PIMO order has arrived!

[Dixie_piper]

I got my first briar and multiple tools from PIMO today, with stupid fast shipping; paid Thursday, shipped Friday, and was at my PO on Monday.
Few simple questions;
Is it normal to have lots of chatter marks on briar from the sawing?
Do prefab stems normally come with an obscene amount of flashing?
Lastly, their chamber bit comes with a recommendation of using a 9/16" spade bit 2/3 the depth of the chamber for a pilot hole, does anyone follow this suggestion?
I'll soon be receiving an order from Tim West as well, I can't wait to compare
Either way, I'll post a pic of this funky grain for suggestions on what pipe style it may be best suited for. Even though it's Ebauchon, one corner has bark so the grain sorta radiates in an unusual way. But alas, sanding is required for a flat enough surface to see the $@%&?!# grain As for now, it's back to the salt mines...

[LAH]

I've noticed that on the ebauchon blanks I have purchased, the saw marks seem to be rough. But on the Plateaux blanks they seem to be really clean, not sure why this is. Be sure to square the block up good. That was my biggest problem starting out. drilling off center holes, because of unsquared block. All the prefab vulcanite stems i've bought had a nice amount of flashing. The lucite prefab stems i've used didn't have any sign of flashing. I drill my pilot hole for the chamber with a 5/16" twist drill, drilling until i barely break through the air hole. I have screwed up this way by drilling to deep with the 5/16" bit. You could probably drill to 2/3 depth. I'd use a twist drill bit instead of a spade bit, they are more rigid. I'm still fairly new to pipemaking also, but this is what I found to work for me.

[Sasquatch]

Yes.


Yes.


Depends on the kind of bit you are following with. If it's a spade, then "no".

[Sasquatch]

PS PIMO briar is quite clean and pretty compared to Tim's on the outside. His looks like it's from the Paleolithic era, or possibly just before.

[Dixie_piper]

Thanks guys!

Damn Sasquatch, that was short and to the point, lol. For the final drill of the tobacco chamber I'll be using whatever you would consider a PIMO bit to be?

[KurtHuhn]

Is it normal to have lots of chatter marks on briar from the sawing?

The outside of darn near any block of briar is going to look pretty rough. The exception to this is if you get your briar direct from an experienced cutter who trims the block when it is fully cured to ensure that there are no cracks evident. This has the side benefit of mostly squaring up the block as well.

Do prefab stems normally come with an obscene amount of flashing?

I would take the next step, and call it a "pornographic" amount of flashing. It's an artifact of the molding process. Do not try and chip it off with a knife, since that could cause some deep cuts and divots in the stem surface. Instead, grind or sand it off.

Lastly, their chamber bit comes with a recommendation of using a 9/16" spade bit 2/3 the depth of the chamber for a pilot hole, does anyone follow this suggestion?

As I described over the phone this past weekend to another maker, I have found it beneficial to use 1/2" short length twist bit to start all my tobacco chambers and drill it about 3/4 of the way through. That completely eliminates chatter, wandering, and other bad behavior no matter what type of chamber I use - spoon, twist, spade, or otherwise. It's not always a problem for me (chatter, that is) but it takes me 20 seconds and it's cheap insurance.

[Sasquatch]

Really interesting Kurt - I predrilled a few blocks and found that the chatter was just awful, even with a small pilot, so I stopped doing it, and now I just ram the paddle bit in.

[bregolad]

I had chatter with spade bit with pilot holes, but now I use 1/4" pilot with my S&D bits, and its perfect. any bigger and it chews to much with the shoulders of the bit. maybe they're too sharp, not sharp enough.

[Dixie_piper]

Thanks guys!
I think the reason the flashing really irks me is because I remember working in plastic injection molding, and if I let a part leave out to K&N with that much flashing, the next "pornographic" scene woulda been with the boss man's foot and somebody's arse!
So I'll be trying the twist bit pilot hole on this first block, I think. Thanks again for all the help fellas!

[KurtHuhn]

I had chatter with spade bit with pilot holes, but now I use 1/4" pilot with my S&D bits, and its perfect. any bigger and it chews to much with the shoulders of the bit. maybe they're too sharp, not sharp enough.

Same here - I use reshaped S&D bits for 95% all my tobacco chambers these days. Coupled with a nice big pilot, I get no chatter.

Really interesting Kurt - I predrilled a few blocks and found that the chatter was just awful, even with a small pilot, so I stopped doing it, and now I just ram the paddle bit in.

Funny how experiences can diverge so much. One thing I did at one point was to use a pilot, then remove one cutting edge so it never touched the wood. That pretty much removed all chatter. I based that experiment on how metal lathes use boring bars to drill deep holes, and modified a spade bit to try it. It worked like a charm.

Of course, this was done on my wood lathe, not a drill press, so I couldn't tell you how a drill press would react to that. I suspect not favorably, but that's just a gut feeling.

[Dixie_piper]

Well I tried the PIMO bit out on a piece of scrap wood, I believe it was white pine? The "lack of spinning true" showed greatly, damn hole wasn't even round! I tried it with the 1/2" pilot hole first, then without. The second was near perfect, minus the wobble from my drill press.
Played with the drill press, tried tapping it back in line, and it got worse. said f*ck it, started to pull the chuck and realized it wasn't trued up. Lined it up, a few presses against soft wood between taps (to see when the chuck did true up and which way it needed to go) got it fairly straight by eye and feel, and voila! The friggin thing is so close to true it isn't even funny!
With a spade bit there's A LOT less wobble in the point now and chatter is a thing of the past
Now, to decide what this piece o' briar will become... it has straight grain through the width of the block, and flame grain/birds eye on the sides (1.87" X 3.48" X 2.66") ER cut.
Decisions decisions

[MadTinker]

For my Chamber Holes I start off with a 3/4" Forstner Bit about half way down, it starts a Super Clean Hole right where you want it. Then I switch to a 3/4" Spade Bit that I shaped with my Grinder to finish off the hole with a curved bottom. Super Clean Holes every time. Thats just what I do.....But what do I know