stems made from delrin

[timothy thorpe]

hi guys, thanks again for the help. heres a question for you. can you make stems from delrin? i have seen 1'' thick delrin and too me it is like vulcanite, so it it possible?


thanks, tim

[Danskpibemager]

Tim,
Good question as I have thought about that myself. I don't think it would feel very good on your teeth (slippery) and I've never tried to heat and bend the stuff for a bent pipe. I have a couple of pipes with polycarbonate stems that I cut and the feel on your teeth is very similar if not exact as vulcanite and it's quite easy to machine, bend, sand and polish. I'm curious why more pipemakers don't use this material as it's readily available at about $30 per 4 Ft. length and it's pretty decent to work with. Since ebonite/vulcanite is so expensive and hard to come by, I would love some feedback on this topic. Hopefully another pipemaker with more experience can answer these questions.

[timothy thorpe]

Tim,
Good question as I have thought about that myself. I don't think it would feel very good on your teeth (slippery) and I've never tried to heat and bend the stuff for a bent pipe. I have a couple of pipes with polycarbonate stems that I cut and the feel on your teeth is very similar if not exact as vulcanite and it's quite easy to machine, bend, sand and polish. I'm curious why more pipemakers don't use this material as it's readily available at about $30 per 4 Ft. length and it's pretty decent to work with. Since ebonite/vulcanite is so expensive and hard to come by, I would love some feedback on this topic. Hopefully another pipemaker with more experience can answer these questions.

thanks, i am going to give it a shot. i think it would be good!!

[Frank]

I have come across less expensive pipes with nylon stems, a material similar to delrin. My personal opinion, I don't like the mouth feel. The bite is too soft & they're a bugger to remove bite marks compared to vulcanite & acrylic.
Still, you won't really know until you're made a complete stem from delrin.

[LatakiaLover]

It's nightmarish stuff to work with in shaping terms. Analogous to machining titanium. It can be done, but the juice ain't worth the squeeze unless there's some overriding need for the upside properties of the material.