Slot Cutting

For discussion of fitting and shaping stems, doing inlays, and any other stem-related topic.
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Odissey
Posts: 100
Joined: Wed Jun 03, 2020 2:34 am
Location: Russia, Moscow

Slot Cutting

Post by Odissey »

I welcome you Gentlemen!
The vacation is over and it's time to talk about the method of making stems with a flat slit. I need a slit with a thickness of 1.8 mm. And this is the size I want to get. Why do I need it?
The 1.8mm slit will allow me to get good bite sizes. For dental pipes this will be 4 - 4.2 mm, for hand pipes 3.8 - 4 mm. The 1.8 mm gap will allow me to leave the stem walls at a level of at least 1 mm, which is more than enough so that the stem cannot be damaged by my teeth. The maximum slot depth obtained by this method was 45 mm for me. This is enough to make thin and graceful stems.
Making a stem begins with making a thorn.
I drill a hole in the end of a 4mm diameter ebonite rod to the required depth. Then I continue this hole with a drill with a diameter of 3 mm by another 5 mm in depth.
I do not have a lathe, so all further work on the tenon is done in an ordinary electric drill. I take a piece of a drill with a diameter of 4 mm. I put a stem on it and clamp it in a drill chuck. Then I use flat and round files and sandpaper. Using them I manage to get a tenon of the required bore diameter. Usually you have to adjust the spike to size with an accuracy of 0.02 - 0.03 mm, which is not so easy to do manually. This usually takes 1.5 - 2 hours.
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When the spike is formed, I proceed to making the slot.
It is generally accepted that the pipe is made not by tools, but by the hands of a master. But unfortunately, without good tools and good machines, precise work cannot be done, and this is also true.
Slot production begins with drilling three holes in the other end of the ebonite rod. I use two twist drills for this. The first drill is short (38 mm long) with a diameter of 1.3 mm. And the second drill extended with a diameter of 1.5 mm (drill length 75 mm).
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Since my drilling machine is equipped with a drill chuck for drills with diameters from 4 to 16 mm, I have to install a second chuck in it, which allows me to clamp thinner drills. None of this adds to the accuracy. The radial runout is greatly increased.
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In the coordinate vise, it is quite convenient to drill holes located in one line. First, I drill a hole in the center of the ebonite rod with a short drill, then, retreating from its center by 2.5 mm in each direction, I drill two more holes. Then the drilling is repeated but with an extended drill. First, the central hole until it contacts the hole drilled on the other side of the ebonite rod. Then two other holes. They are shorter than the first hole. Usually shorter by 4 - 5 mm.
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Cutting a slit as easily as George does, I can't. He cuts through it with a regular drill. I can't do it well and quickly. Probably the hands are growing from the wrong place, or there is simply no suitable twist drill to perform this operation. Therefore, you have to look for your own way of making a thin cut in the stem.
Next I use a thin carbide cutter. Its working part is 4 -5 mm long, with a diameter of 1.5 mm
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Using this cutter, I cut a groove that connects all three holes. The coordinate vise makes this relatively easy.
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Thin ebonite bridges remain between the holes. The thickness of these bridges is not more than 1 mm and they are relatively easy to remove with a conventional twist drill using its side surface as a cutting tool.
Previously, I used a set of sharpened metal saws to get a cut.
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The upper saw has a thickness of 0.55 mm. The next one is 0.9 mm thick. The next one is 1.2 mm thick.
The last tool I bought from Aliexpress. It is a thin steel wire coated with diamond powder. This wire has a diameter of 1.5 mm.
If the pilot hole is 2 mm in diameter, then, in principle, only these saws can be used and a fairly neat cut can be obtained. But only the thickness of this slot is always more than 2.2 mm. I found this unacceptable for myself. If you use a hole with a diameter of 1.5 mm as a pilot hole, then working with the saws becomes quite difficult and inconvenient. Saws for metal have to be made very narrow. Because of this, they become brittle and break when working with them. Such work took 2.5 - 3 hours. Now I make a cut in 20 - 25 minutes and for me this is a very big gain in time.
So far, there is only one drawback. Due to the large radial runout, the slot made with a carbide cutter has a width of at least 1.8 mm. After finishing with emery paper and polishing, the result is 2 mm. This is more than I wanted. But for now, that's all I can do.
I need other equipment and devices designed for more precise work. It is difficult to expect high precision from an amateur drilling machine. But that's okay, I'll get rich and buy myself a good milling machine.
It remains to complete one small stroke and ensure a smooth transition from a 4 mm diameter to a flat slot.
We do not have conical twist drills on sale. There are conical cutters for CNC machines. But they are quite expensive. It doesn't make much sense to order from Steve at Vermont either. Very expensive delivery.
So I did it very simply. I took a regular triangular file and sharpened the tip. Now by placing this file in the chuck of an electric drill, I get a tapered transition from a 4 mm hole to a flat slit. There are no steps in the stem. Such a sharpened file, when rotating, cuts ebonite quite well.
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Best regards Odissey
DocAitch
Posts: 1109
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Location: Baltimore, Maryland

Re: Slot Cutting

Post by DocAitch »

