Small Pipes and Border Pipes

IN THIS ISSUE; Straight Bore prob/em solving; Jimmy Wilson; Ins and outs of Shuttle Pipes; Interpreting Dixon; Piping Centre; Irish Praise for an English Piper; Toun Piper of Musse/burgh; Galloway Piping School; Letters; Music; Reviews: Price 3.50 lumber, ordinary fruit woods such as Pear, This P.E.G. 1000 or 1450 (molecular Plum and Cherry make excellent instru- weights) displaces the moisture in the cell ments and can be obtained freely or walls of the wood and its wax residue cheaply from people who maintain parks, prevents the cells from collapsing to cause orchards and properties etc. splits and cracks. The wood should be in logs about 16" The solution can be used over and over long by diameters of 6" up to whatever again and will last a long time, though LETTERS can be handled, reasonably clear of some water will be lost by evaporation. It branches and twigs and stored under is a chemical, however, and should be From A.E. James water as soon as possible after cutting used wisely and stored safely. Vancouver B.C. from the tree to prevent drying out and [[ splitting. the A Highland chanter that I made over Interesting article in COMMON STOCK years ago from green Pear wood that a June 1998 by Malcolm McLaren, with After longitudinally sawing/splitting and neighbour had cut from a back-yard tree, which I have no argument except for one turning into billets of about 2" diameter, and on which I first used P.E.G.1000, small detail i.e. the aperture hole in the the wood can be very effectively shows no sign of deterioration or brass strip. "seasoned" by being immersed for about distortion, despite its shell being only 1/16" three months in a 50/50 solution of water thick at the lower end. Some twenty other I have tried a single hole in my and polyethylene glycol 1000 or 1450. A bits and pieces made from treated green square-tube reeds and though it is much couple of weeks in open air will then dry wood are similarly free from cracks and easier to make than is a slot, it was judged the wood well enough to be worked. twists. to be not as efficient. On a different tack; I have made good use onof Malcolms December 1991 article Here piano wire D-bits for the boring of Malcolm chanters and drones, but have yet to McLaren is achieve a dead straight 5.32" dia. bore. Of using a hand ten pieces of Pear, Plum and Maple held high woods, two suffered considerable speed drill wandering while all the others were out of to cut the true by at least 1/8". hole for a smallpipe - Perhaps my woods are not so easily worked as is the African Blackwood that chanter in Malcolm used, but I would welcome ideas Tasmanian from anyone as to how I may overcome Olive - as this "wander lust". One idea is presently described in Incubating........[see page 4 in this issue - COMMON i STOCK Ed]. December For readers who are amateur pipe-makers 1991 - and for the fun of it and do not wish to lay out referred to large sums of money for pieces of exotic above. 3 STRAIGHT BORE - NOTE: If the central part of the bit, between the two flats is thicker than 1/16", the bit will PROBLEM SOLVING. rapidly over-heat. Slightly less and with a shallow "Vee", the bit will cut several times before becoming hot. Further material from Al James, where he finds a solution to his problem: Care must be taken when inserting the longer bits, that the bit is centred truly. There are two corners, and if one catches on the end-face of the wood the bit will gyrate Previously I have written that I was contemplating the use of a double "Vee"-notched frantically. " shape for piano-wire boring bits, in lieu of the single-flat "D bits that were giving bent and off-centre bores in Pear wood. The billets were some 15" long, turned down to Several bits of increasing length, from the starter at 3" to the last at 17", were used to about 1.5" diameter and bored at 5/32" diameter. give maximum rigidity per group of cuts and to afford a cool and sharp cutting edge. Since then I have bored six billets of Plum wood and one of Pear wood using different No annealing of the cutting edge of the bit was necessary, even though the metal was combinations of revolving speed / "D" bit and "Vee"-notch bit / a counter-rotating bit in a blued" in the grinding process and