Securing Finished Stems for Drilling

[LatakiaLover]

Meaning how to clamp a finished stem without marring it and getting everything lined up when drilling the hole to receive a replacement glue-in tenon.

A demanding exercise with no rewind button.

Almost exclusively a repair thing, but some of the tricks/principles might come in handy for new pipe makers somehow.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... p5ypshzfCP

[seamonster]

George, you had me there for a moment,
when you were centering the stem on the drill press rig, using a tool steel blank in the draft hole.
I thought your paper diagrams were showing the draft hole likely off-center.
But then I caught up again later when you showed the flexibility of filing the threads of the delrin insert in order to shift
the tenon (or stem, whichever) so that it lined up with the stummel.
I'd like to have seen that process. Do you have the stem clamped in the same drill press jig during glue up? It looked like the thread size
was fairly roomy in the hole you drilled in the stem. Was there a fair amount of slop there already? Or not.

I accomplish something similar, with the rod chucked up in the head stock, and grabbing the delrin in a drill chuck in the tail stock,
but that's on a lathe, and I'm going for center, not off-center, plus I thought you were by and large, allergic......

All in all, great stuff, great to see you (hands and voice, at least) back on the you-tubes.....

[LatakiaLover]

Everything in that vid was on-center. The hole size for the rep tenon was five thousandths larger than the threads. (That's to allow for roughening in case you hit a bullseye and no "trimming" adjustment is necessary.)

Gluing is done with the pipe straight up (stem pointing up), then taped into position and turned 180 degrees to point straight down so gravity pulls any overflow glue away from the shank.

It's all stupid easy to do poorly, but an absolute bitch to get exactly right. After lots of experience it still takes me 2-3 hrs to execute from start to finish. I absolutely hate EVERYTHING about the entire process EXCEPT the rush afterward of having pulled it off.

[seamonster]

Damn. Just, damn.

[n80]

George, have you ever thought about putting all of your knowledge and expertise into book form?

I love the videos and even though I'm not into pipe repair, I've watched just about all of them (some of them two or three times) since a good many aspects of repair can be used in pipe making too. The videos are an invaluable resource in that regard but a book would seem, in my world at least, more permanent.

[LatakiaLover]

Novels and short stories are one thing, technical-educational stuff that requires illustration (photos and diagrams) is quite another. VERY labor/time intensive. And expensive to produce/publish. All for a vanishingly small market of (at most) a few hundred.

In short, no can do. But thanks for the props.