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stain influencing the stem fit

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 4:45 am
by Massis
Something I've noticed over the last few pipes I've made.

So I've got the shank turned, mortise drilled and countersunk and the airway in place.
I've faced the shank and everything's looking supersmooth.

I move on to the stem, get a buttersmooth tenon, drill it and finish it up nicely and everything fits like a glove.

Then I move on to finishing, I sand the pipe up to 320 and put on my understain. I let it dry overnight, and lo and behold, there's light shining through between the shank and the stem face!
Apparently the shank face has soaked up stain and swollen unevenly, ruining my perfect fit.

Ofcourse I can reface, but then I remove my stain again, repeat ad infinitum until there's no more shank...

Re: stain influencing the stem fit

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 6:02 am
by caskwith
Are you staining the shank face? If so, don't, or if you do just use a cotton bud lightly dampened with the stain, you are probably making the face too wet.

Re: stain influencing the stem fit

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 8:17 am
by sandahlpipe
Staining at a higher grit, such as 600 will allow moisture to evaporate more quickly.

Re: stain influencing the stem fit

Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2016 2:44 am
by Massis
sandahlpipe wrote:Staining at a higher grit, such as 600 will allow moisture to evaporate more quickly.
Although that sounds obvious at first, I quickly realised I don't sand my shank face after turning, as I've not mastered sanding it without ruining the stem fit...

@Chris: yes I stain the shank face, as otherwise it'll obviously remain blank, which I don't want. Tried to lightly stain it and quickly rub it off on the last pipe I'm doing, seems to do the trick.

Re: stain influencing the stem fit

Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2016 2:00 pm
by mightysmurf8201
I do what Chris explained with a Q-tip (it's a Q-tip Chris. get it right :wink: ) with just enough stain on it that a dab will transfer color, but not run.

Re: stain influencing the stem fit

Posted: Thu May 05, 2016 1:00 am
by e Markle
Massis wrote: Although that sounds obvious at first, I quickly realised I don't sand my shank face after turning, as I've not mastered sanding it without ruining the stem fit...
If you sand the face of the shank before turning the width of the shank to its final dimension, you won't have to worry about rounding the flat face of the shank. Not sure if that's what you're referring to though.

Re: stain influencing the stem fit

Posted: Thu May 05, 2016 2:11 am
by Massis
e Markle wrote:
Massis wrote: Although that sounds obvious at first, I quickly realised I don't sand my shank face after turning, as I've not mastered sanding it without ruining the stem fit...
If you sand the face of the shank before turning the width of the shank to its final dimension, you won't have to worry about rounding the flat face of the shank. Not sure if that's what you're referring to though.
It's not so much the rounding that's a problem, just me getting the face out of axis with the mortise...