the conclusion is that metal will cut wood quite hand-drill and a non-rotating bit in a tail-stock chuck. differently. But dont overdo it. Conclusions: The non-rotating feed of the tail-stock chuck is IN , the rotating feed of Finally, this dissertation is in no way a denigration of other methods of wood boring, the hand-drill is OUT; low speed rotation of the billet (850rpm) is OUT, a higher speed particularly that of Malcolm McLaren which gave me a start. it is offered as a possible (2160rpm) is IN; the double-flat "Vee"-notch bit is IN, the "D" bit is OUT. improvement to all makers of pipe chanters and discussion is invited. Of the seven test pieces, those with the IN feature were either on-centre or within 1/16", but most importantly, all were dead straight in the bore. Advertisement The tools used: A flat-bed wood lathe with #2 Morse, 38" between centres, pulley speeds of 850/1375/2160/3500rpm, and a graduated tail stock spindle with 2" travel. A 1/2" Jacobs chuck and arbour. A grinder. An auger-bit file. A bench-vice. Several lengths of 5/32" diameter piano wire. A jam-chuck for the head stock. A steady-bearing Small to hold the tail end of the billet. Both SAE 30 engine-oil and spray-on silicon were used for lubrication, with a preference for the former: cheaper, no smoke, no smell! Pipes The jam-chuck can be made from a square piece of 2" x 4" lumber, screw-fixed to a 3" suitface-plate, turned down to 3.25" diameter, bored for a depth of 1" at about 1.375" to the diameter of the billet and through-bored at 1/2" to give outlet clearance to the 5/32" boring bit. by D. Naill A thin bead of glue round and 1/4" from the end of the billet will secure the driven end and afford easy removal of the billet on completion of the boring operation. Fast Delivery - Best Quality Robert Wallace, P.O. Box 341 Stepps, Glasgow G33 6DZ Scotland Phone/FAx: (0141) 779 1750 Agent for all Naill products 4 5 JIMMY WILSON N I knew Jimmy in 1938. I went out and about with Jimmy - he was in the army p then, based in Hamilton. He went abroad with the SAS. I lost touch with him, and over twenty five years later I saw a bit in one of the newspapers about him being in one of the NELL WILSON AND DAVID plays, and we met up again. About 1966. STEVENSON IN CONVERSATION ' ABOUT THE LATE JIMMY i D About how old would you be in 1938 - roughly WILSON AND HER LIFE WITH HIM. N Nineteen. He was 5 years older than me. He would have been about 25 at the It is now 15 years since the colourful time. So it was quite a story that we met again after all that time. and talented one-time President of the LBPS passed away (see cover picture). D Was he a piper when you first knew him? Obituaries appeared in COMMON STOCK Vol 2 number 1 of March 1985 N Oh yes and the Piping Times of September a long time friend 1984. David Stevenson, D The two of you were invited to this dinner in 1966 by the Scottish-Norwegian of the family, recently taped an interview Society. That was because of what he did in Norway was it? with Jimmys widow, Nell Wilson, and part of that interview. below is published N I think he made himself a member of the Society, and got an invitation. My thanks to Sam Allen for transcribing the tape, to David Stevenson for making D They are named invitations - I dont think you had to buy them it possible, and of course to Nell for allowing us further glimpses into the N I dont know about that - this was entertainment we were doing with a wee group fascinating character and life of her late to make money for one of the churches. It tells you all about it there. We were very husband - Ed popular in fact and went there several times. In heron living room Nell and David look through files and photographs; commenting D Theres a picture of him playing his pipes at a wedding at the Livingstone Church pictures and other memorabilia. in Blantyre in 1972. I think those pipes were the ones he sold to me - do you remember I came over with the family and he sold them to me N. Thats a picture of Jimmy when he joined the Cameronians . Enlisted in the army 21st July 1935. Transferred to the special Air Service 1939-40; Faeroe Islands 1941-43; N Most of these cuttings are just about the entertainment that we did.

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