How to Make a Rubber Glove Bagpipe
Craft a working novelty bagpipe using a heavy-duty dishwashing rubber glove, PVC blowpipe with a flap valve, and plastic recorders or whistles for the chanter.
- Read the tools, materials, safety notes, and steps below for free.
- Tap Start Camera Coach when you want hands-free voice help.
- Allow camera and microphone. Point your phone at the work; the coach watches your progress and tells you the next step.
🧰 Required Tools & Equipment
- ✓ PVC pipe cutter or fine-tooth hacksaw
- ✓ Utility knife
- ✓ Scissors
- ✓ Measuring tape
📦 Materials & Supplies
- ✓ Thick rubber dishwashing glove
- ✓ 1/2-inch Schedule 40 PVC pipe (2 feet)
- ✓ Plastic soprano recorder
- ✓ 1 or 2 plastic party blowers or reed whistles
- ✓ Heavy-duty electrical tape
- ✓ Heavy-duty zip ties (8-inch)
- ✓ Small latex balloon (for one-way valve)
⚠️ Safety Checkpoints & Warnings
- • Wear safety glasses when cutting PVC pipe to protect against flying plastic burrs.
- • Always cut away from your body when using the utility knife to trim glove fingers and tape.
- • Ensure all mouthpiece parts are clean and free of plastic dust before playing.
📋 Step-by-Step Guide (6 Steps)
Cut and Prepare the Blowpipe
Measure and cut a 6-inch section of 1/2-inch PVC pipe using the PVC pipe cutter or hacksaw. Smooth the cut ends with your utility knife to remove any rough plastic burrs. Wash and dry the interior of the tube to ensure it is clean for mouth contact.
- • A smooth 6-inch PVC pipe section with clean, deburred edges.
- • Leaving sharp plastic burrs that can cut your mouth or tear the rubber glove.
Fabricate the One-Way Air Flap Valve
Snip the closed end off a small latex balloon so you have a 1-inch rubber sleeve with an intact flap. Stretch this rubber sleeve over one end of the 6-inch PVC pipe, leaving a loose flap covering half of the hole to act as a check valve. Secure the sleeve tightly to the pipe body with electrical tape, verifying that air easily blows out but cannot be sucked back in.
- • Rubber flap lifts when blowing through the pipe and slaps shut when inhaling.
- • Taping over the flap opening completely, blocking airflow entirely.
Prepare Glove Openings for Pipes
Lay the rubber glove flat on your work surface. Use scissors to snip off just 1/4 inch from the tips of the thumb, middle finger, and ring finger. Ensure the cuts are small and circular so the rubber stretches snugly around your pipes rather than tearing.
- • Small, neat holes in the thumb and selected fingertips that are smaller than the pipes to be inserted.
- • Cutting the holes too large, which prevents an airtight friction fit.
Install the Drone Reeds into the Glove Fingers
Insert the mouthpiece ends of your plastic whistles or party horns into the cut openings of the middle and ring fingers from the inside out. Push them through until the sound-producing reeds sit inside the glove while the exhaust bodies stick outside. Wrap electrical tape tightly around the finger-to-whistle joints and cinch an 8-inch zip tie over each joint for a pressurized seal.
- • Whistles firmly seated in glove fingers with airtight tape wraps and tight zip ties.
- • Over-tightening zip ties directly onto brittle plastic whistle bodies, causing them to crack.
Mount the Chanter to the Glove Wrist
Insert the mouthpiece of the soprano recorder approximately 2 inches into the open wrist cuff of the rubber glove. Gather the excess rubber of the glove wrist evenly around the recorder barrel. Wrap electrical tape firmly around the gathered rubber multiple times and secure it with two heavy-duty zip ties to prevent air blow-out.
- • Glove wrist completely gathered and compressed airtight around the recorder mouthpiece.
- • Covering the tone holes of the recorder with tape or the glove cuff.
Attach the Blowpipe and Pressure Test
Insert the valved end of your 6-inch PVC blowpipe into the severed thumb opening of the glove, pointing inward toward the main cavity. Wrap electrical tape and a zip tie tightly around the thumb base to seal the connection. Blow into the pipe to inflate the glove, tuck it under your arm, and squeeze to verify continuous airflow through the drones and chanter without seam leaks.
- • Glove stays inflated without air hissing out from joints, producing a steady drone and playable chanter tone when squeezed.
- • Inserting the blowpipe with the valve backward, preventing inflation.
Credit: inspired by an original tutorial by Landen Purifoy — watch the original on YouTube.
Don’t have everything?
- No PVC pipe cutter? Hacksaw or fine-tooth hand saw
- No Soprano recorder? Plastic tin whistle or clean drinking straw chanter
- No Party horns / plastic whistles? Straw reed drones cut from drinking straws
- No Zip ties? Thick rubber bands wrapped tightly multiple times