DIY PVC Pipe Flutes

Ever wanted to reuse those scraps sitting in your garage from that discarded plumbing project? Need a wind instrument for your local orchestra but don’t have a flute on hand? With recycled PVC pipes and a rubber glove we can quickly create a durable wind instrument with a surprisingly beautiful sound. This DIY pipe flute is perfect for a low-cost project with a highly satisfying end result and a built-in lesson on the physics of sound.

A short section of PVC pipe with a hole in it acts as the mouth piece, with a scrap of rubber glove tightly zip-tied on one end, and a smaller PVC pipe nested and secured with tape on the other end. You can add as many or as few finger holes as you would like to the smaller PVC pipe to change the sound the flute produces.

Every part of this pipe flute is purchasable off the shelf of any hardware store. You will need access to a drill to create the mouth and finger holes, and a way to cut the pipe (saw, bandsaw).

Check out this video from our debut pipe flute workshop!

1. Larger Diameter PVC (we used SCH 30, 1.185 inch inner diameter)
2. Smaller Diameter PVC (we used SCH 40, 3/4 inch inner diameter)
3. Painters tape
4. Rubber glove (or any other kind of stretchable membrane)
5. Zip tie

PVC Pipe Note: any size diameter will do, as long as one of the pipes fits inside the other with some wiggle room.

The mouth piece of the flute will be made out of the larger diameter PVC.

To create the mouth piece, cut the larger diameter PVC pipe to about four inches, and drill a half inch hole in the middle of the piece, only going through one side of the pipe.

Cut a rubber glove (or any other stretchable membrane) into a square piece that can fit over the opening of your mouth piece. Stretch the rubber over the opening, and secure it with a zip tie.

The body of the flute will be made out of the smaller diameter PVC.

Mark a line 4 inches (or the length of the mouthpiece) down from the top of the body, and begin wrapping the painters tape around the body. The line you marked should end up around the middle of the tape, where the bottom of the mouthpiece will fit.

Wrap the tape around the pipe until the mouth piece fits snugly over the tape. This may take some adjustment (unwrapping and re-wrapping of tape). The tape ensures that the air does not leak out of the gap between the pipes.

Slide the mouth piece over the taped section of the body piece. This positioning may take some adjustment. Slide the mouth piece back and forth while blowing into the mouth hole until you hear your desired pitch, which happens usually when you see the inner pipe slightly poking through the rubber.

TDLR; to achieve a certain note on your flute you will need a tuner, something to cut your PVC pipe, and some patience.

Note: Due to the many small factors that drastically effect the pitch of the flute, the tuning process relies on small tweaks and testing.

Some of these pitch altering factors include:

1. Tightness of rubber membrane
2. Length of flute
3. Position of mouthpiece
4. Number/position of holes
5. Material type of membrane

To determine the note(s) that a flute plays, you must adjust the total length of the flute as well as the position of any holes you have.

This flute acts as a vibrating resonant column of air with one open end and one closed end, which we call an closed-open pipe. To determine the length of closed-open pipe, you can usually use the following equation:

(Effective Length) = (Speed of sound)/ 4*(Desired frequency)

HOWEVER, in our experimentation, we have found that this equation does not accurately predict the length required to play a certain note for this particular design. This is likely due to the non-traditional mouth piece design and the many tuning factors. Additionally, it is possible that the flute does not fully act as a closed-open pipe (also due to the non-traditional embouchure).

Here are some additional links and resources to help guide your tuning/pipe flute making journey.

1. https://astro.pas.rochester.edu/~aquillen/phy103/Labs/FluteLab.pdf
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk7J4_bneZo
3. Musical Instrument Design by Bart Hopkins

We hosted a pipe flute making workshop at JUMP and it was a blast. Here are some pictures from that event. We are also experimenting with hooking the mouthpieces of the flutes up to an air compressor, which allows you to play the flute tone holes almost like a keyboard!

Ultimately, the goal of this flute design is to be as accessible and easy to build as possible. We thought about 3D printing the connector parts for this flute, but found that painter's tape is great at holding everything in place and allows for micro-tuning. We would love to have others try this design and share more PVC flute ideas!

This design is licensed under a cc-by-sa 4.0 creative commons license. Tag Make Studio JUMP as an author if you modify and reshare.

Enjoy, and make some noise!

Jack's Urban Meeting Place

JUMPBOISE.ORG