Skip to main content

The Complete Guide: Make your PVC Quena Flute


Why I started making flutes and a little history about quena flute...

PVC quena flute
Quena Flute Made in Singapore O.o

Let's make Quena!

showing blues clues handy dandy note book
Planning to get a Handy dandy notebk?  
This will be a long post.. step by step  .. on making a quena flute.
I will provide you with my personal secret handy-dandy tips n tricks, hopefully they will be useful for your flute making. And also I've included the making plans and dimensions for my flute.

Don't worry if you do not own any heavy machines or milling machines.. I just find whatever tools I can get around me to make my PVC flute. In another words all the tools that I will be using should be easily obtainable. Yeah!



Materials and Tools:

Tools hardware
Tools Needed
(In clockwise Order)

Saw (any kind will do. Not those that play games with ya)
saw
I want to play a game
Round File
Flat File
Small Files
Hand Drill
Drill Bits
PVC pipes
Marker/ Pencil


Other optional tools: 

(mostly for aesthetic purposes)

Thread
Pvc pipes
PVC Pipes
Sissors
Paper & Tape
Sandpaper




Measuring tape and my quena
Measurements of Quena  

Dimensions:

Knowing the correct measurement is very important. I'd rather you have a correctly tuned flute than a display piece..
Please be careful when you do your markings.  Always check again to make sure that they are correct before you do any filing or drilling.

Dimension of Quena flute
My Dimension For Quena Tuned in G



Making the Mark 

Measuring pipe inner bore with Viner caliper
Inner Bore Of 

Step 1:  Find a PVC pipe that has an inner bore of 1.8 cm
(Get any colours you like, I Like white) 

Step 2: Mark out the all the points from the above diagram I have provided.

Useful tip:

I'll show you my techniques on how I did the markings..
Some of you may find it difficult to draw a straight line across the longitudinal direction..

PVC pipe with marking line
Perfect Straight line!
This is what I did...
Lay  your PVC on a flat surface along with your marker (both are laying flat on the surface).
Anchor the PVC pipe while you drag the marker across..
you will get a nice straight line..

Marking the PVC with marker
Drag your marker across the surface top
Here is another tip. How I mark the thumb hole which is located directly at the back of the quena?

Get a strip of paper, wrap it around the flute body. Tape or glue the paper to form a paper tube.
Paper tube wrapped around PVCA Flatten paper tube
Flatten the tube.

Use the formed crease, align it to the line you marked out earlier.

There will also be another crease at the back use that as a guide to mark your centred thumb hole.

After you did all your markings, check all of them and make sure they are correct!




Filing & Driling


Filling notch with round file
Filing the Notch

Step 3: Time to play game with Saw.. Remember to leave a few millimetres for filing afterwards..

Step 4: File the ends..
For the blowing end, use the big round file for the notch..

There are no standard angle for filing. I just like my notch to tapered off at a small angle.

Blowing end of quena
Close-up Quena Blowing end 
The shape for the notch may varies.. "U" shape notch being the most common one.

<-- This is how the notch looks like

Tips: Try your blowing and make adjustments until you are comfortable with it.

Drilling the quena fingering holes
Drilling Fingering Holes For Flute


Step 5: Drill the fingering holes..  make sure you have the correct drill bits.
PVC is easy to work with compared to acrylic ones.. (Note: i've drilled acrylic pipes before and they are brittle)



Step 6: Smooth out the drilled holes with a small file.


Basically at this stage, Your flute is Complete!
big bang theory hurray

Quena without binding
Ta-dah! Quena Flute
still not happy? Continue with flute binding...


Popular posts from this blog

Soup Restaurant (三盅两 件) at IMM

Heh.. I should have done this review earlier.. anyway... If you are a herbal soup enthusiast. If you are looking for a dining place where your old folks can enjoy. then this might be it~ Soup Restaurant is a Cantonese themed eatery that offers Heritage Cuisine that were served in the Chinatown night bazaar in the 1960s~ Soup Restaurant's cantonese name sam zhong leung khin (三盅 两  件 - three bowls two dishes), is a derivation of a popular Cantonese expression  yat zhong leung khin  (一盅 两  件 - one bowl two dishes) which signifies a relaxed lifestyle of consuming teas and dim sum dishes at tea houses in the early morning. 

What is SEO? The really basic definition

I've been talking about SEO on my blog for quite a long time but some are still unsure of what SEO exactly is about.. So for the benefits of those beginners who wants to know more about web page ranking or want to gain more traffics to your blog/site. This is something that you will want to know. The word "SEO" is an acronym that stands for Search Engine Optimization .   First let's breakup the words into two segments and understand what each of them means.

What is This Green green Profile Picture About

Some of you may be wondering why your friends' profile pictures are becoming green on social network platform ..facebook, twitter or may be some others.. This is not some technical glitch.. This is an ongoing protest to show support for the special effect VFX industry.