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Yo, Red --

Fact or fiction: Can two pieces of polished Delrin that are pressed together long enough, and (presumably) with sufficient pressure, fuse/merge/meld?

Enquiring minds want to know.

WHAAAAAAAAATTT?????

NO fair, George. Context please?

I'ma say "No". Being polymeric, it is literally one molecule formed and extruded as is (the paint on your walls is the same sort of thing, it's one big linked chain of atoms). This isn't caused by pressure so much as it is the way it's born. You could squeeze it all day, but it's not looking for new bonds on a chemical level.

Bingo.

I have heard from a trusted associate, however, that a Delrin tenon somehow welded itself into a Delrin mortise. She no move. Locked absolutely solid.

My confuserator has been (unsurprisingly) running a bit hot ever since.

Heat caused by friction making it melt together?

Delrin on delrin is a no-go for me. What happens is that the delrin, while slippery against other materials, likes to lock in tight against itself for some reason, and seemingly under certain environmental factors. I used to know why, but probably selectively forgot when it became clear, via experience, that it actually happens. It doesn't "fuse", but it does "stick" - similar to how a smoothly sanded or polished piece of brass will "stick" to glass if both are perfectly flat - creating a suction cup effect.

Yeah, not the same thing, but as decent an analogy as I could come up with. This is unique to delrin tenons with delrin mortis inserts.

When I need to use delrin for a tenon and something to line a mortise, I try to make sure it’s two different materials. Then at least heat or cold can allow them to separate. I have one ebonite on ebonite reversed calabash Pipe and it doesn’t like to come apart sometimes.


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Yes, delrin is slippery against other stuff, it's pretty sticky with itself. "It must be EVEN BETTER twice!". Nuh uh. It's bad.

Tell your friend everybody who's anybody knows this shit. (Mostly cuz we've all tried it and learned to our sorrow that it sucks bad!)

Sasquatch wrote: ↑Mon Oct 07, 2019 8:25 am Tell your friend everybody who's anybody knows this shit. (Mostly cuz we've all tried it and learned to our sorrow that it sucks bad!)

Let's see... being the pipemakersforum, the "we've" refers to the segment of the population known as pipe makers...

And the implicitly exclusionary phrase "everybody who's anybody" means anyone who is not a pipe maker is, for lack of a better term, a dumbass.

This is a crushing moment for me, Sas

I just never knew, you know? I mean, I didn't take a special bus to school or anything...

Sad repairman is sad

George, you are in that special and rare category of people who, when something is good enough, when it works perfectly, do not try to fix it further. That is probably not the only thing that separates you from the pipemaker proper but it's part of it. The rest of us, we have to fucking make a pipe out of a sunbleached potato to see if it's as good as briar, we have to make a stem with an airway as big as a McDonald's straw. We have to.... have to, mind, it's a compulsion - we have to learn that two slippery things can be a sticky thing.

Can you imgagine a pipe maker with the brass to answer "What's special about this pipe you've made?" with the answer "Eh, nothing really, when you get right down to it."

No.

Nonono. We need 400 year old briar, a physics manual, Tyrannosaur teeth in the sandblasting cabinet (and a compressor that goes to infinity). The idea that we wouldn't tinker this stuff till it fucks up right in our faces.... nonono.