A penny whistle is usually made from metal tubing, but with enough care, you can make something similar out of wood. The instrument you build in this project will actually be a Swanee whistle, which was invented in England in the 1800s and is sometimes called a slide whistle. Your version will be very high-pitched, because of the limitations of your drill set. You’ll have to adjust it to make it work—but in the end I think you will get it to whistle.

This project requires you to drill a long, straight hole with a ³/₈" bit. You already did that in the previous project, but this one will be a little more difficult, as the hole will be going down the center of a round hardwood dowel.

You’ll need to be careful while the drilling is in progress. If the drill slips, or if it splits the dowel open, you don’t want your hands to be nearby. Make sure the dowel is clamped securely, and keep both hands on the drill while you are operating it.

Drilling a Round Dowel

Some round dowels are made from softwood. The lines of the grain are clearly visible, looking like a two-by-four. This is not what you want. The grain should not be so easily visible, and any label on the dowel that you buy should identify it as being a hardwood such as oak, maple, or poplar (not pine).

Start with a piece of ¾" round dowel that is 6" long. This is much longer than your ³/₈" drill bit, but you’re going to drill a hole from each end, meeting in the middle. Can it be done? I think so, if you are careful and methodical.

The first step is to decide how to clamp the dowel. You could lay it flat and clamp it to the surface of your work bench, but then you would have to drill into it horizontally. I have difficulty making a horizontal hole that doesn’t drift from side to side, so I’ll suggest that you clamp it vertically.

To do this, you need a jig. I’m thinking of using two pieces of two-by-four, each 3" long. You will cut a V-shaped channel in each of them, and they’ll grip the dowel between them, preventing it from rotating when you’re drilling a hole in it. The finished version is shown in Figure 9-6 on page 106.

To minimize the risk of the jig splitting while it is being used, you should cut each V-shaped channel across the grain.

Figure 9-1 shows how the wood should be marked, to guide you in making the saw cuts.

The two lines on the surface of the wood can be made by using your speed square, at 90 degrees to the front edge of the wood. Their distance from each end of the wood is unimportant, but the lines must be ¾" apart, parallel with each other.

After you draw them, use your speed square to extend them over the edge at 45 degrees to the surface of the wood, as shown in the figure.

How will you make these angled cuts? Your miter box may have a slot, usually located at one end, that allows the saw to lean over at 45 degrees relative to horizontal. I don’t recommend this, as I have never found it easy to use.

Figure 9-2 shows how you can set things up to make the cut without a box.

Don’t imagine that you can start right in with the saw at an angle; it will slip. The way to do it is to make an initial vertical cut, about ¹/₁₆" deep, as shown in Figure 9-3.

When you have a groove across the wood, you can lean the saw over as in Figure 9-4, and start the angled cut.

• ■ Notice that the teeth of the saw are close to the bars of the clamps. Be very careful that your saw doesn’t rub across them. The teeth will be blunted, and the saw will never be the same again.

Figure 9-5 shows one of the wooden blocks with a V-shaped groove completed. The sides of the V are messy, but they are parallel with the sides of the block, which is the main thing. Small irregularities won’t prevent the groove from clamping the round dowel.

Cut the second block, exactly the same as the first. They can stand opposite each other as in Figure 9-6.

Now you can place the 6" piece of ¾" dowel in the jig as shown in Figure 9-7. I stood a couple more blocks on either side, for extra stability. One clamp is applied horizontally, to hold everything together. A second clamp is applied vertically, to stop the whole assembly from moving when you start to drill into it.

As described in Chapter 8, I think it’s a good idea to proceed in small steps when you’re drilling a ³/₈" hole. This is less important when you’re dealing with hardwood than when you’re drilling into pine, but small steps enable you to correct errors as you go along.

The first step is to use an awl to mark the center of your dowel. Finding the center can be tricky, but you can use your ruler to check that the point of the awl is at an equal distance from each side. Then turn your ruler and check again from other directions.

After you make a hole with the awl, put a countersink in the drill and create a cavity as shown in Figure 9-8. You should do this a little at a time, pushing the drill to one side or the other if the cavity isn’t quite centered.

Now use a ¼" bit to start a vertical hole. If your drill doesn’t have a bubble level to tell you that it’s vertical, you should pause frequently and check the bit from the front, the side, and then the front and the side again, as it goes deeper. Don’t press too hard, and remember to pull the bit out occasionally to get rid of the accumulated wood chips. The more slowly you proceed, the better your chances are of getting it right.

Remember that the spiral flutes on a drill bit are necessary to excavate wood particles from the hole that you are drilling. Therefore, you don’t normally drill beyond the extent of the flutes. If the smooth, round shank of the bit enters the hole, it will start to get hot quite quickly.

