pipemakersforum.com

Real name: Jakob (Jake)

Age: 60

Location: North Idaho

Years a pipe smoker: 1

How you got into pipe making: Well, now that's a good question!

I started smoking pipes because I had my grandfathers old pipe which was given to me by my mother many years ago. It had been sitting in a box with some collectables waiting for the day I decided to take up the pipe.

That old pipe is a very nice BBB "London Dry" Rhodesian vintage 1930's. It was in need of a little TLC and I decided to send it off to Scott and Jessie at Blue Room Briars for a restoration. I also bought a few estate pipes from Scott. That was the beginning of it all.

I ended up getting some more pipes from various places and began to notice lots of little flaws in the crafting of the various pipes. Being a stickler for doing things right, I set out to see what it takes to make things right vs. what I was seeing.

I've also been into woodworking and generally tinkering for many years and have a very well equipped shop that is primarily a wood shop.

One thing led to another and I am now embarking on career in pipe making! I have been getting myself setup to build pipes as a full time endeavor. I am retired from an aviation career so I have a financial cushion in the form of a pension, but it is an amount that is not quite keeping up with the outflows. I have over the years made a number of things from my shop that I have sold, but shipping has always been an issue as those items were more in the category of furniture. Pipes offer a tremendous creative outlet as well as being very easy to ship to the customer, so this will be perfect for me!

I look forward to reading as many posts here as I can as I grow my knowledge base and perfect my technique.

I fortunately have a little background in photography and web design as well which will come in handy as I build a web presence.

So that's me in a nutshell, as far as this topic goes .

Other interesting facts: I really liked the idea of the long belt sanders in use by most of the European pipe crafters, so I built myself one!

Welcome Jacob. This is the right place to learn about pipe making. I would like to see your long belt sander. I also made one. Not the best looking thing but it does the job.

Pillichody wrote:I would like to see your long belt sander.

So let's see if I got the image upload process right yet:

wow! That is really nice. Mine is very amateur. I made the frame out of wood.

Pillichody wrote:wow! That is really nice. Mine is very amateur. I made the frame out of wood.

I had most of the aluminum as left over from a project making a custom cover for my truck bed. It's overkill for this application, but I had no other use for it

JakeP wrote:

Pillichody wrote:I would like to see your long belt sander.

So let's see if I got the image upload process right yet:

Looks dangerous haha. That's really cool though. What would you say cost would be if someone wanted to build something similar?

chuckyeageronlsd wrote:What would you say cost would be if someone wanted to build something similar?

Good question.

I had a lot of the aluminum on hand from another project, so what I saved is hard to quantify now.

But for what I did have to buy I know that I am out about $700-$750 dollars.

Now I did buy a new VFD and motor as well as drive and idler wheels, all online. So if one is willing to be patient and “cob” all the pieces together from used sources you could certainly save a good bit of money. I’m just not one to do such things

So I think the answer to your question is this: for someone who wants to replicate my build from nothing would be in the neighborhood of $850.

On a side note for those who are looking at this sander that I built. I designed it so that with my favorite shop chair the center of the belt is at the exact working height for me.

As with many such things, this is an individual thing. Like counter heights or work table heights. My entire shop is what most would consider too high. I’m 6’1”, so I like a higher work surface than most.

I have my table saw and out feed table on blocks to raise it a few inches

Jake, where in North Idaho are you from? I’m in Rathdrum, but work in Post Falls.
Good to see some Idaho boys on here.

mikecouch wrote:Jake, where in North Idaho are you from? I’m in Rathdrum, but work in Post Falls.
Good to see some Idaho boys on here.

Hey Mike! I’m up in Sandpoint, but let’s not let anyone know about our knock of the woods, we don’t want it getting too crowded here