Project #2

Penny Whistle Mouthpiece

A penny whistle (or Irish whistle, etc.) uses a vibrating stream of air that resonates inside of a tube of a given length to produce sound waves at a given pitch.

In this project you will use Tinkercad to create a 3D printed fipple mouthpiece that can be attached to a PCV pipe to make beautiful music!

Start the Mouthpiece

We are now ready to begin creating our penny whistle mouthpiece.

Instructions

Let's start with the part of the shape that will connect to the PVC pipe.
In a previous steps you created a PVC pipe. We are going to use a copy of that shape to begin our mouthpiece.
Make a copy of the PVC pipe by selecting the shape and pressing CTRL+C then CTRL+V (CMD+C then CMD+V on mac)
Ungroup the new shape and delete the hole shape from the center, so you are left with the PVC pipe and a cylinder.
Set the cylinder to a hole, this will be the cutout in the mouthpiece that let's you connect it to the PVC pipe.

Now we can start building the body of the mouthpiece around the hole.

Instructions

Start by dragging a cylinder shape to the workplane.
Size it to be larger in diameter than the hole that was just created. Since the outer diameter of the PVC pipe is 21.45mm, let's use 26mm for the diameter of the body. This will create a wall thickness of a little more than 2mm which is quite strong after 3D printing.
Set the number of sides to 64 in the inspector, this will smooth the outside of the cylinder.
Increase the height of the cylinder to 30mm.
Lift the new cylinder up off the workplane 5mm. The distance the body is lifted off the workplane will define how much of the pipe is inserted into the mouthpiece. Lifting the cylinder 5mm off the workplane means 15mm of PVC pipe will fit into the mouthpiece when they are connected.
Make the new cylinder transparent by selecting the Transparent checkbox on the color panel in the inspector. This will let us see what's going on inside our shapes.
Align the shapes so their centers are aligned

PVC Pipe Stop and Blade Geometry

The next shape we will be creating will serve two purposes. It will be used to create the blade in the mouthpiece and it will act as a stop to prevent the PVC pipe from being inserted too deep in the mouthpiece. If the pipe were pressed to deep into the mouthpiece it would block airflow.

Instructions

Start by dragging a polygon shape to the workplane.
Set the dimensions of the polygon to 18mm deep and 15mm wide and 20mm tall.
Change the polygon to a hole and lift it off the workplane 12mm.

Complete Mouthpiece Body

Let's align the pipe stop to the body and combine them.

Instructions

Select all the mouthpiece shapes on the workplane (not the PVC pipe).
Using the Align tool on the toolbar, align the vertical centers.
With the shapes still selected (not the PVC pipe), click Group on the toolbar to create a single shape.
Continue to the next step.

Create the Blade

With the body of the mouthpiece complete, we can focus on the blade and air channel.

Let's create the fipple blade and the air escape opening when a wedge shape.

Instructions

Drag a wedge shape to the workplane.
Size the wedge to 20mm deep, 8mm wide, and 20mm tall.

Temporary Cut Away

To properly position the wedge we need to access some internal faces of the model. To do this we will temporarily cut away a portion of the mouthpiece.

Remember this is a temporary cut we will remove a little later in the design process.

Instructions

Drag a box hole shape to the workplane.
Position the box near the top half of the mouth piece about half way off to one side.
Group the mouthpiece and box to cut away part of the mouthpiece.

Workplanes for Positioning

Now that we can access the internal faces, we can create some workplanes to help position the wedge.

Instructions

Rotate the design to look at the mouthpiece through the opening that was just created in the previous steps.
Drag a workplane to the flat face of the polygon shape on the inside of the mouthpiece.

Position the Wedge Shape

We can use the workplane to help position the wedge.

Instructions

Rotate the wedge so the vertical face is facing away from the temporary cut.
Press D on the keyboard to move the wedge to the workplane.
Align the wedge to the middle of the mouthpiece.
Mirror or rotate the wedge shape vertically to make the other flat face closer to the top of the mouthpiece.
The final position should look like the image above.

Now we can use another workplane to align the wedge shape to the top of the mouthpiece.

Instructions

Rotate your view to look up into the mouthpiece.
Drag a workplane to the top inside face of the polygon cut out.
Select the wedge shape and press D on the keyboard to move it to the new workplane.

Cut the Blade Opening

To complete the blade opening we need to slide the wedge out of the mouthpiece a bit, then add the air channel to the mouthpiece.

Instructions

Use the arrow keys on the keyboard to move the wedge out of the mouthpiece.
It may be helpful to group the mouthpiece and wedge to see the result of the cut.
This may help you better see adjustments that need to be made.
If you do group the shapes make sure to ungroup them when finished. We will group the wedge in a later step with the air channel. This will help reduce the number of groups in the design.

Air Channel Workplane

In the coming steps we will create the air channel hole using a box hole shape. To begin that process we need to move the workplane back to the bottom of the blade.

Instructions

Drag a workplane to the back face of the polygon (this surface will be the bottom of the blade).

Air Channel Hole

Let's create the air channel for the mouthpiece.

Instructions

Drag a Box hole to the workplane as size it to be 30mm tall, 2mm thick, and 8mm wide.
Align the mouthpiece, the wedge, and the air channel to the center.
Lift the air channel out away from the mouthpiece so it sticks out the top.
While lifting the air channel hole, make sure it intersects with the wedge. This will ensure air flow through the mouthpiece.

The Critical Blade Gap

We almost have the air channel completely positioned, but first we need to make sure we have the critical blade gap set properly. Remember how the fipple blade is supposed to work. Most of the air goes over the blade and out of the top of the mouthpiece, but there is a small 0.2mm offset that lets some air escape below the blade.

Let's make sure that dimension is correct now.

Instructions

Look at your design from the front.
Turn on Orthographic View using the button on the bottom of the navigation menu. This will let you see the shapes straight on to ensure they are properly aligned.
Set your Snap Grid to 1.0mm
Select the air channel hole shape.
Use the arrow keys on the keyboard to move the shape 2mm to the left.
Now set your Snap Grid to 0.1mm
Press the right arrow key twice to move the shape back in the other direction 0.2mm to create the needed offset.
Don't forget to set your Snap Grid back to 1.0mm.

Remove Temporary Cut Away

Now that we have the air channel, let's remove the temporary cut away.

Instructions

Select the mouthpiece with the temporary cut out.
Click the Ungroup button on the toolbar and delete the box hole.

Add Air Channel Material

Let's add some material we can cut the air channel through!

Instructions

Drag a workplane onto the top of the mouthpiece, so we can add material.
Drag a Round Roof shape to the workplane. (optionally the extrusion shape generator can be used for smoother edges)
Rotate the shape to stand on end.
Press D on the keyboard to move the shape to the workplane.
Select all shapes and Align them to the center.

Align and Size the Air Channel

Now simply scale and position the air channel material to completely cover the air channel hole, but make sure the hole sticks out of the top of the shape.

Instructions

Use align, scale, and the arrow keys on the keyboard to size and position the round roof shape.
Make sure the air channel hole extend out of the top of the mouthpiece.

Group and Align the Shapes

To complete the mouthpiece, select all the shape and group them together into a single shape. Make sure you don't include the PVC pipe! it should remain a separate shape.

Instructions

Select all the mouthpiece shapes and group them into a single object.
Select the mouthpiece and the PVC Pipe and align their centers.
Congratulations! You made it! Continue to the final step!

You've Finished!

Now make it your own by personalizing with your initials.

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