Description

Thank you for sharing our enthusiasm for flute innovations which can actually be applied on all woodwinds. This is set up as a weekly contribution which you can cancel any time.

These are pretty much like Nikola Tesla’s death ray weapon, first pay, then I’ll show you, 😀 but I hope you understand how I cannot reveal the inventions before they are protected and before I am sure my family will have a solid roof above their heads and food on their plates for the considerable time to come.

Magnetic pads
Silicone iron magnetic stopper & crown
Minimal friction mechanics
New secret body making method!
New key cup centering method
New way of securing springs
Magnet springs resurrected
Easily replaceable pad system
Wooden flute mechanism without being attached to the body with screws
Pinless mechanism alignment problem solution
Not having to use different solders that melt at different temperatures…
Magnetic tails, no foams?
And many more to come!!!

Magnetic Pads

We have made them work already. They are handmade and homemade, and although it sounds romantic and cool, it would be much better if they are produced properly. We could do some more research into the best materials, and make them available for other flutes, not just ours. That requires creating molds and producing all kinds of sizes and thicknesses. We also want to create a pad that already contains a bushing so to say, just in order to seal the inner hole and the gap between the pad and the chimney. Bushing isn’t required to secure the pad though, so it can be soft, made from silicone.

Silicone iron magnetic stopper & crown

This has been developed and applied on a number of flutes already, and it works great, but as with the magnetic pads it’s handmade and homemade, and it would be much better if it’s produced properly, and made available for all kinds of headjoints. The idea is to not have cork assembly and the gap between the metal plate and the wall that’s the case with regular cork assemblies. The iron content serves two purposes: one is to give resonance, and the other is for the crown and the magnet screwed into it to adhere to the stopper instead of being screwed into the cork screw.

Minimal friction mechanism

We cannot reveal this secret, but trust us that the friction will be reduced by 50-90%!

New secret body making method!

As the title indicates, it’s secret and we cannot reveal it, but let’s say we will say goodbye to the cracked solder on the toneholes, misalignment of the posts, ribs, solder cracks in ribs etc. It will be the most awesome quantum jump in flutemaking. As it was the case with Nikola Tesla, this was all worked out in my head already, and it will just work!

New key cup centering & leveling method

This too we cannot reveal, as it should be patented first. See, if you check the impression of the toneholes on the pads on basically any flute, they will be off center more or less, and many times dangerously so, even so close to the edge of the cup that you would question whether the keys seal properly at all. Thanks to learning from other similar industries first hand, we can apply an assembly method that makes sure every key is perfectly centered on the tonehole! Actually the cups will be perfectly positioned to the key tubing as well, and they will be so perfectly leveled that we hope shimming of the pads won’t even be needed. This would increase the reliability and quality of the padding by a lot, and any future re-padding should be very easy, just like replacing break pads on a car, kind of.

New way of securing springs

Another secret 🙂 but let’s say a broken or loose spring won’t be a nightmare anymore. In fact you don’t even have to take the keys apart in order to install or replace a spring. The complete design is worked out, but not produced.

Magnet springs resurrected

This was invented some 45 years ago, but never really implemented anywhere else but in the inventor’s carbon fibre flute in Finland. I thought it was a good idea, tried on the thumbs and a few other keys and it feels just fine. It requires work to implement and set up production.

Easily replaceable pad system

At present, pad replacement requires the same amount of work as installing pads in the first place, together with leveling, shimming, and hours of work. I have a method where you can skip all that! No, I’m not gonna tell you, and you have to trust me. Let us enjoy some benefits of coming up with stuff first. We will give it to the world shortly.

Wooden flute mechanism without being attached to the body with screws

Problems with current system: too many screws in the body which weaken the structure, can cause the flute to crack, can protrude inside the tubing, can and do get loose, it’s just a question of time, instability of the entire mechanism because it’s a much weaker connection to the body compared to a metal flute where it’s firmly soldered, and this results in poor performance, moving leaks and so on.

Benefits: softer woods with more beautiful sound can be used. Grenadilla or Ebony are super hard woods and they are used for wooden flutes because of the density and hardness which gives the ability to hold the entire mechanism. It’s not because of the sound. For example a bamboo flute can have a very beautiful sound, and it’s totally soft. The new type of securing the mechanism also opens possibilities for esthetic improvements. I have said enough. Just chip in and you will love it for sure!

Pinless mechanism alignment problem solution

Pinless system is scary for most not so much because of the additional bridges and soldering, but because of the nightmare of aligning two pieces of tubing, and which makes the whole design counterproductive and requires very high skills to make. At this point you are thinking, is this guy for real? He has a solution for every problem out there, hmmm. Well, help out and you will see. There is no exaggeration here. Telling it all as is. If I say the alignment problem will be solved, it will!

Not having to use different solders that melt at different temperatures…

Just one type of solder for the ribs, toneholes, posts, tails, arms… I am not telling you how I do it. Help me set it up and then we’ll see. No, it’s not the oven, haha. That’s Powell 2100 😉

Magnetic tails, no foams?

OK, maybe at this point I am going overboard with magnets, but maybe not. Let’s try because I am talking about tiny tiny magnets which shouldn’t interfere with anything around. It could just work, and you will never have that annoying lost motion develop, which is basically a sure thing on any flute sooner or later. Normally even after a couple of weeks or maybe days. You can’t predict what’s happening with soft materials very precisely. Some lag will happen for sure.

Fund flute innovations by Boris Popovich