So I'm working on my pipe, drill the delrin, glue it in, slide it into the tenon, and something is wrong. Either my delrin mortise, strummel mortise, or the face of the stem is not square. No problem, me thinks. I'll just file it to fit. I do a pretty good job and it is almost perfect but then I notice that my once tight tennon is now jiggling loose. I only have this one stem blank right now and I don't plan on buying many more, I'm hoping to start cutting my own stems for various reasons, what should I do?
I was thinking about putting some clear nail polish on the tennon, as I've heard that works with acrylic stems. My stem is acrylic but my tennon is delrin. Would it still work? I was hoping to finish this bad boy by the weekend (it is already shaped except for the shank). This pipe has been on the "workbench" for months due to supply problems and I just want to finish it!
Josh
Flush Stems
Delrin is very slick stuff and even epoxy won't stick well to it unless its grooved. Give it a shot and let us know, who knows, you might have hit upon a good solution.
Not all drills are the same. Depending on the drill, you will sometimes get a slightly different sized mortise.
For example, and this is really a stupid pipe trick, I bought an end mill to put a nice finish on the mortises on my pipes. It made a really smooth wall, and I drilled out four blocks. Guess what? The end mill was ever so slightly larger than the delrin per my engineer neighbor's digital calipers. Now, I test all new bits in a 2x4 before drilling briar.
The solution? I turned a tenon for one stem, and made shank extensions for two. The third block I had room to take off the mortise and made a shorter shank. The easist of the three solutions was turning a tenon.
BV is right. Delrin is some very slick material, and even epoxy will not stick to it. I don't know what will.
However, depending on how loose the tenon is in the mortise, you may be able to swell the wood to make the mortise slightly tighter. A little steam might do the trick. Be sure to let the pipe thoroughly dry before attempting to insert the tenon into the mortise. I have used this method to steam dents out of pipes I have slung off the buffer, so I don't know why this would not work here. If the mortise ends up being too small, this is easily remedied by hand turning a drill bit of the right size in the morise to remove a very small amount of material (again, test a 2X4 with the drill bit before messing with the briar). You will probably have to hand drill out the draft hole as well to make it the right size.
Another method that might work is stuffing the tobacco chamber with cotton balls and inserting a pipe cleaner into the airway. then saturate the cotton balls with everclear and let dry for at least 72 hours. Then let the pipe air out for about the same time. When you do this with raw briar, the mortise walls will sometimes swell slightly. This may also do the trick.
Neither method described will hurt the briar, and the everclear and cotton ball method will also draw out residual tannins from the wood, should any be there (sort of an extra curing step). You'll know if there was any in there as the cotton balls will turn pink as they draw out the tannins.
An even more complicated method is to drill out the mortise a little more, then turn a piece of briar the same diameter as the new mortise and glue it into the mortise. You can then drill a new mortise and you should have enough wood to be OK. Like I said, this is more extreme. Or, you could use acrylic or ebonite for a sleeve. That would be pretty slick with the delrin.
Perhaps the easiest fix here is to turn a tenon to fit the current mortise, or if you don't have the toolage, you could get someone to turn one for you on a stem blank or on a drilled out rod, and you could practice hand cutting the stem. I would check with Mark Tinsky for this procedure. He might not be too expensive, and his turnaround might be quick.
Hope some of this makes sense, and hope it helps. There really are a lot of choices here. Of course, if it is your delrin that has loosened in the stem (and that will happen if you did not cut grooves in the delrin and the mortise walls of the stem), you can simply pull it out of the stem, cut grooves in the male and female joints and reglue.
Sorry for the long post. Good luck
For example, and this is really a stupid pipe trick, I bought an end mill to put a nice finish on the mortises on my pipes. It made a really smooth wall, and I drilled out four blocks. Guess what? The end mill was ever so slightly larger than the delrin per my engineer neighbor's digital calipers. Now, I test all new bits in a 2x4 before drilling briar.
The solution? I turned a tenon for one stem, and made shank extensions for two. The third block I had room to take off the mortise and made a shorter shank. The easist of the three solutions was turning a tenon.
BV is right. Delrin is some very slick material, and even epoxy will not stick to it. I don't know what will.
However, depending on how loose the tenon is in the mortise, you may be able to swell the wood to make the mortise slightly tighter. A little steam might do the trick. Be sure to let the pipe thoroughly dry before attempting to insert the tenon into the mortise. I have used this method to steam dents out of pipes I have slung off the buffer, so I don't know why this would not work here. If the mortise ends up being too small, this is easily remedied by hand turning a drill bit of the right size in the morise to remove a very small amount of material (again, test a 2X4 with the drill bit before messing with the briar). You will probably have to hand drill out the draft hole as well to make it the right size.
