An alternative to sandblsting.

[Nick]

A buddy of mine and I were talking about blasting. I mentioned that a number of Italian makers tumble their pipes in some type of sand filled drum, and how I thought one could line a paint can with some sort of padding and stick it into a paint shaker and get a nice blast effect. He thought this was a cool idea, but also thought that you could do similar tumbling with a paint can, or some sort of vessel, and a lathe. What a cool idea. I think that the spin would have to be pretty slow, so I imagine it'd have to be a variable speed lathe. No clue really. But still a nifty idea.

[kbosi]

Random, Would that be called a shotgun finish?

[Nick]

ROFL!!!

I LOVE it Random! You should try it. I would definatly buy a Random pipe with a Shotgun finish! Presuming its still smokable that is.

[ArtGuy]

Random, Would that be called a shotgun finish?

Can you imagine what ones neighbors would think if they heard a shotgun being fired in someones garage over and over again LOL.

I bet you would make the news.

[achduliebe]

Yeah, the news is right...specially when they found out what you were actually doing!

[Nick]

Bahh!! I am a suburban kid!

[Nick]

Hey! I just noticed: my thread's been hijacked!

*mutter mutter mutter*

[ArtGuy]

A buddy of mine and I were talking about blasting. I mentioned that a number of Italian makers tumble their pipes in some type of sand filled drum, and how I thought one could line a paint can with some sort of padding and stick it into a paint shaker and get a nice blast effect. He thought this was a cool idea, but also thought that you could do similar tumbling with a paint can, or some sort of vessel, and a lathe. What a cool idea. I think that the spin would have to be pretty slow, so I imagine it'd have to be a variable speed lathe. No clue really. But still a nifty idea.

I think it would work to create a decorative surface, but I would put corks in the mortise and bowl to avoid marring the interior surface.

There, back on topic

[sagiter]

The tumbling process does create many awesome blasts, you have actually to see them to beleive they were tumbled. Deep and craggy, really finely detailed. Here is the process Kaywoodie uses from bill Feurbach of Kaywoodie.:

Yes it is true we "tumble blast" our sandblasts. We use a Pangborn blast
cabinet that has a large drum inside. The drum is about 36" in diameter by 36"wide. It is mounted so that it spins horizontally, like a clothes dryer. Inside it is lined with a 1/4" rubber matting with diagonally mounted rubber ribs, about 2 high that helps "mix" the bowls as the drum spins. The drum spins slowly, at about 4rpms. Into the side of the drum is the blast nozel that shoots downward into the load of bowls. We use a fine steel grit and run the air at about 95-100 psi.

Depending on the size of the bowls we can put anywhere from 100 to 150 bowls in the drum at a time. If it is Italian wood, used on our production pipes, a load of 150 bowls will take between 6-8 hours. If we are blasting handmades or our Pipes of the Year, which are made from Greek wood and are larger in size, the duration is only about 3-4 hours. I think this is due to two factors, one being the larger bowl size and the other being the Greek wood is somewhat softer and blasts easier.


When put in the drum, the bowls are in their final shape, with the tobacco
chamber already drilled. The airhole and mortise are not drilled until after blasting. There is some blasting of the bowl interior, but we sand the inside of the tobacco chamber with a spindle sander.


There is a picture of our sandblast set-up in the Summer 1999 issue of Pipes & Tobacco, (Volume 4, Issue 2) in the article on Kaywoodie pipes.

Neil

[Nick]

So there is some blasting going along with the tumbling the. Is this standard?

[sagiter]

I cannot answer for the Italian drum Blasts but I can't imagine it being much different. For further info on these you can contact Steve Monjure at monjure international or david fields at RD Fields and Co. Google for the sites. Both men are excellent people and I'm sure would be glad to speak of what they know. from what i've read from Bill and in some conversations we've had at shows this is a similar procedure to what was common for 100 years of pipe making in the US by most (not all) companies. I also believe that seveal English companies used the same method. you can also google for the SM Frank website and email Bill directly. he too is a really nice guy and a real good pipemaker in his own right.

btw.... I'll not repeat this answer of ASp as i've seen you posted this there as well )

good luck with your search for more info....

Neil

[dewty]

can you use something like a layer of finish to try and get the sand to stick to it so that it looks more course?? That might be cool under a couple of other layers of finish.

[Nick]

What a neat idea! You might be able to do that with a coat of shellac. I doubt the stain would be sticky enough. But perhaps a light coat of shellac, a sand dip and another coat of shellac.

[ToddJohnson]

You could even put rainbow sparkles on it.

Random,

That's an absurd idea. You would never be able to get the sparkles in a perfectly straight line so that there was a clear deliniation between red, orange, yellow, green . . . etc. Clearly a randomized pattern of glitter is the way to go. I would also like to reccomend Quickcrete as a binding agent.

Good luck all,

Todd