Flaring The Bell

[dogcatcher]

This is how I open up or bell out the exhaust of a varmint call.  This is only one of the ways to do it, not necessarily the best way or the fastest or the easiest, it is just one of the ways I do it.
 
First I mount my call blank in a 4 jaw chuck on the headstock.  The blank must be left in the chuck until you are finished with the inside of the exhaust bore.  Be sure to get a good grip on the blank.  Use a Jacobs chuck in the tailstock to hold your drill bit.  Use a slow speed and drill out the bore, back the drill out often to remove chips.

 
The next step is to make the flare on the bell.  For this I use a chisel that I did a custom sharpening job on.  I guess you could call it a 1/2 round nose scraper.  Do not get to aggressive when doing this, you do not want the blank to go flying out of the jaws. 

 
You now have the bell flared on your call body.  Do all of the sanding on the inside at this time.  Do both the flare and the bore.
 
 
This is my blank with the flared bell and the bore all sanded and ready to mount on my mandrel.  I am using a pin lock mandrel that fits into a collet chuck and is supported by the tailstock.

 
The call body is turned and sanded.


 
Like I said this is one of my ways of doing a flared bell on a varmint call.  There are other ways, read all of the info you can and then develope a method that works for you.  There are many ways to flare the bell. My 2 cents on a flared bell, it is mainly for looks, it has little to do with sound.  In fact too much of a flare and the caller can have a problem when cupping the exhaust to create back pressure.
 
Marvin

[Al_at_THO Game Calls]

That's pretty slick.  I know another call maker that does it similar to you, but he turns the whole call in the chuck.  The pictures are really great.   This looks like something esle we might want to add to the tutorial section for everyone.  That way it wont get lost in the threads.  If it is OK with you, I will add it this week.

Thanks again for some great info   :)

Al @ THO

[dogcatcher]

That would be fine with me.  If I had thought is was going to be a tutorial I would have done it a little different.  First I would turn the blank round between centers.  The square corners are pretty good knuckle busters.

Marvin

[iahntr]

Looks good. I like it.
Wished I had the lathe and all the tools to do it.  ;)
Mine are pretty much all done using a pen mandrel.
I've been thinkin about this lately too, I think I'm gonna
"modify", grind a steeper angle, on one of my tools to
hopefully achieve this a little easier too.

[Braz]

Marvin, like you, I use the chuck to do the flare. But like you said, I round the blank between centers first and make sure the end is square. That makes it real easy to mount in the chuck. After drilling, I do like you, and use a tool to flare. Sometimes I start with a step drill, just to speed up the process. Takes a bit less turning that way. Like you said though, don't get too aggressive. That blank flying out of that chuck is not a fun experience. Been there, done that.  :(

If I am doing a closed reed call, I will drill part way with a 5/8" drill, and the rest with a 1/4" drill. Then I do the flare. I then mount it on a pen mandrel, with a turned insert for the taper mounted on the pen mandrel, and finish turning the call. Like you said, there is more than one way to skin this cat, just what ever works is the way to go.


Edited for major grammatical and spelling errors. >:(

[MDWine]

Dang, that is awesome! ;D

I appreciate the pics, and the 'tutorial'... just the kind of stuff I need!

FEED THE NEWBIE!  I'm searchin' and readin' stuff as fast as I can!

thanks again!