pipemakersforum.com

I believe those would be pressed amber (pieces of amber pressed together into a mass with heat, solvents and pressure), not genuine amber. The fragility could be related to age, any binding agent that was used in the production of these mouthpieces might have degraded and caused them to be even more...

I think Martin is an expert in urushi, take a look at his pens. It's the pipe part that's the issue

Cool ideą, but way too much work for this kind of final effect, I don't think you will find many clients willing to pay a premium price for this kind of pipe. Take a look at the high grade pipes sold in online shops, take a look at the level of finishing and shaping- that is the minimum that you nee...

I love them with my whole heart! Both for ebonite and briar, you just need to get used to them. I almost wouldn't know how to make a pipe without them ;) (I'm talking about the small ones with red rubber handles, the big ones are really difficult to use but dulling them just a little bit by filing s...

I would try to make it a pretty tight fit then just a dab of JB weld on the outer seam to hold it in place and bowl coating mix on the inside, it should hold.

I sometimes try to get as close as possible on the bandsaw, that includes cutting the profile as well as the top view, and some angled cuts but I never change the angle of the pipe during a cut and I don't cut curves while the pipe is half raised above the table, that's kinda dangerous on my saw/wit...

Oh dear lord, enough talking about this thing, just let us freaking see it already! I met and talked with the guys at a show in Germany, I was really excited for their project, but that was like 25 years ago... It's since become sort of an anecdote, the pipe movie that's taking forever to make. I ju...

Don't you glue the fiber discs to the backing plate? That's what I do, superglue the fiber disc to the plate, weigh it down with a lathe chuck and you're good to go, when the fiber disc is worn you just tear it off and scrape the residue from the plate, then glue the new one on.

The only backing I've found to work well is a plate that you turn yourself. All the plastic backing plates that you can buy are pretty low quality and don't run very true. Get a piece of phenolic resin or aluminum sheet and just cut and face a plate on the lathe.

Wow George, awesome job! Not because you did a good job, that's kinda boringly obvious by now, but because you refrained from basically remaking the whole pipe from scratch to fix it's inherent problems ;) I use horn quite often but it never plays any structural role, it's supposed to be just a deco...

So here is what I meant, achieved by masking, gentle blasting around the shank/stem junction area and sanding afterwards. The area touching the stem is perfectly smooth and transition into the sandblast over about 4mm. I like it this way, if you think it's ugly, well, what can I say, I don't really ...

I've been very lucky to obtain some nice meerschaum blocks but I've been having some trouble with the final finish. No matter what I do there's always a scratch pattern on the meerschaum, even with extremely careful and gentle buffing... I've even tried ridiculous abrasives such as 3000 and 6000 tri...

Not bad.

Oh wait, yeah, I forgot you have 110v as one phase in the US! So I'm not sure if there's vfd for that voltage, they do exist for normal one phase which is 230v.

Why are you guys saying it has to be 3 phase? You can find 1 phase vfds as well, they're quite a bit cheaper than 3 phase and easier to wire.

10 years now I have buffed on a used, cheap (and free), Chinese drill press. Ohhh, you're one of those guys... But seriously, that looks like the most uncomfortable thing in the whole wide world! As to the motors, a good idea is to find an electrician (unless you know your way around that kind of s...

There's way too many pipemakers in the US, that's why experienced guys are starting to charge money for teaching, otherwise they would have a new guy knocking at their door each month. It's never been that way, and still isn't in Europe. If you demonstrate dedication, the necessary aptitude and you ...

One possible improvement is to use carbide burrs insted of abrasives, they create tiny chips instead of fine dusts, which is a bit more more manageable.

I know native English speakers are kind of retarded when it comes to foreign languages, but I'll make it easy for you- my name is pronounced "Voitec", so no W sound as you imagined it you can trust me now