There are many ways to cut a slot and funnel.
They can be via a hand intensive method, like the one I use, or near totally machine dependent, like several others posted.
The best advice I can give is to work out your own method and master it, but don’t obsess over it.
Once you have gotten over the hurdle of cutting slots and funnels, it becomes not a big deal- just something that you do in order to make a pipe.
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These are all hand cut using a slot saw (spiral monotooth ceramic or wax saw), a ground down reciprocating saw blade, files and sandpaper. They each represent a small proportion of the time I spent on the entire pipe.
Each of these passes a fluffy pipe cleaner easily from either direction.
DocAitch
"Hettinger, if you stamp 'hand made' on a dog turd, some one will buy it."
-Charles Hollyday, pipe maker, reluctant mentor, and curmudgeon
" Never show an idiot an unfinished pipe!"- same guy
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zztop
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Re: Slot Cutting

Post by zztop »

good afternoon and thanks for very interesting post . simple question is :slot std size is around 10 x 2 mm ?
Thanks
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Sasquatch
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Re: Slot Cutting

Post by Sasquatch »

That would be a little bigger than most of us (but not all) are cutting, if you can hit something like that, that's fine.
ALL YOUR PIPE ARE BELONG TO US!
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zztop
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Re: Slot Cutting

Post by zztop »

Thanks for answering , at the moment 10 x 2 is my first slot result but ... let me improve on 8 x 1.5
I'm a beginner so what I do need is to get into right parameters :)

after so many try finally I got something reasonble ..... :shock:

But I want to improve also with other systems with 9.5 wheel where I fail many times and slot are not less than 3mm ...so I will develop also this systems to learn better and improve .. :D

first test as per some thread on phpBB

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Last edited by zztop on Wed May 19, 2021 12:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Sasquatch
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Re: Slot Cutting

Post by Sasquatch »

I measured a pretty average slot yesterday on one of my pipes, and it was 1.7mm by about 8mm wide. I haven't seen a machine-cut slot under 2 mm. The precision of the milling machine is admirable, but I can cut a slot by hand in less time than it takes you to put a stem in the vise and line things up. If you are making 10 at once that might be different, but for me, actually cutting the slot is a very small part of the stem work, there's lots of clean up and smoothing and feathering and rounding and all sorts of other operations, but cutting that slot is no big deal.
ALL YOUR PIPE ARE BELONG TO US!
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zztop
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Re: Slot Cutting

Post by zztop »

Thanks , I do believe is a matter of " training " and skills .
I remember first bowls .... a nightmare , now after 9 months ... is a pleasure ..not anymore a " suffering" .... and mostly coming automatically ..... so now for a while ... only mounthpiece ... and as per bowls "manufacturing" ...I do need to find my method ... checking all of your suggetions .
I am really very much thankfull to all of you .

Today I made mounthpiece number 2 , so il takes 20/30 min for slot and hours to make it acceptable .
It is a long way that requires a lot of experience on my point of view, plus personal solutions ... etc etc
I will try to go below the 2 mm and keeping the 8 mm as suggeted ...
At moment seems more easy and better ebonite than acrylic ...

By the way they are not perfect but they works properly on my reverse calabash

The result as follow :
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zztop
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Re: Slot Cutting

Post by zztop »

Sasquatch wrote: Mon May 17, 2021 9:00 pm That would be a little bigger than most of us (but not all) are cutting, if you can hit something like that, that's fine.
Good afternoon Sasquatch

slot done manually size 8 x 1.5

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Sasquatch
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Re: Slot Cutting

Post by Sasquatch »

Ugh, acrylic too, you poor dear.
ALL YOUR PIPE ARE BELONG TO US!
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Sasquatch
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Re: Slot Cutting

Post by Sasquatch »

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There's only 5 minutes in it (in ebonite. 10 minutes in acrylic!) for the basic v. Then a little cleanup inside and out, files, tiny pieces of sandpaper, emery cloth, etc.
ALL YOUR PIPE ARE BELONG TO US!
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zztop
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Re: Slot Cutting

Post by zztop »

Sasquatch wrote: Sat May 22, 2021 10:03 am Image


There's only 5 minutes in it (in ebonite. 10 minutes in acrylic!) for the basic v. Then a little cleanup inside and out, files, tiny pieces of sandpaper, emery cloth, etc.
Thanks Sasquatch :D

It works fantastic also manually ... ebonite let's say more "easy" , acrylic ... I do need to improve my " timing" ... by the way today I made 2 acrylic and result is positive ... around +/- 1,5 mm x 8 mm ....

Thanks a lot for put myself to improve fully handmade V slot :D
LatakiaLover
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Re: Slot Cutting

Post by LatakiaLover »

No hand tools for me. I prefer harnessing a few trillion electrons and have them do the work. :lol:

Like so (in realtime):



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IoAFf2 ... Sp&index=7
UFOs must be real. There's no other explanation for cats.
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zztop
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Re: Slot Cutting

Post by zztop »

LatakiaLover wrote: Sat May 22, 2021 5:35 pm No hand tools for me. I prefer harnessing a few trillion electrons and have them do the work. :lol:

Like so (in realtime):



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IoAFf2 ... Sp&index=7
:D :D :D :D :D

UFOs must be real. There's no other explanation for pipemakers :D :D :D .

Done ! Let's say to be honest is much attractive as per

http://pipemakersforum.com/forum/viewto ... =10&t=8399

starting with an "engineering " procedure, machine tools etc it was a great help to build up ... step by step a mental working cycle ....
now let improve all in deatails properly
Thanks a lot for supporting ...
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