Drilling a bent and using a derlin tenon

[Briarfox]

I'm working on a bent that has a draught hole and mortise at different angles. The draught hole lines up perfectly in the center of the mortise at 1/2". The problem I have is that the derlin tenon does not fit tightly until the last 1/4 of the mortise. This is due to the draught hole hitting the mortise near the front.

Any ideas on making this work? It's possibly tight enough to smoke but I do not like stems that are loose until pushed all the way in.

Thanks.

[Sasquatch]

You could build up the mortise with a few coats of some kind of durable finish - a urethane or a spar varnish for example. That would snug up the tenon friction and would not have any effect on taste. You could apply a thin layer of cyano acrylate for a similar effect, and stabilize the mortise at the same time. Charge double!

You could also also drill the mortise just a hair deeper, no? Ramp the airway just a tiny tiny bit at the end? Or are you dealing with a fixed tenon length at this stage?

[Briarfox]

Fixed tenon length. Insert that I don't want to lose. This is what happens when I cut the tenon to the right length then drill the mortice. Perfect lengths but if I had more tenon I could drill out more...

I'll try building the mortise up. that may just do the trick.

[Sasquatch]

If you wet the mortise walls they'll maybe fuzz up a bit, then you could try to set that with the cyano.....

[Briarfox]

Yeah I just caught that in the other post. We'll see. thanks Sasquatch

[Briarfox]

... Ramp the airway just a tiny tiny bit at the end? Or are you dealing with a fixed tenon length at this stage?

What do you mean by ramp the airway?

[Briarfox]

Also has anyone inserted a derlin/acrylic/briar dowl into the draught hole to fill it in, then drill out the mortise?

[KurtHuhn]

What do you mean by ramp the airway?

If your airway, due to the angle difference between it and the mortis, enters the mortis high at the bottom of the mortis, you can use a dremel with a ball cutter to bring the entrance down towards the center. This results in a slight ramp, allows smooth passage of smoke, and usually effortless pipe cleaner insertion.

Also has anyone inserted a derlin/acrylic/briar dowl into the draught hole to fill it in, then drill out the mortise?

Sleaving a mortis with delrin is fairly easy. I've done it, but only a handful of times.

[FredS]

Also has anyone inserted a derlin/acrylic/briar dowl into the draught hole to fill it in, then drill out the mortise?

If yer gonna do that, I assume that you can:
1. Fixture the stummel so as to accurately drill the mortise oversize for the sleeve and keep it perpendicular to the face of the shank.
2. Obtain an “oversize” piece of delrin for the sleeve.

If that’s the case, why not just drill the mortise out just slightly larger (say from 5/16 to 21/64), and make a new delrin tenon that is also slightly larger? You can probably remove the old tenon from the stem with a bit of heat and slide a new, stepped tenon in it’s place.

[Briarfox]

Thanks guys. I did not consider removing the derlin tenon. That would make it much easier. I tried some of the above suggestion with getting the mortise wet and hitting it with heat, then setting it with some shellac. It works great but after a few times inserting and removing the tenon, it loosens up. Looks like I'll be removing the derlin and drilling it out a tad more.

As always, thanks for the tips guys.

[Briarfox]

Fixed it, sometimes I just over think a problem. I just drilled a tad out and too my cutting tool and refaced the shank. Same stem and perfect!