Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Very creative! How do you keep the bottom surface smooth and flush with the rest of the bore when you fill holes with that stuff? I've used it too and either bashed out the excess (with a pennywhistle) or just left it and lived with it because it didn't seem to be doing much harm.

jaybeemusic wrote:

If you take a dowel about the same diameter as the bore, and slide it into the bore while you're putting the epoxy putty in the hole.  it will stopo most of the "leaking" into the bore. and the coolest part is that because the dowel is round already, you shouldn't have to sand much if you have to sand at all.

jacques

I tried that, the problem was that the bore near the node was a lot smaller than the bore where the hole was. So a larger dowel wouldn't fit but the smaller dowel left a lot of putty leaking into the bore. You're answer also brings up the question as to how to sand the excess off. When I tried I resorted to bashing off the excess with a penny whistle, which happened to be what I tried using as a dowel. I didn't think there was a way of possibly sanding it. I doubt the result was smooth inside.

I guess the best way to plug a hole is to shape a small piece of bamboo similar to the hole and then glue it in the hole. The putty seems a lot easier though if it wasn't for the problem with the excess in the bore.

I did something similar with a 'knead-it' epoxy filler. I was wanting to fill the upper end of a hole that was too sharp. Before inserting the dowel into the bore I drilled an 11mm hole near the end, same size as the finger hole, placed the dowel into the bore so that this 11mm hole was visible then I could insert another dowel or similar into the 11mm hole.
I should say that before I did this I wrapped some masking tape around the flute covering the hole initially then using a sharp blade removed the tape that was covering the hole. This acted as a frame to protect the flute surface from the filler.
Once the two pieces of dowel were in place, the 11mm dowel at the lower end of the hole, I pressed the filler into the space, finishing it off with a smooth surface using a wet cloth. I left it for 10 minutes to harden a little and adhere to the bamboo, then removing the 11mm dowel first, then the dowel in the bore, I could then carefully file and sand the plug. I also removed the masking tape after sanding off any excess filler. this gave me a clean edge which I gently smoothed with 1200 wet/dry paper.
It has stayed there for six months now.

Kel.

"I'm 'filling' a hole where the rain get's in and stops my mind from wandering where it will go"



I never filled a hole, because here where I live they already consider any bamboo flute a hippie thing (here in Brasil most people call hippie the artisan pilgrims) and if I show a filled hole to someone here, they will think that I'm a little pig maquink a flute and they will not like it, even if it sound like a master flute... It´s sad... If something like this happens to one of my flutes (bindings to repair crack's, holes filled), I can consider the flute as mine.... 
 
 
What can we do?   
 
I play...and sometimes I sing (specially when I am in honorary permanence into the S.W.A.B.S)...