Making a "Hot Rod" Pipe (video set)

[LatakiaLover]

Even pipe repairmen can have a bit of fun now and again:


https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 7JqyryKRNU

[caskwith]

Getting dangerously close to becoming a pipe maker George

[Ocelot55]

Looks like fun! When I saw the multitude of dots I couldn't stop laughing!

I've done the same sorts of things in the past with pipes that had I couldn't sell on the website for whatever reason. It's a great way to learn with little pressure.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Downie have a, for lack of a better term, "pimp my pipe" sort of service for a while. I think I remember seeing something about that several years ago.

[LatakiaLover]

Getting dangerously close to becoming a pipe maker George

Actually the lack of technical challenge (once a method has been settled on and perfected), plus not having a design-y imagination shuts down any idea of that. And even if I was suited to it personality and talent-wise, the never ending briar flaw crapshoot would drive me mad.

The only part of the Carver Life I envy is not working on other people's stuff. The "high wire walk with no safety net" feeling is stressful.

[LatakiaLover]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Downie have a, for lack of a better term, "pimp my pipe" sort of service for a while. I think I remember seeing something about that several years ago.

It's such an obvious avenue that I'm surprised all you guys don't offer it.

Equally obvious is that since no one does, there must not be any demand.

(now that's funny rat thar)

[sandahlpipe]

Nice video! Now imagine if you quit your job as a repairman how much easier your life would be! [emoji16]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[caskwith]

Getting dangerously close to becoming a pipe maker George

Actually the lack of technical challenge (once a method has been settled on and perfected), plus not having a design-y imagination shuts down any idea of that. And even if I was suited to it personality and talent-wise, the never ending briar flaw crapshoot would drive me mad.

The only part of the Carver Life I envy is not working on other people's stuff. The "high wire walk with no safety net" feeling is stressful.

There is some technical challenge if you like to mix things up but you are right there is a settling into a routine for a lot of things.

I just finished a technically demanding repair today and I must admit I absolutely love the challenge of a tricky repair, it really does test the old grey cells and the feeling of accomplishment at pulling it off is better than making a new pipe I think. I could never do it day in day out though, partly because I know that a lot of pipe repair is very similar work such as simple re-stemming on ugly basket pipes that people get attached to, but also because on the fun challenges the fear of messing it up would be too much for me.

I get asked to do a lot of repairs and re-stems. I almost always say no, most often for monetary reasons. People get offended when you say that £20 isn't going to cover the complete refurbishment and re-stemming of a scabby old peterson worth about 50p on a good day.

[LatakiaLover]

I get asked to do a lot of repairs and re-stems. I almost always say no, most often for monetary reasons. People get offended when you say that £20 isn't going to cover the complete refurbishment and re-stemming of a scabby old peterson worth about 50p on a good day.

I stopped menu-style "task pricing" years ago because no two jobs are the same. (Conceptually they might be, but the devil is very much in the details when it comes to working on pipes).

So, I handle it the same way similar trades do, which is time & materials. Meaning whether a project is expensive depends on the work, not the pipe. Like so: if you went to a machine shop to have a vintage car part made from a block of billet steel because new ones were unobtainable, it wouldn't matter to the machinist if the car it was going to be attached to was a Ferrari worth millions or somebody's grandfather's Morris Marina left to rot in a barn. He probably wouldn't even ask. But the part's cost as a percentage of the value of the total car would vary MASSIVELY. The Ferrari owner would be delighted that someone could get it running at all, while the Morris owner would laugh that the one part was worth more than the rest of the car.

In short, that way you get paid respectably, can't lose money on jobs, and the stuff you don't want to work on stays away automatically (as do the bargain-minded wheeler-dealer people who own it).

Protip if you decide to give it a whirl: Resist the urge to make estimates, and if pressed to do so make them 1) categorical, not specific to their pipe; and 2) not binding. Be sure they understand that outliers happen from time to time.

If you deliver the goods consistently, after a while few people will even ask. They'll just send stuff and say, "Do your thing, mate, and notify me when it's cooked."

[caskwith]

Thanks for the advice there.

I doubt I will ever do it, the demand here in the UK is almost exclusively for cheap pipes and hence cheap repairs too. Aside from replacement stems for my own pipes I have never yet had someone willing to pay more than £20 for a new pipe stem. When you quote them a realistic price they get extremely shitty about it and start accusing me of being a rip off merchant and some in the past have even bad mouthed me on social media. That's why my stock answer now is "I don't do repairs".

For reference for my foreign friends, £20 would buy you a tin of good tobacco with a little change, the cheapest basket pipe, about 5 pints of beer (outside London) and is about 1.5hours work at the minimum wage here. Return postage of the pipe is £4 minimum.

The only way to do repairs that cheap is to have a vast stock of stem blanks in every possible shape and size so the job is reduced to turn the tenon, minimal shape and then buff.

[LatakiaLover]

Yeah, there are people who see pipe bowls strictly as containers for burning tobacco, and then see stems as throwaway access devices to THEM. Like a drinking straw to a slightly more durable plastic cup. (You'll never change their mind, either. If there's an "inner collector" it will find its way out of its own accord over time.)

The US is mostly the same situation, the main difference being the overall population is large enough that the small percentage of collectors who don't think that way is a significant market.

[RickB]

Pretty damn cool, and yep I laughed my ass off at the dots too.

So I've been doing a 5/32" tapered bit from the tenon to about an inch from the button end, a 1/16" through to the end, and then cutting that out to a fairly deep funnel on the button side (because I'd gotten the impression it was more or less the 'standard' practice for good pipes) - though I know some folks do a shallower funnel than that (in the 1/2" range) with no ill effects (my thought was to keep things thinner for more of the stem if possible).

I might have missed it, but how much do the internal dimensions of this stem differ from that? With the initial tapered reamer pass, it seemed like you might've been going bigger than 5/32" to start with (though I'm running a 5/32" airway in the stummel as well, and I don't know if that would need a bump up to match). My pipes smoke well, but if I could be doing something that helps them smoke better, I'm on board.

Thanks as always!