jaws to hold a preshaped block

[Tano]

I was wondering if any of the talented machinist ever come up with a set of jaws that will fit on a chuck to facilitate drilling a preshaped block.
I know that most of you that shape first are holding the stumel in your hand and guide with the tail stock.
Dont' know if I'm ready to risk this method yet.

[kbadkar]

Trever Talbert has/had such a set up. There's picture of it somewhere in the forum. It's basically two soft jaws that set at the required angle on ways that slide into a rotating bit.

[Tano]

I was thinking more along the lines of the picture that shows the jaws holding the rod stock.

http://www.vintageprojects.com/woodshop ... aking.pdfs

[Tano]

let me try that again

http://www.vintageprojects.com/woodshop/pipe-making.pdf

[kbadkar]

Here's what Trever posted a couple years ago:



It holds a pre-shaped block. Here's the thread:

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2608

[Tano]

Amazing machine, what are the chances of finding one?
That's why I thought the jaws could be machined a lot easier and probably more affordable. Also the could be adapted to present chucks.

[kbadkar]

Yeah, not sure I'd want a fully pre-shaped stummel spinning in jaws because it would take a lot of pressure to keep it from flying, without gouging, gripping, indenting, or otherwise marring the surface. Maybe you could leave "cheeks" on the bowl, instead of the typical square block at the bowl shank junction, if you want to pre-shape the stummel's bowl/shank transition?

[KurtHuhn]

If you take a good look at that pic, I think you could probably figure a way to do exactly that function with a self-centering drillpress/mill vise mounted on a lathe - or a drill press. The machine pictured there is big and manly for sure, but unless you're doing production work, something lesser could be constructed to fit the bill with relatively little cash outlay and a trip to Harbor Freight.

But believe me, given a choice I'd rather have that machine.

[Nick]

I wonder if some one could make somthing to fit on the bed of a lathe that would work like that? I mean, that's pretty much what that is, no? The bit spins, and the jaws slide on a bed, right?

[caskwith]

Get a peice of angle steel and a t bolt to fix it to your cross slide. Then mount a cheap drill press vice to the angle steel and put some soft jaws in it. In the words of Alexander Meercat, simples!

[KurtHuhn]

Yes. A friend of mine made something very similar using a drilling table vise and some odd bits of scrap. He used it as a rudimentary milling machine attachment for a while until he bought a Sherline mill. It's dead simple and fairly inexpensive to construct. I'll ask if he minds if I post pics of it.

Or, you can use a simple X-Y vise on a drill press. You just need to be sure you can change bits without radically altering the position of the stummel.

[Nick]

I was thinking that if you stuffed some miniture, industrial strength beanbags on your jaws, you might have somthing.

Seriously. Say you use bb-s or somthing in a real tough bag, stuck onto some broad jawed chuck jaws. Its clearly a goofy idea, and very much in line with my other goofy ideas, but it ..just..might...work!!!

[kbadkar]

Scary... you first.

[caskwith]

I was thinking that if you stuffed some miniture, industrial strength beanbags on your jaws, you might have somthing.

Seriously. Say you use bb-s or somthing in a real tough bag, stuck onto some broad jawed chuck jaws. Its clearly a goofy idea, and very much in line with my other goofy ideas, but it ..just..might...work!!!

Yeah not so sure on that idea personally. I was thinking more along the lines of making a few different sets of soft pine jaws that will hold different shapes (lets face it, most bowls are fairly rounded, so you just need a few different sized circles and that will provide a fair grip on 90% of pipes), stick some coarse emery paper or some rubber inside for extra grip then wrap your bowl in a few layers of electrial tape to help stop damage etc. After all you are only rough shaping the bowl before drilling anyway.

[Frank]

Amazing machine, what are the chances of finding one?

Zero!! When Trever bought the workshop in France, it came with a bunch of unique tools and devices that the previous owner made/had made for pipemaking. That was one of them.

Trever posted a video of himself pipemaking sometime back. If I recall correctly, he also uses that gizmo in the video. If the video isn't still online, he might post it again. No idea where to find it anymore.

[akr]

I've actually seen a number of these floating around. I have seen them being used in the Peterson pipe factory, and I know a few makers who use them. For example, Rafa Martin has one that he restored:



and Carlino over at Calabria Pipes uses something similar too:



There are even some videos (aside from Trever's) I've seen with makers using them. So they are out there. They are definitely more common in Europe than in the US though.

Good luck!

[Nick]

What about somthing like this?



The bolts shown have a sort of swivel head on them. Like a ball joint kinda thing.

[TreverT]

I have never seen one of these in the states, though I'm sure there are probably a few out there somewhere. Sadly, there is one HUGE one sitting in my old workshop in France in need of restoration, but it was too big to ship so we had to abandon it. It will most likely end up at the local dump and some enterprising person will recycle it into four or five Renaults. If anyone wants to go get it, I'd be happy to part with it for a very small fee (to cover the bother and time to the local folks that I'd need to have come unlock and open the place up for removal), but shipping it anywhere is out of the question. It is about 7' long and is easily twice+ the size of the one I regularly use, in all respects. Probably weighs 700 lbs or more if an ounce.

A couple of things -

Be sure to use wooden jaws as pictured. With the metal jaws designed to easily accept any wooden jaw insert with a wedge backing, it's simple to make up a pile of different wood jaws for a multitude of basic shapes. In that pic I'm also using a pair of soft rubber grips as well, because that particular stummel was finished to a very high level of shaping prior to drilling, and I was being careful not to make any marks on it. What I love about this machine is that it can drill with spade bits, so I have endless cheap bowl bits of a hundred shapes and sizes, and don't feel limited by the cost of spoon bits. Also, my hands are out of the way.

If making one yourself, it will need multiple axes of motion. Side to side, up and down, spinning on a horizontal circle, and even being able to turn the jaws in a vertical rotation (Look close and you may be able to see that mine will do that). This is for accepting a range of unusual shapes, like shapes with odd sides, quirky angles, and so forth. It has to be able to move up and down to be able to line up the drill with your bowl drilling line, because you won't have the stummel chucked at the same height at any time, because they're all different.

[TreverT]

Oh, and if you want to see a lot more close-up pics of the thing, check out this blog entry:

http://talbertpipes.blogspot.com/2009/1 ... shing.html