In Figure 9-9, after I made a hole as deep as possible with the ¼" bit, I stood a screwdriver in the hole to check it was vertical.

Now for the interesting part. Switch to your ³/₈" bit and run the drill slowly. Touch the bit to the ¼” hole very gently. Making the ³/₈" hole is a very different experience from making the ¼" hole. The bit will really grab the wood if you let it. Be cautious and don’t hurry.

Your goal is to drill downward for just over 3", which a typical ³/₈" bit should be able to manage without any trouble. Clean out all the debris, and the result should look something like Figure 9-10. Not perfectly centered, but close.

Now you need to loosen the clamps and take the jig apart, to clean out all the fragments of wood. You don’t want any debris in the way when you tighten the jig again.

Turn the dowel upside-down, clamp it, and repeat the drilling sequence from the other end. I doubt that the two holes will meet precisely, but they don’t have to, so long as they overlap to some extent.

You may find that when you break through from one hole to the other, the bit will grab the dowel and may start turning it, no matter how tightly you clamped it. This is less likely if you are keeping the flutes of the bit clean, but if it does happen, do not hold the dowel to stop it from turning! There’s a risk that the dowel may split open, at which point you will find yourself holding the drill bit inside it. That would be a very unpleasant experience.

If the drill jams, put the drill into reverse, pull the bit up, then return to forward gear and increase the speed. You should be able to make the transition from one hole to the other inside the wood.

No doubt you’ll want to unclamp the dowel and look through it to make sure the holes are aligned—in which case, you’ll probably be disappointed. The ³/₈" bit will have pushed the last bit of sawdust into the lower hole, instead of extracting it. You may need to use a screwdriver or pencil to clear the dowel.

Blow through it, but be careful not to inhale when your mouth is close to the dowel. You don’t want to breathe sawdust. Turn your head to take a breath of clean air, then blow through the dowel. If it still isn’t clean inside, you’ll need to apply the drill again.

Making the Mouthpiece

A Swanee whistle is closed at the bottom, and all the air will emerge through a hole that you cut into the side of the dowel. The part of the whistle which you blow into is called the fipple, and the hole where the air emerges is the fipple hole. (That’s a real word—I didn’t make it up. In fact you can find entire web sites online, dedicated to discussion of fipple geometry in penny whistles. It’s not a trivial matter.)

Getting the fipple to work is tricky, because tiny variations make a big difference, but if you’re patient, I think you’ll get a sound out of it. I’ve completed this project three times, and I always managed to make it emit a high-pitched whistle in the end.

The first step is to make a saw cut 1" from the end of the dowel, with the jig turned on its side to hold the dowel horizontally, as shown in Figure 9-11. Be very gentle with this cut. You don’t want it to go too deep. As soon as the saw reaches the hole inside the dowel, stop immediately.

Now you need to make a diagonal cut to meet the vertical cut, and I think the easiest way is with a utility knife, as shown in Figure 9-12. Keep the dowel clamped on the bench and push the knife away from you, keeping your other hand out of the way.

The hole has to be as clean as possible. Ragged edges will diffuse the air stream and prevent your whistle from resonating. Use the knife very delicately to trim the edges of the hole, as in Figure 9-13.

The next step is to restrict and direct the air flow through the mouthpiece and under the hole in the side of the whistle. To do this, you need to plug the mouthpiece with a 1" length of ³/₈" dowel that has a flat side, as shown in Figure 9-14.

You can sand a piece of ³/₈" dowel to make a flat spot on it. This is most easily done as in Figure 9-15, before you cut the 1" section.

Insert the ³/₈" dowel partially into the upper end of your whistle, as shown in Figure 9-16. Don’t push it in all the way. Blow into the end with the plug in it, so that your breath goes through the thin gap between the plug and the hole that you drilled. Block the the opposite end of the dowel with your finger. If all you get is a vague, breathy sound, move the plug a fraction further in or further out. Still no note? Sand the plug some more and try again. The dimensions are critical, and the force with which you blow will also have some effect. You shouldn’t need to blow hard. In fact, you are more likely to get a sound if you blow very gently.

Be careful not to inhale while your mouth is over the dowel. The plug should fit tightly, but just in case it is loose, you want to avoid the risk of drawing it into your mouth.

When you finally have a whistling sound, you can cut the plug so that it is flush with the end of the dowel, and glue it in place. Then sand it to make a better-shaped mouthpiece. See Figure 9-17.

Finally, cut a 3" piece of your ³/₈" dowel and slide that into the other end of the whistle, as in Figure 9-18. By moving it in and out, you’ll vary the whistling pitch.

A larger whistle would create a deeper, louder, mellower tone. How could that be made? Well, instead of wood, how about using a plastic tube, such as a piece of PVC water pipe? I’ll begin to explore the whole topic of plastics in Chapter 15.