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Re: The clear plastic oboes...

Author: Chris P
Date: 2014-06-30 12:22

Machined plastic bodies are very demanding to make and are more expensive to make compared to wooden oboes. The risk of pillar threads being stripped is greater and achieving a highly polished finish is also time consuming - plastic has to be worked much slower than wood in order not to both melt it and also to prevent the heat distorting the whole joint as it expands during machining. Also the swarf doesn't clear like wood, so turning plastic bodies has to be supervised so the swarf doesn't wrap itself around the joint during turning as that will end up melting it. So it's go-slow when working with plastics.

The downside with plastic bodies is thermal expansion/contraction which is more pronounced in plastics and the dimensional change is in every direction as opposed to widthways (against the grain) in wood. Plastic instruments are affected by heat whereas wooden instruments ate largely affected by humidity.

Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.

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The clear plastic oboes... new

newedit617

2014-06-07 06:39

Re: The clear plastic oboes...

Chris P

2014-06-07 09:49