Lessons i have learned so far

[dgifford99]

My lathe is a turncraft commander VS 12" only pens and a ballister replacement so far. motor being replaced under warranty. the lesson here is the simple one of patience.

Drill Press. my lesson is to slow that pig down. did my first attempts at the stummel drill work. press was at factory speed. completely exploded the first ebauchon, chatter tore the inside of the chamber on the second (not a bad tear, will sand out, and become a shop pipe, my first)


Bits. speed kills slow the heck down. i have the Pimo chamber bits. they chatter bad at speed. considering going most of depth with equivalent forstner and using the chamber bit to ensure bottom shape and airhole meet.

Bosch Speed demon spade bits - bad for starting tobacco chamber the screw tip snugs up and explodes the wood. (first ebauchon) great for general drilling on softer stuff (like my brain!) 9/16 trepanning bit anyone?

my eyes. NOT as accurate as they used to be. i have (it would seem) a 3mm offset. GETTING OLD SUCKS and wear my glasses (note to self)

Briar. i have six ebauchons left. (got em on ebay) they are small, but awesome trainers.

Delrin tenon on pre-made bit. This will be next segment of the shop pipe, since it is now the ultimate practice piece.


would love feedback and/or thoughts.

[Sasquatch]

Every aspect of every craft requires a working knowledge of the tools and materials, and this is gained basically by application of one to the other. You can read books about carving, but it doesn't make you a good wood carver, for example. It gives you some ideas, some theoretic know-how, and that's useful, but the development of actual skill needs practice.

Or, as one old guy put it to me on a job site: The difference between theory and practice is that in theory, theory and practice are the same, and in practice, they are not.

Another nother way to put it is that you are developing a "feel" for the craft. For that is surely what we mean when we say "that guy has a good feel for suchandsuch" It means that he chooses the right tool, applies it in the right way, and gets good results, seemingly with no effort.

[FredS]

My old machine shop teacher always said most drill bits get over-sped and under-fed. He meant that people run them at too many rpm and feed them to slowly. After working in shops for >30 years, I must agree. For drilling briar with a spade type bit, you should run it as slow as your machine will go - it'll probably still be too fast, but it's the best you can do. And feed it into the workpiece fast - twice as fast as you think you should.

[smokindawg]

We work with what we have at hand.......... How we use those tools says a lot about us.

It's also a learning experience because not everyone uses the same tools the same way. We can do all the reading we want, but in the end we have to do things the way that is most comfortable and works best for us.

I'm of the "Learning from Experience" group. But I also learn from hands on help from others. I've learned quite a bit from visiting other pipe makers and just watching how they do things. I then adapted those ways to what worked for the tools I have and for myself as well.

I've upgraded tools as I have gone along in this hobby (Which it is and will remain for most of us) and found some that worked for me and others that didn't. I've also adapted new ways and materials when it comes to pipe making.

I started out using nice plateau briar when I first started out and quickly realized that I was probably wasting money, so I have now picked up a supply of smaller, cheaper ebauchons and will use those to learn more, saving the good briar for later. (That also lets it age and dry a bit more)

It's how we learn and grow that says the most about us.

[Mike Messer]

...my eyes. NOT as accurate as they used to be. i have (it would seem) a 3mm offset. GETTING OLD SUCKS and wear my glasses (note to self)...

I know what you mean...when I turned thirty I thought I was over the hill, but by thirty-two I decided thirties are pretty good. Forties aren't too bad, either. I started having vision problems at age forty. I got several sties on my eyelids that summer, and afterward I needed reading glasses to get close focus. I'm not sure if the sties were just coincidental.

When working on pipes, sometimes I use two pairs of reading glasses, the outer pair strapped on, and I have noticed a curve on straight objects sometimes. It's the lenses, and has nothing to do with Einstein's curvature of time and space theories. When doing fine, finish sanding, I wear a pair of reading glasses, and a headband magnifier (2.25x, 8" working distance, economy headband magnifier $17.50 from http://www.mcmaster.com/). I also use a 100 watt reflector lamp, like a desk lamp, right on the pipe and with the magnifiers the scratches show up pretty good.

You gotta be able to see clearly to know what you're doing, and forget about getting old, except you might not want to go swinging on the monkey bars or sky diving. No great loss.
Pipemaking is cool, though.