Acute drill angles

[KurtHuhn]

Some makers use pipe mud to raise the bottom of the chamber. I tend not to like pipes that steeply bent, so I don't make them. I don't feel as if I could do a good job on them, since I don't like the aesthetic of them.

[ToddJohnson]

I'll begin by disclaiming any knowledge of anything whatsoever, that seems like a good preface for this question.

I've had good success with drill angles up to about 30-35 degrees. However when it comes to drilling the draft-hole at 45 degrees or thereabouts, apparently I suck.

The freakin draft hole ends up almost 1/2" tall. That ain't good enough imo, but maybe my opinion is crap, whaddo I know?

What has your experience been with drill angles of 45 degrees and higher? Just how tall can the draft-hole ellipse be before you end up with a crappy smoker?

I'll continue working on this in my own way but I'd like to know what you guys use as "standards" if that's the term. Maybe you've found a chamber shape that works well for high-angle drilling, but I'm still working on it. I have a fistfull of full-bents that are fantastic smokers and leave a quarter-inch to 3/8" of dottle.

Just cut one in half this evening to see if it looked as bad from the side as it did from the top. It did. Beautiful grain, wasted. I'm getting grouchy over this. "I vill find ze solution to zees problem!" shrieked the mad scientist!

Comments? Imprecations? Insults? Ideas? Theories?

A number of makers (myself included) will drill within 1/8" of the tobacco chamber and then come in from the chamber with a boring bit to meet the draft hole. This allows for a perfectly round hole at bottom center of the chamber--no elongated draft hole. You've got to use a really sharp bit so as to make a nice transition, but it's really quite a simple process. A pipe cleaner passes easily, and there's no sharp transition into the tobacco chamber. Another little trick is using a false mortise so that the draft hole can be centered in the mortise. Once it's drilled you then sleeve it. This allows for a perfect transition at all points. Best of luck.

Todd

[bscofield]

I'm not understanding you todd, go figure...

What type of bit are you able to use inside of a tobacco chamber to meet the draught hole?? I don't assume you mean drilling another 45 degree angle and meeting the other one somewhere inside the wall! I guess the confusion is in the bit that you use to drill towards the draught hole from what sounded like inside the chamber.

[KurtHuhn]

I won't speak for Todd, but from his description it sounds like he's drilling to within 1/8" of the chamber wall, not the chamber bottom. Just ensure that you measure correctly, mark your drill bit, and line things up right. From there, grab a boring bit and drill from the inside of the tobacco chamber to connect it and the airway.

As far as what bit to use, I good diamond burr, or a burr with structured carbide teeth, or even a flame burr would do well. Knowing me, I'd use a diamond burr mounted on my slim handpiece to my rotary tool, and punch through the wall with that. However, that's not what Todd says he uses, so I have no idea.

[ToddJohnson]

A number of makers (myself included) will drill within 1/8" of the tobacco chamber and then come in from the chamber with a boring bit to meet the draft hole. This allows for a perfectly round hole at bottom center of the chamber--no elongated draft hole.

From your description Todd, it sound like the bottom of the airway is below the bottom of the bowl, have you run into any moisture collection problems with that?

No, the draft hole comes in right at the heel of the bowl, so it's not like a calabash or something. There are no moisture problems because the draft hole enters the chamber just as it would on a quarter-bent.

Kurt, I used to think that I didn't like the aesthetics of highly bent pipes too. Then I smoked a couple butt-ugly full-bent rejects and decided that the weight/balance characteristics were so good that I'd try and find a way to make the aesthetics look good.

There are so many styles, designs, and shapes for full bent pipes, that I'm curious over your disliking them all. I can't really say that I like or dislike a particular degree of bend in a pipe. I tend to look at pipes individually as compositions that either work or don't work. Being such a line and shape man I would have thought you were similar in this respect. Either way, you're certainly right about the weight/balance of full bents. When done right, they can simply hang without exerting any force whatsoever on the jaw. Best of luck with creating a full bent you like.

Todd

[Nick]

As I understand the process, one takes a "ball" type bit, and uses a dremel tool. Kinda drilling side ways. At least thats how I think its done. Never done it myself.

[KurtHuhn]

There are so many styles, designs, and shapes for full bent pipes, that I'm curious over your disliking them all. I can't really say that I like or dislike a particular degree of bend in a pipe. I tend to look at pipes individually as compositions that either work or don't work. Being such a line and shape man I would have thought you were similar in this respect. Either way, you're certainly right about the weight/balance of full bents. When done right, they can simply hang without exerting any force whatsoever on the jaw. Best of luck with creating a full bent you like.

There are so many styles of full bent that I really dislike. No particular reason, but they just seem not to flow well. That's not to say I dislike them all, just that most I've seen have not been appealing to me. That said, I do like calabash pipes, and I suppose you could call those full bent.....

[stdly]

I am new to this Pipe Making but I have made 3 full bents to date and the last was the squashed tomatoe. On this one I took a tip from Michael Parks, he told me to drill down with about .030 of the entrance to the bowl bottom and then use a small punch that I bent to get a better attack angle to punch through to the drilled draft hole. I don't know if I got very lucky but it worked like a charm. Passes a cleaner and the draft hole in the bowl is about have the size of my previous full bent.

It is a very fine smoker as well; it is one of those pipes that by the time I have to do the first tamping the pipe is almost empty and clean white ash. Gota like that!

I like the full bents the first time I saw Michael Parks’s art deco I fell in love and decided I could make a great full bent as well. The squashed tomatoe is my shop pipe it is all banged up already. Sometimes I forget it is in my mouth for hours, very comfortable and out of the way.