Another method that might work is stuffing the tobacco chamber with cotton balls and inserting a pipe cleaner into the airway. then saturate the cotton balls with everclear and let dry for at least 72 hours. Then let the pipe air out for about the same time. When you do this with raw briar, the mortise walls will sometimes swell slightly. This may also do the trick.
Neither method described will hurt the briar, and the everclear and cotton ball method will also draw out residual tannins from the wood, should any be there (sort of an extra curing step). You'll know if there was any in there as the cotton balls will turn pink as they draw out the tannins.
An even more complicated method is to drill out the mortise a little more, then turn a piece of briar the same diameter as the new mortise and glue it into the mortise. You can then drill a new mortise and you should have enough wood to be OK. Like I said, this is more extreme. Or, you could use acrylic or ebonite for a sleeve. That would be pretty slick with the delrin.
Perhaps the easiest fix here is to turn a tenon to fit the current mortise, or if you don't have the toolage, you could get someone to turn one for you on a stem blank or on a drilled out rod, and you could practice hand cutting the stem. I would check with Mark Tinsky for this procedure. He might not be too expensive, and his turnaround might be quick.
Hope some of this makes sense, and hope it helps. There really are a lot of choices here. Of course, if it is your delrin that has loosened in the stem (and that will happen if you did not cut grooves in the delrin and the mortise walls of the stem), you can simply pull it out of the stem, cut grooves in the male and female joints and reglue.
Sorry for the long post. Good luck
Thanks mark, for the suggestions. My tennon was a perfect fit before I had to file down the stem to make it fit flush on the shank. I accidently sanded down the sides of the tennon doing so. I might try some of the swelling methods, it is about all I have the equipment to do. Where would I pick up everclear?
Thanks for the suggestions.
Josh
Thanks for the suggestions.
Josh
Vodka may not work, being more than half water. Everclear is 190 proof (95% grain alcohol) or in the states that have banned the 190 proof it is sold at 151 proof (75.5% alcohol) Most vodkas are in the 40% to 50% range and would probably just serve to soak the briar with water and take a considerable time to dry. You really need the 190 proof, or are willing to wait a long time for the briar to dry out.
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Tyler
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Next time, adjust the shank face not the stem face. Places some sandpaper on a flat surface and gently draw the shank face across it. Apply more pressure on the side of the shank that is touching the stem face. Check for improvement of fit, rinse and repeat as necessary. (If you have a tenon that is the perfect length for the depth of the mortise, you will need to remove a little length from the tenon. Do it with the same method.)josh_ford wrote:Thanks mark, for the suggestions. My tennon was a perfect fit before I had to file down the stem to make it fit flush on the shank. I accidently sanded down the sides of the tennon doing so. I might try some of the swelling methods, it is about all I have the equipment to do. Where would I pick up everclear?
Thanks for the suggestions.
Josh
Tyler
Tyler Lane Pipes
http://www.tylerlanepipes.com
http://www.tylerlanepipes.com
I didn't see where you stated that you filed the tenon in your original post. In that case, my recommendation is to drill out the delrin and put in another piece. I've had to do that more than once, and it is an easy procedure. Much much easier than the other suggestions I had. And, before you glue in the new piece of delrin, you can insert it into the stem and check your flush fit and make adjustments prior to gluing it in. I've also done that before and it works very well.josh_ford wrote:Thanks mark, for the suggestions. My tennon was a perfect fit before I had to file down the stem to make it fit flush on the shank. I accidently sanded down the sides of the tennon doing so.
Josh
So . . . the Everclear instead of straight solvent-type alcohol because the latter has been "denatured" and is potentially poisonous? (I remember elsewhere some Californians were pleading for someone to ship them a bottle, but I betcha that's bound to get someone in trouble.) Until this thread, I had no idea we were talking about booze; thought it was just a brand-name solvent.
-- john
http://justapipe.com
http://justapipe.com
Yup! Alcohol is denatured by the addition of some chemical making it unfit for human consumption. Sometimes even gasoline is used. Due to the distillation process used, denatured alcohol may also have other components in it that wouldn't be good to add to the inside of a pipe such as iron or lead.mahaffy wrote:So . . . the Everclear instead of straight solvent-type alcohol because the latter has been "denatured" and is potentially poisonous? (I remember elsewhere some Californians were pleading for someone to ship them a bottle, but I betcha that's bound to get someone in trouble.) Until this thread, I had no idea we were talking about booze; thought it was just a brand-name solvent.
Geez, I don't even drink! How do I know so much about alcohol?
David