made some calls

[Dean Matthews]

I think I am going to take the stoppers off and re-turn them. Just to get the piece to flow a little more. Not sure yet. I kept finding myself having issues trying to figure out what shape to give the body.

They were a bit of practice in patience for me as well. making it so the stopper fit snugly was difficult for me. The little sizing tool that comes with the kit is a total piece of crap. Good thing i have a set of dial calipers in the garage.

The darker one is cocobolo and the other is bocote.

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o278/went_postal/calls/mail.jpg
http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o278/went_postal/calls/mail-1.jpg
http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o278/went_postal/calls/mail-2.jpg
http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o278/went_postal/calls/mail-3.jpg

[Bonnie Campbell]

Really nice looking calls! But not being up on them, what kind of calls? (Predator,duck,etc...).

Did you use an o-ring on the stopper?

[Dean Matthews]

They are for squirrel.

I did use the oring... that was a whole different problem. =)

[Bonnie Campbell]

I'd just wondered. I'm going to be trying to make some deer grunt and bleat calls. I've worried about getting the joint sized right. Waiting on a drill bit now to get started.

Do you think a spindle gauge would of helped in sizing?

[Dean Matthews]

So... not sure what the "right" tool to use is for the tenon. I personally used my parting tool to get the size correct.

Since you have to take the pen mandrel partially apart to test fit the pieces I would suggest you use a set of calipers to get the general sizing ahead of time. The sizing tool they give you looks cute but was not practical in my experience.

I actually used a lot of tools to make these things... I bought pre-drilled blanks for these two though. I happen to have some duck call reeds but I was going to use a giant hunk of purple heart that I have for that.

I used my 3/4" roughing gouge to get to round.

I used the 3/8" spindle gouge with a fingernail grind to shape the bodies and stoppers.

I used my diamond parting tool to set the tenon size and complete the rest of the tenon.

I used my 1" skew to put the V groove in for the O-Ring.

A word about the O-ring... I actually made the tenon pretty dang close to the size of the mating hole on the sound chamber body. So when I made the groove (the first time) I made it too small... The O-Ring stuck out too much and impeded the insertion of the stopper into the body. I put it back on the mandrel and got the skew out again and resized. I tried to do it with a hand saw and some other gizmos but nothing worked... Much easier to chuck it back up and just re-turn it.

When done turning each piece I also just finished them with a couple of coatings of friction polish.

***EDIT***

I forgot to add that the lanyard is actually sitting in a recess that is about the same diameter of the chord but half the thickness. I made the recess with the spindle gouge.

[Bonnie Campbell]

Well I have to say, that's really nice work you did. I've made turkey pot calls, but hadn't ventured into any type of tube calls.

Let us know how well they irritate the squirrels ;)

[Allen Neighbors]

Has anyone said it might not be good to use cocobolo if these things go in the mouth? I'm not sure how squirrel calls work... when I was a lad, hunting with a slingshot, I used a penny box of pre-burned-by-my-Dad matches for the call.
How ever they work, they are beautiful. The finish looks spot on! And the shape ain't bad, either. If they were mine, I wouldn't change anything. :)

[Royce Meritt]

Has anyone said it might not be good to use cocobolo if these things go in the mouth? I'm not sure how squirrel calls work... when I was a lad, hunting with a slingshot, I used a penny box of pre-burned-by-my-Dad matches for the call.
How ever they work, they are beautiful. The finish looks spot on! And the shape ain't bad, either. If they were mine, I wouldn't change anything. :)

Hope I don't start something here and I understand Allen's point about cocobolo and the possible adverse reaction to it. (I turn a lot of cocobolo and do have a mild allergy to it but only to the dust, not the wood itself.)

However, due to its oily nature, cocobolo is probably the most popular wood used in game calls. I would guess that in the last 100 years there have been MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of game calls made from cocobolo. Evidently, there aren't too many hunters who have an allergy to cocobolo.

[Dean Matthews]

Hope I don't start something here and I understand Allen's point about cocobolo and the possible adverse reaction to it. (I turn a lot of cocobolo and do have a mild allergy to it but only to the dust, not the wood itself.)

However, due to its oily nature, cocobolo is probably the most popular wood used in game calls. I would guess that in the last 100 years there have been MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of game calls made from cocobolo. Evidently, there aren't too many hunters who have an allergy to cocobolo.

Honestly... I had never thought it would be a problem. I bought the pre-drilled blanks from CSUSA so I would HOPE they are not selling something for this application that is dangerous. I have been turning a bunch of cocobolo for bowls and stuff and I have never had a reaction, so... dunno.

I did re-turn the bocote stopper last night... That was a BAD idea. I over-tightened the pen mandrel and it cracked a bit. The good thing is that I had left the o-ring on so the crack was not horrible.

[Dean Matthews]

I just took some better pix. These are post-cracking on the bocote piece:

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o278/went_postal/calls/IMG_3345.jpg
http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o278/went_postal/calls/IMG_3344.jpg
http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o278/went_postal/calls/IMG_3342.jpg
http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o278/went_postal/calls/IMG_3343.jpg