Help with a commission

[Ocelot55]

I had a fellow contact me the other day about making a LOTR inspired churchwarden for him. Now I'm not the biggest fan of wooden stemmed pipes, but I always try to help out fellow pipesmokers, so I started looking for a way to create a wooden stemmed churchwarden. Well long story short, I don't know if I can do it on a drill press.

I was wondering if one of you fellows would be kind enough to drill me some dowels I can use for wooden stems. Of course I'll pay you what you think is fair, but I think out sourcing this task is just easier for me at this point in time.

Let me know if you're interested. Thanks.

[taharris]

Have you thought about using Reed like they used to for Clay pipes back in the day?

The problem with drilling out a dow rod on a lathe is that the dow is so thin that it will tend to wobble.
You would need some way to support it while drilling.

You might be better off trying to drill it by hand from either end like Bamboo.

Tape up the dow rod and draw four guide lines along the axis.

Take a thin metal rod and tape it to your hand drill so that it extends farther than your drill bit and on the same line.

Then go really slow and keep the guide rod on the guide lines. You should be OK.

Another way to make sure you are centered while hand drilling is to periodically let the dow rod spin with the drill bit and look at how the far end is spinning.
If it is wobbling you are off of center.

Good Luck.

Todd

[Ocelot55]

Thanks for the advice, Todd. I might give the dowel rod a shot, but this reed concept is really interesting. Could anyone direct me to a source? Since I live in the middle of the Texas panhandle (severe lack of water) I can't just stroll out to the nearest body of water and get any.

[Alden]

Thanks for the advice, Todd. I might give the dowel rod a shot, but this reed concept is really interesting. Could anyone direct me to a source? Since I live in the middle of the Texas panhandle (severe lack of water) I can't just stroll out to the nearest body of water and get any.

Let me dig around. I cut a bunch of it several years ago for Point Pleasant trade pipe stems. Seems like I had a thicker piece put up somewhere that may be perfect for that.

[Ocelot55]

Thanks for the advice, Todd. I might give the dowel rod a shot, but this reed concept is really interesting. Could anyone direct me to a source? Since I live in the middle of the Texas panhandle (severe lack of water) I can't just stroll out to the nearest body of water and get any.

Let me dig around. I cut a bunch of it several years ago for Point Pleasant trade pipe stems. Seems like I had a thicker piece put up somewhere that may be perfect for that.

That would be awesome, Alden. Thanks.

[badger685]

Did u ever get yer reed?

[Ocelot55]

Nope, Ryan and I didn't get anything worked out. To be honest it kinda fell off my radar. The customer kinda went back on his request so it never became a big problem for me. I'm still interested in toying around with wooden stems some day.

[Alden]

To be honest it kinda fell off my radar.

Me too. If you had bugged me about it I would have tried harder