Each of my three prototypes had slightly different openings, by choice. This gave me some experience with re-facing and what it takes to open up or close the tip dimensions. I have a old cut-off from a marble counter top that I used as a surface plate with which I could lay the wet/dry sandpaper on and carefully remove material. Being a mechanical engineering technologist I have several precision measuring instruments in my tool box which helped considerably to do the job with some degree of accuracy. Other than a make-shift surface plate, sand paper and measuring tools I used some of the miniature files I had in my garage workshop and a Dremel to smooth out the interior of the shank.
I was lucky that I did not have to remover very much material on these pieces and hence did not need to use my miniature files or Dremel on the baffle or rails. I have a couple of other mouthpieces I could treat as blanks and gain further experience if the time comes to do more of this type of work. There seems to be an abundance of inexpensive metal mouthpieces from China that are made very well and are available in several different tip openings and would be great test pieces to treat as blanks to develop a sound refacing technique, but for now I'll attempt to design another mouthpiece from the 'ground up'.
The inspiration for this new C melody mouthpiece will come from hard rubber Meyer and Otto Link Tone Edge mouthpieces. I have both an alto and tenor hard rubber Meyer with similar tip openings and an Otto Link Tone Edge alto piece. I plan on scaling the dimensions of the alto and tenor Meyer mouthpieces close to that of the stock C-melody mouthpiece that came with the instrument. The two alto pieces have similar characteristics, however the Link seems to have a more comfortable beak shape overall. I'll try and reproduce the proportions of the beak to suit the new C-melody design. I'll aim for a large bore design on the first prototype keeping with that of a Link but not quite as large as the stock C-melody piece. I'll try and measure the volume of my stock C-melody mouthpiece by weighing the amount of water it can hold and converting that measurement into an approximation of the volume needed to allow the mouthpiece to play in tune. I can then calculate the volume of my design in SolidWorks or Fusion 360 as I go.
The one thing I learned from my first mouthpiece design is to pay closer attention to the inner volume of the mouthpiece. My first design plays flat, which can be attributed to having a longer overall length than normal. This design ended up being a fair bit longer than that of a Super Tone Master which I took my initial inspiration from. Maybe it will work as a Baritone mouthpiece with a minor tweak here and there? If not I'll reduce the volume/length to bring it back in tune. but for the time being I'll concentrate on the C-melody design. I don't plan on making a commercial venture from this experiment, so If anyone is interested in printing a copy of my design I will be happy to send the .stl files in an email for free. I don't have a 3D printer of my own so you will either be responsible for having the design printed and faced or I can have one printed, faced and shipped but will levy a small charge to do the grunt work for you.
I may consider using instructables.com as a medium from which to access the .stl files depending on how successful the initial prototypes are. I am aware of a at least one American mouthpiece manufacturer who is now providing 3D printed mouthpieces for sale. I don't plan on going down the route of protecting intellectual property as I consider this a hobby and I certainly wouldn't want anyone profiting from my design without my permission.
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| Alto, C-melody and Tenor Mouthpieces from The Woodwind Co. Meliphone Special 'steel ebonite'. |
More to come....
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