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OK, this was from a pipe kit I got last year. One issue I had while making it was the fact they who ever bored the tobacco chamber drilled so deep with a pointed bit that the bottom of the tobacco chamber is more than 1/4" below the draft hole. Hence, the major sag at the bottom of the bowl. I ...

Started my very first lathe made pipe today. 33 degrees outside so I figured I'd venture in to the garage for some lathe practice. Not a very good block, so its a good one to start with as you can see the bad spots. I couldn't believe the time savings. I'm sure an hour or more of sanding was saved i...

THANKS!!!

Nope. That didn't work either....
Guess I'll wait a day or so till they get things straightened out.

Just tried to log on to the Brothers of Briar forum (which I know some of you belong). Page came up that says the forum does not exist. Anybody know what happened???

I searched and read a ton of posts on acrylic and lucite. Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see in any of them the suggested RPM's for turning a piece of lucite on a lathe to round it. Any suggestions?

I did this one with the wire wheel. No scratches.

I LOVE the melting wax look on a few of those. Something to really test the shaping skills. Those are some awesome pipes. Especially for your early ones. You've got quite an artistic talent there. I'm impressed.

Thanks for the info. I wanted to go beyond just plain black stems which is why I considered the lucite / acrylic. I really like the look of the tortoise shell type. I ordered a couple rods of it. If I have that much trouble making a stem out of it like you say, I imagine it can be used for inserts. ...

Thanks! I now have plenty of options for purchasing.

Yea, I've been looking at chucks on line and reading reviews. I kind of like the Oneway Talon. I believe you can get taller jaws for it and jaws for stem work. As far as the lathe itself, I can't see why it would be too small to do stummels. If you can turn a 10" bowl on it, why wouldn't you be...

Also, the slowest speed on the excelsior is 750 RPM. Is that slow enough to do pipes?

My plan was to use the lathe for bowl and shaft turning and drilling as well as stem drilling. As far as tenons go, I want to go the delrin route. If I can use the wood lathe with a chuck for drill bits in the tail stock I think I'd bee good to go.

http://www.rockler.com/m/product.cfm?page=19446

My wife wants to get me the Rockler Excelsior mini lathe for Xmas. I was reading some of the posts about lathes and things pretty much go both ways. Some say a wood lathe is OK, some say that a metal lathe is what you need, and some say both. For a beginner pipe maker, would the Excelsior lathe be s...

Wire wheel on the grinder took the bark right off in a matter of seconds for me.

Well, you've asked quite a few questions. I'll take the first one. Acrylic and ebonite are different, like apple's and oranges different. Acrylic is easier to buff, but can get distorted more easily in the process. They're about the same to cut. Ebonite feels "softer" on the teeth (genera...

Thanks for the info. I went ahead and ordered some Lucite rods as they were square instead of round and some 5/16" delrin. Since I don't have a lathe, finding the center of a square will be easier than a circle when it comes time to do the drill press thing. We'll see how it all goes.

A couple of questions on stem materials and process. Which is better/easier to work with Lucite or Acrylic? What do you use to cut/sand stem inserts and make sure they're flush with the stem material? Like if I wanted to put a 1/8" white insert in a stem, seems that it's kind of thin to hold up...

Where do you get yours from?

I was thinking of buying 3 feet of it so I'd have plenty on hand to cover my screw ups making my first tenons. I found a place that has it for .95 a foot. I was going to have it cut in to 1 foot lengths, but that was an extra $15 (for $3 of delrin).

Made from a pre-bored block of briar from 4 Noggins. http://i10.servimg.com/u/f10/17/88/46/80/img_0817.jpg http://i10.servimg.com/u/f10/17/88/46/80/img_0818.jpg http://i10.servimg.com/u/f10/17/88/46/80/img_0821.jpg http://i10.servimg.com/u/f10/17/88/46/80/img_0822.jpg http://i10.servimg.com/u/f10/17...

For some reason I was under the impression that the rod stock was all square and had to be turned round on a lathe. Looked at it on PME and saw the round acrylic. I'll have to order some of that one of these days. Just wonder how much I'll waste before a decent stem is produced. Maybe I need to orde...