Flute Headcork Assembly Fabrication

 All flutes have a huge cork that is shoved in the far end of the headjoint, and pretty much all already have the assembly to go with it but my professor offered this as an extra project for me and I thought it looked like a lot of fun!


The first thing I did was take a bunch of measurements from the model assembly that I was to copy and draw a model on paper so I had a visual to go off of. All headcork assemblies have 3 parts. The southside plate, the northside plate, and the screw. The southside plate and the screw are solderd together and the northside plate has threads to fit the screw. 


The first component I started with was the northside plate. In the lathe, I turned down the outer diameter to size and made a smaller diameter at the front for a place to grab with pliers. When that was done I drilled a hole in the center for the threads. 


I then used a tap to create the threads that will allow the plate to screw onto the screw. 


                

When that was done I moved over to the mill and created the faucets for the leverage point. This was fun, I had not used the mill yet!


When that was completed I moved back to the lathe and used a cutoff bit to remove the northside plate from the parent stock.


Then I moved onto the screw. The parent stock was already the right diameter so I just turned down the spot where the threads were going, and I used a die to create the threads. 


The screw was finished so I used my jewlers saw to remove it from the parent stock. I then got rid of any sharp corners and made it look nice. 


Finally it was time for the southside plate. This one was easy because it was just a thin piece of brass faced on both sides.


     


With all the pices fabricated it was time to solder the screw onto the southside plate. I lined up the screw in the center and silver soldered it to the plate. 

 

       

With me being human, the screw was not in the dead center but not to worry that was fixed by flattening out the face with this special bit and then using the cutting bit to face the front and remove any excess from the sides. 


I then sanded and buffed the southside plate to a mirror finish and it was completed for now! Next semester my professor said we might silver plate the southside plate for acoustic purposes. This was super fun to make and I learned a ton of new things from it!


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