How I build an enclosed reed call

baitoeggs

New member
I have had 2 people contact me and ask me questions about how I go about making a call. For a rookie that makes me feel pretty good. Being the redneck hillbilly I am, trying to do with not enough tools, and questionable skills /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif I thought I would share how I go about doing it. I know it isnt the best method, but making do with what I have its how I get thru life. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif

Making a call is much like making a wood fishing lure, kinda round, and hole down the middle. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif I have made a lot of fishing lures so a call wasnt to much of a leap. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif

One of my biggest problem is getting the hole down the middle of the call. With my prehistoric lathe, I have no tools to do this with on the lathe.

First starting with a block of wood I mark centers on each end and use an 1/8 inch drill bit to make a very shallow hole on each end.

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Then I have to set up my drill press. I take a piece of scrap wood and drive a nail thru it with about an 1/8 of an inch of the nail sticking up, and clamp it in the drill press with the nail directly under the drill bit. I use a longer drill bit to make sure it is located where it needs to be. I have to drill the hole prior to lathing or I would never be able to drill a hole after lathing and keep it in the center. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

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Then I swap out the longer drill bit and put in a shorter drill bit that still allows me to get my piece of wood under the drill bit. I set the piece of wood on the nail, with the nail in the shallow hole I drilled earlier I know my drill bit is headed down the middle of the wood. I drill both ends of the wood, the length of throw on my drill press, which isnt much. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif

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I now have a hole into each end of the wood that should be on the same axis assuming I had the the drill press set up correct. These holes work as a guide for my long drill bit to guide it thru the center of the wood. When I hand drill the balance of the hole I should hit one hole from the other in the middle of the wood if I did everything correct.

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Now I put the piece of wood on the lathe and put the points on the lathe ends in the drilled hole, so I am spinning on my pre-drilled hole. I lathe up the desired shape.

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Next comes my next big problem of removing the wood from the center of the call with a lathe with no attachments or accessories to make this easy. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif I take a short shallow cut from each end of the piece of wood with a lathe tool so I have a mark I need to hand ream the wood to later. The next pic shows the cut at a funny angle trying to mark the inner edge of the call where I will ream to.

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Then I sand the outside of the call on the lathe

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For some reason I like a rounded hole for the lanyard to attach to the call with. I dont have a lathe tool to accomplish this, so I use a rasp. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

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Now I take the piece of wood off the lathe and cut the ends off where the lathe grabbed onto the wood. I run a 9/32 drill bit down the 1/8th inch hole to hold the reed sleeve from each end till it meets in the middle. The drill bit will follow the predrilled hole.

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Then I take the biggest drill bit I have which is 1/2 inch and I go about an inch in on the mouthpiece, and quite a ways in on the other end, leaving about an inch or so of 9/32 hole down the middle where the reed holder will be located. I mark the drill bit with tape so I know where to quit drilling from the bell end.

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Now comes the part of reaming out the center of the call. I use my $13 air die grinder from Harbor freight with a 1/2 inch rasp in it. It took me slightly less than 3 minutes to ream out this call. I thougth it would be hard to keep it even all the way around, but it wasnt as bad as I thought, and it was pretty easy to keep the wall thickness even. I ream out both the mouthpiece and the bell end up to the line I cut with the lathe tool at a funny angle earlier.

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Then I put on a couple coats of laquer after a little bit of hand sanding around the reamed holes.

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Once the finish is dry, I epoxy the reed sleeve in, and drop the reed in the sleeve.

Not the best way to make a call, /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif but with my limited tools it works, and I doubt the critters will know the difference.

I hope I helped somebody else like this forum has helped me. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bowingsmilie.gif And the best part is I started with 10 fingers and ended with 10 fingers. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
Heck fire, there isn't anything wrong with that call. Sure, maybe you do it a bit differently, but you still come up with a good looking call, that, as you say, will fool the predator, and that's what it's all about. Nice job and a well done tutorial. Thanks.
 
Thank you for sharing. Great photos and excellent description of your technique. You make beautiful calls. Judging by the shape of the bell they sound fine and produce a good range of volume.



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I'm one of the inquirers, super job of illustrating methods. I have always liked to see other techniques, doing this kind of call making without fancy equipment just shows what a fine craftsman you are.
Richard Grantham
 
Hill billy redneck?? Not enough tools?? Man yore squattin in tall cotton. Got yoself a shop where you can work indoors an all. I gots to clamp my tools down to the picinic table and make my calls out on the patio.

Actually your method is almost identical to mine. I don't drill quite as large of a hole in the mouth piece. When it comes time to drill out the bell end I use a forstner bit to open up the channel to the size I want. On calls that have a flare in the bell I use a Dremel tool with a sanding drum to shape the interior of the bell to match the exterior.

So remember. Boy,, don't you be knocking yoreself none. Dems be some mity fine lookin calls. I gots ta go now. My rich cousin jus got hisself a brand new house and I gots ta go hep him take da wheels off. Dale
 


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