Lately I've been intrigued by making flutes, in particular the shakuhachi, due to it's simplicity on one side, but it's complexity to master it.
Furthermore being a science teacher I'm always on the lookout for cool educational projects, and (the science of) flutemaking has a lot to offer!
What I think is cool is that making a simple flute is as easy as it gets (In the Netherlands it's even a saying when something is easy to : "It's like making a flute of a cent", similar to "a piece of cake").
Just drlll some holes in a pipe, making it either a side blown flute (be drilling an extra hole as a blowhole), or endblown by cutting, carving or sanding a sharp edge on the side.
On the other hand, calculating the right spot were to drill the holes involves some hardcore sience, which even led to a PHD-research to create a mathematical model.
Last but not least studies show that the material of which a flute is made isn't really affecting the tone quality. So a well made flute from a commonly available material would yield a good sounding instrument.
I've used PVC water tubing (mostly 1 inch outer diameter), because this is commonly available in Europe (but I think in most parts of the world) and used the model which was presented in the research.
I noticed that using a wood drill works the best.
Now I've got the hang of it I can easily build a flute under one hour, including wetsanding everything.
I use a coupler with a piece of pipe glued in for the mouthpiece, making it interchangeable with other flutes.
It's not a new concept because there's a lot of information on the internet, but I thought it was nice to share at.
It makes a great educational project / (grant)parent-child project or an easy way to experiment with playing flute.
If someone is interested I can share the spreadsheet with the model in it.
Hans