, and cut towards and into the bamboo, where you made the saw cut, so that you end up with a notch cut away. You will want to make this notch about 15-20mm long, so that it cuts the air nicely when the whistle is blown into.

STEP 7: Ends

Lastly take the non-flat-edged piece of bamboo and push it inside the bottom (no notch) end and glue up any gaps. Then take the flat-edged piece push that into the top (notch) end, making sure that the flat side is facing the notch. Again make sure there are no gaps other than where the flat edge is and the notch.

STEP 8: Notes

If you whistle doesn't make sound, or is too quiet, make sure there are no gaps! You could also try lengthening the notch, so that it cuts the air better.

For more information about creating the right pitch for your whistle try this Wikipedia article on resonance:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_resonance#Resonance_of_a_tube_of_air]c_resonance#Resonance_of_a_tube_of_air

18 Comments

ChristineW1 9 years ago

cool. one of my friends gave me a whistle but it had notes to it. I wanted to know how it worked

softballch1k99 13 years ago

with the bamboo i cut it at the notch to i didnt have ti glue the two ends

dougworm 17 years ago

Appreciate the thoughtfull offering of this project and This would have been a very cool project (for me, I can only absolutely speak for me) had there been so more detail in the instructions. A very common error in making instructions is to assume that someone will understand brief verbage describing the proceedure. Unfortunatley without vast quantities of words it is nearly impossible to write instructions that can't be interpreted several differnt ways. And Pictures can go a long way to resolving the problem but ONLY if there are enough views and angles to make things evident. In my opinion the BEST way (most fool resistant) would be to include some crude drawings of the individual parts to be made and then as many photo angles as you can think of. Now no matter how many differnt ways someone can interpret the words they will likely only be able to make it all jibe ONE WAY (the right way hopefully) As for myself, I'm sorry but I can not determine exactly what you are saying on this project and it appears others missed something too since their whistle whistled not. ... bummer

mashedpotato13 13 years ago

I'm not sure if this is related to your comment, but I made  2 whistles, and only one works!

bajojohn 14 years ago

I know this isn't exactly the same type, but the documents sections in this group has a lot of info. http:///groups.yahoo.com/group/nativeflutewoodworking/ It took me week to find them.

toogood 16 years ago

hears how I made a sliding whistle thing ,its probably got real name

allyefaithful 16 years ago

I tried to make this, but didn't have enough bamboo. it still work i just just used one with one closed end

evilad 17 years ago

Oh, also the bamboo needs to be scraped out inside. Not sure I ever mentioned this :s ! Use a split piece of bamboo or a pencil of something.

evilad 17 years ago

Try cutting a deeper, longer slit, so that when you blow through the air is cut by the tube. Also even the smallest of gaps can stop it working, so make sure every other hole is glued up. Hope this helps. Good luck.

Legend 17 years ago

BUT after all my efforts, no whistle. It didn't work. Perhaps I neede fatter bamboo. Mine is about 1.5cm thick.

Legend 17 years ago

Once it was filed a bit I could use my craft knife to cut further, hope this helps who ever had a similar problem to mine.

Legend 17 years ago

My thin piece of bamboo was too thin to cut so I'm having to file it away.

Legend 17 years ago

Great instructable, I'm halfway through at the moment. But you could have just told us about the the length effecting pitch rather than making us look it up because, you know, we're all quite lazy! I'll just assume that the longer the pipe, the lower the pitch (deciding due to water'filled bottles. The less air, the high the pitch) Is that right?

AlexTheGreat 17 years ago

I made something similar a while back after i saw one of those train whistle things.

evilad 17 years ago

Looks like the same idea, only advantage is that bamboo has a hole through the centre already. Anyone who can't make out my crumby pictures should have a good look as the ones above.

AlexTheGreat 17 years ago

Your bamboo one looks a whole lot nicer than mine, although i made mine out of scrap wood and mine sounds like a train whistle