my first attempt at drilling my own pipe.

jthpipes · Post by **jthpipes** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 8:45 am

I have been trying to get together all the tools to make my own pipes since I carved a pre drilled kit. I finally did and worked this weekend to make one from a block I had. I would appreciate any comments (good or bad). I found a nice flaw in the briar as I carved but it doesn't seem to go all the way through.

http://www.jthpipes.com/mypipes3.html

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 9:28 am

Nicely done!!!

achduliebe · Post by **achduliebe** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 10:51 am

Very very nice pipe John!

Post by **KurtHuhn** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 11:28 am

Nice job on the drilling! Way better than the first ones I drilled myself.

random wrote:Lucite is a PITA isn't it? <g>

Lucite is indeed a PITA. I made a pipe this weekend with a Lucite amber stem. They polish up well enough, but this particular stem had such a low tolerance for friction heat that it really pissed me off. That and polishing the inside of the stem. Crikey!

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 12:37 pm

Polishin the inside of the stem???

Post by **KurtHuhn** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 3:20 pm

Yep, in order for the stem to look good (in my opinion) you have to polish the interior. If you have a nice clear lucite stem, and a frosted airway, it looks cheap (again, in my opinion).

It's no as much a concern on opaque stems. I still polish the airway, but not to the degree that I do clear lucute/acrylic.

jeff · Post by **jeff** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 3:49 pm

How do you do it, Kurt?

Jeff

Post by **KurtHuhn** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 7:22 pm

First, your bits have to be *sharp* in order to avoid gouging the the airway. Then I take a 1/16" drill bit and use it as a mandrel to roll a bit of sandpaper, and use that to sand after drilling and shaping the airway (see Tyler's stem how-to on this site, I do pretty much the same thing).

Then, after sanding, I take a pipe cleaner, rub some tripoli compound on it, and just work it back and forth in the airway of the stem to polish it up. It's not actually as much work as it sounds like.

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Wed Jul 07, 2004 7:57 am

Cool!

Thanks for the tip bud.

ArtGuy · Post by **ArtGuy** » Wed Jul 07, 2004 10:47 am

If you are using lucite or acrylic you might consider using Novous Plasic Polish. A model builder buddy of mine turned me onto it. There are 3 stages to it used to remove heavy scratches, light scratches and final polishing. Apparently they use it to polish aircraft windows.

I have tried the number 2 on vulcanite and it seems to work ok for that too. Although, it's true value is with acrylics. I have not polished an airway with it but it does do wonders for polishing the surface of acrylic stems.

http://www.noscratch.com/novus/

You could sand the airway and then use this on the pipe cleaner to polish. Unlike trupoli it is a creme rather than a cake.

marks · Post by **marks** » Wed Jul 07, 2004 1:07 pm

Very nice pipe!

jthpipes · Post by **jthpipes** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 9:55 am

thank you all for you comments. I wanted to scream when I came across the crack but I guess thats how it goes. I hope to be able to show off more soon.

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 11:33 am

I totally understand. I was recently working on a pipe, and this huuuugge crack showed up right on the face of the bowl. AARRGGHH! It ended up OK. I just made a smaller pipe than I had originally intended. And in retrospect, I probably ended up making a much better balance and more graceful pipe.

I'd post pics, but my camera is in South Carolina for the week.

achduliebe · Post by **achduliebe** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 11:45 am

Nick,

I hope your camera is in the A/C because if it not it is probably going to melt. We are in a heat wave this week with a heat index around 105.