How I build an enclosed reed call

[baitoeggs]

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Then I sand the outside of the call on the lathe

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

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.

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.

 

[baitoeggs]

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.

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

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

 

[alpenliter]

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.

 

[ninthinning]

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.

 

[Richard Grantham]

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

 

[berettaman]

I really enjoyed that!! Nice calls too!

 

[C_latrans]

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