Masonry Bits?

bscofield · Post by **bscofield** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 11:19 am

Has anyone used a large 0.75" masonry bit for drilling the chamber before? How do they perform? I was at a bowling shop with my brother the other day. He bought a ball and they drilled it on the spot. There's a window for you to watch what they're doing. They had this massive (8' tall, 3.5' wide) drill press. Anyway, he had his set of masonry bits in rack next to the drill press. I liked the contour that the end of the bit had and thought it might be nice for the bottom of a draught hole.

I had been wanting to try something "flatter" after reading something on J. Davis's website about having a dryer smoke because he used flatter pointed drill bits. And because of that there was more wooden surface to absorb the moisture that collects at the bottom.

As a side note, I saw a large 0.75" drill bit at HD the other day and wondered if anyone has used an out of the package bit of that size for the chamber or not.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Thanks.

achduliebe · Post by **achduliebe** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 3:46 pm

Hey Ben,

I used an out of the package 3/4" silver and demming on bit my first two pipes. I then took a dowel that I had fashioned to a conical shape and wrapped it with sandpaper and kind of finished off the bottom of the chamber. It work out pretty good...I was desperate so it really worked fine at that time.

bscofield · Post by **bscofield** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 3:50 pm

What didn't you like about the contour of the bottom of the bowl?

achduliebe · Post by **achduliebe** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 4:19 pm

Ben,

There was nothing that I can say I didn't like other than the more conical/tapered shape seemed to be the norm. With the bit I used I got the traditional twist bit shaped hole.

Kind of like the representation below, as opposed to a smoother conical shape.
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bscofield · Post by **bscofield** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 5:10 pm

To be certain that I'm not mis-representing what was said, here's a quote:

Jody wrote:As far as the tobacco chamber goes, there needs to be a proper relationship between the diameter and the depth. Also the bottom of the bowl should be rounded and not come to to much of a point, so that when the moisture from the tobacco settles in the bottom of the bowl, there is plenty of surface area to absorb it, and so it doesn't build up around the draft hole.

Perhaps, I did mis-understand a bit (it was 1am when I was reading it). If the chamber was less conical, there would be less of a build up of moisture right at the draught hole, wouldn't there?

bscofield · Post by **bscofield** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 7:21 pm

Well just for the record, I wasn't trying to throw something in your face or anything like that. I was just trying to make sure I wasn't mis-quoting...

bscofield · Post by **bscofield** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 9:04 pm

random's private email to bscofield wrote: I hate Jodi Davis and Todd Johnson!! Neither of them know what they're talking about!

Now THAT'S a troll!

:thumb: 8O

decee · Post by **decee** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 10:23 pm

Can someone tell me what a silver and deming drill bit is compared to a normal hss drill bit?

magruder · Post by **magruder** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 2:14 am

FWIW - The Jody Davis pipe I have smokes as dry as my Chonoswitchs and Heeschens :thumb:

jeff · Post by **jeff** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 8:44 am

decee wrote:Can someone tell me what a silver and deming drill bit is compared to a normal hss drill bit?

A silver and deming bit is basically a really large jobber style (regular) bit. They are often used by pipemakers and reshaped for use in drilling the tobacco hole.

Jeff

bscofield · Post by **bscofield** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 10:07 am

random wrote:
bscofield wrote:
random's private email to bscofield wrote: I hate Jodi Davis and Todd Johnson!! Neither of them know what they're talking about!

Now THAT'S a troll!

:thumb: 8O
I don't do private messages ya dork. :naughty:

I don't know what your talking about... I quoted from your "email." See above... :p :thumb:

magruder · Post by **magruder** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 7:50 pm

RANDOM WROTE:

Can you tell us anything about the shape of the tobacco chamber or the drilling? What I'm wondering is if you can see any difference in the flatness on the bottom.

OK, I figured you wanted a serious answer, and your question got me
curious, so here is what I can observe-

I have a Jody Davis " Canted Egg" ( I'll call it).
The bottom of the T chamber DOES seem a bit broader and fllatter than you might expect.

The closest shapes I have by other makers are these:

An Eltang canted egg - closest to JD pipe.
A Peter Heeschen Cobra /bamboo cutty - similar but, fatter and quite a bit smaller overall.
An very fine old Comoy in a Cutty/Yachtsman shape - the least similar, but definitly in the ballpark.

The Eltang: much more conical shape to T chamber. Bottom is pretty narrow - smokes well.

The Heeschen: T chamber a bit fatter, or fuller and has a very similar shape to T chamber bottom in the JD pipe. Smokes VERY dry - in fact, it is the second best smoker I own, and that includes Bangs, Barbis, Teddy, Eltang, etc.

The Comoy; T chamber is slightly less conical than Eltang, not nearly as flat as Heeschen and JD pipes - smokes well.

What really struck me as interesting is the similarity in the Heeschen T chamber bottom and the JD - especially because the smoking experience is very similar. :think:( A slight nod going to the Heeschen, but that might be just my preference for very light weight pipes)

Now this is obviously subjective and ancedotal, but it does get me to pondering this whole question much more.

Random, thanx for asking :thumb:

Now I'm gonna put the flashlight too all my good smokers

magruder · Post by **magruder** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 8:23 pm

Yes, I see that it is just slightly flatter than half round. Just slightly.

magruder · Post by **magruder** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 8:27 pm

Sort of like this: UU