Here’s a part I just designed. I’m calling it a “skirt”. I hope you like it.

Honoring the skilled work of current pipemakers

After spending quite a lot of time trying to replicate the decorative elements from traditional pipes (see pipe flares), I decided I should go out of my way to not try and look like traditional pipes. The last thing I want is to be accused of trying to move in on the artisinal woodcrafting that goes into a traditional set. The people who make these are skilled craftspeople: I’m just a computer programmer with a 3D printer.

David’s set used some pretty simple (but, I think, pretty) design language, with some rings inscribed on the brass parts, and some ivory-colored bits to cover joints. It’s a nice look. It still looks like pipes, but they’re definitely David Daye pipes: nobody’s going to claim he’s making cheap knock-offs of someone else’s design.

After discussing this with other CAD people, I decided to just go “low-poly” for my ornamentation. Not only is it incredibly easy to model in OpenSCAD ($fn=12), but it looks more 3D printed, and is kinda cool besides, I think.

Removable adornment

The skirts need to be a different color than the chanter body: it just looks better. But they’ve been a drag to print up until now, because they create overhangs (requiring supports), and because they require filament changes.

With this new design, the chanter now has only easy-to-print screw threads. The skirts can be printed separately and screwed on. Or you could skip the skirts, I guess, although the top one acts as a stop for the chanter cap.

This also means you can change your chanter’s skirts, to dress it up for different occasions. Maybe you put the green ones on for Saint Patrick’s day, You can print metallic skirts or tri-color silk PLA skirts or whatever zany skirts you want. I guess you could even monogram them, make voroni skirts, or come up with totally different designs. Maybe someone will want a skirt that looks like a flying saucer, a frieze with celtic knotwork, or a glow-in-the-dark globe of the moon. I don’t know. People can play around with these, without having to modify the part of the chanter responsible for things being in tune.

I bet kids are going to love this.