Want to make a $70 Native American Flute for under $20?

Materials and tools:

• Dust mask
• Guitar tuner
• Handsaw
• High-speed drill or rotary tool such as a dremel or drill
• Set of drills bits, the smallest being 1/8". Graduations of 1/16's are best.
• Flat and rounded needle files (1/4-inch or less width)
• Standard flat file and half-round file
• 55 cm (21.6535 in.) of a 3/4-inch or 1-inch diameter PVC pipe
• 3/4-inch or 1-inch PVC pipe coupler (whichever size pipe you get)
• Standard and metric ruler
• Pencil

Measurements:

Placement of air and sound holes, measuring from head (blowing end) to hole center. Make initial hole no larger than 1/8-inch:
• air hole 12.2 cm
• sound hole 14 cm

Placement of finger holes, measuring from flute foot (opposite head) to hole center. Make initial hole no larger than 1/8-inch:

Hole #      Measurements

  5     -     12.8 cm
  4     -     15.8 cm
  3     -     18.7 cm
  2     -     24.85 cm
  1     -     27.7 cm

Rather than inserting a thousand pictures to this post, I've linked the text below to the album that has all of the pictures (and some videos) in it.

Flute Making Album

I will put one here, though, because it'll help.

Steps:

1. Cut the PVC pipe to 55 cm.
2. Using the half-round file, smooth the edges where you made the cut, removing all of the . . . . "fluffs" of plastic left behind
3. With a pencil, mark a straight line from end to end of the PVC
4. Using a metric ruler, mark where the holes will go, labeling each
5. Drill the air and sound holes
6. Using the flat needle file, make the air hole (second one from the head (where you'll blow)) square
7. Holding the pipe with the head toward you, insert the needle file into the sound hole and bevel it at, roughly, a 45° angle. It doesn't need very much of a bevel.
8. Taking one of the corks, measure the distance between the insides of the holes' edges and cut the cork so it fits in between them without blocking them. If the cork does not fit very tightly within the pipe, wrap just the outside edge of the cork with duct tape, electrical tape, whatever. This is simply to make the cork wider so it does fit snugly within the pipe.
9. Using the bigger flat file, file the area around the air and sound holes flat. The main part that needs to be flat is the area between the holes and about two inches down from the sound hole.
10. File the inside ring of the coupler away. The inside of the ring should be completely smooth.
11. Cut the ring using the handsaw. It should fit about half and inch above the air hole and go until the sound hole just starts.
12. Push the cork into the space in between the air and sound holes. Put the coupler over the pipe.
13. Blow. If it is not producing a sound, adjust the position of the coupler. If the sound is very breathy, put a bit more of a bevel on the fipple.
14. Once you get the root note clear, now you tune it. You tune the root note by sawing off the bottom of the pipe in very small increments. If you take too much of the bottom off, the note will go sharp and there is no way to get it back down to the correct note. This is when you use the tuner to get it to get it right.
15. Once this is finished, drill the first hole (#5) and tune it by widening the hole with the needle files.
16. Repeat last step until all of the holes are drilled and in tune.
17. Now, using a fine grit sand paper, sand the entire flute until it's smooth then wash it.

You're finished!