Perfect reed for Duck Call by Oscarko

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

This is a reed for the Duck Call by jamesarm97 https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:38359
I've got my mind focused on a playable reed and after few trials this is it.
There are two files reed 3 and reed 4mm. The first is 0.3mm reed and produces loud deeper sound. The 0.4mm is more authentic and more tunable.
PLA print in 0.100, all solid layers and outline shell of 1
The reed will be printed bigger about 1.5 mm on each side than needed, because you are going to cut out the part where the nozzle turns and creates rough and thicker spots. So cut out the rough edges from left, right and top.
See the first image and the microscope image, the top is cut reed, the bottom is straight from the printer.
With this reed the duck call is fully functional and as good as store bought.
When you are removing it from bed, wait till it cools down so it will not bend or curl. Use razor blade. When removed, you want it flat.
You can scrape or sand the top just little to smooth it if it is too rough.
Sound depends how you position the reed with the wedge. There is a thicker lip of the reed that goes under the wedge. The sound is more clean when that lip is all under the wedge and more raspy when that lip peeks from the top. With the 0.4mm you can tune it to any sound. You can also scrape the top with the razor blade to shave a few micrometers.
If you use glass as bed the bottom will be mirror smooth.
It is interesting that you can now easily produce good reed with 3d printing in PLA with today machines. I am going to make a sax reed next to see how it compares.
Good luck talking to ducks. Don't use while driving.