pipemakersforum.com

Hey there guys,

First time post after quite a bit of lurking, just got forum registration completed today. I'm new to pipe making and haven't quite finished my first yet but I have run into a situation with lucite stems, they break. I'm not expecting them to be terribly sturdy but I had brought one upstairs to look at in a different light and then when I went to pick it back up it fell off the kitchen table and the tenon busted off inside the shank. I'm pretty much buying everything prefab'd right now because Im low budget and don't have anything like a lathe around. So my question is this: Is there any way to repair a busted Lucite tenon? I've tried epoxy and superglue, letting it have a good 24hrs to set up and both times it busts right off again when I subject it to the stress of inserting it into the mortise.

GP

do you have anyway to measure the size of the mortise drill out the stem to replace it with a delrin tenon?

My first question would be what size are the tennons, if they are breaking that easily they are either to small by diameter or if drilled for a filter thin walled.

I'd go with delrin tennons either way.

David.

I have no idea how to fix and acrylic stem, but welcome!

You can extract that tenon with a wood screw extractor, but you have to be VERY careful. I find an extractor that is just a little larger then the draft hole. Then gently hand screw the extractor into the tenon. Not too far so you don't crack the shank. Once the extractor is in I like to put it in a vice and slowly pull and twist the stummel to get the tenon out.

I have also used a small tap, I threaded the tap into the draft hole of the broken tenon and then pulled her out, Ocelot, when you say use a wood screw extractor did you mean use a wood screw as an extractor? or do they actually make a tool for that?

These:

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1260 ... 81900418-2

A tap would also probably work. Might even work better.

I see we always called those "easy outs" yeah or I would think even just carefully screwing a wood screw into the broken tenon would work those easy outs don't really have any grabbing power, but they do work well when backing out a broken bolt

The easy outs are great for removing threaded things like bolts. As tenons aren't usualy threaded, I've sucessfully done the same thing with a common wood screw. As always, be careful!

Edit: Yeah, or what BigCasino said...

I haven't really perfected a method yet, because, thankfully a broken tenon is a rare occasion. I'd be interested to hear what the pipe repair men use.

I don't think he's asking how to get the tenon out of the mortise. He's asking how to re-attach the tenon or make a new one (without a lathe).

You can literally super-glue the tenon back on if it snapped clean. Press really hard when you do - super glue is activated by pressure.

If it's not in one piece, it can be fixed but it's probably just about as easy to cut a new stem. Depends on tooling. But you can make a tenon out of ebonite, for example, and glue it into the stem, if you make a hole for it.

Sasquatch wrote:You can literally super-glue the tenon back on if it snapped clean. Press really hard when you do - super glue is activated by pressure.

Super glue is activated by moisture.

Hope this helps.

If you want to pull out broken tennon from shank, im using this, helped me alot of time - rivet tool. just place rivet, expand and pull it out.

http://www.amsisupply.com/graphics/rive ... -large.gif

AldenW wrote:

Sasquatch wrote:You can literally super-glue the tenon back on if it snapped clean. Press really hard when you do - super glue is activated by pressure.

Super glue is activated by moisture.

Hope this helps.

Certainly not the case. Certain urethane glues are moisture-cure by cyanoacrylate resins are dry-cure, pressure set. So either you think that "super glue" is something that it isn't, or you are lying to cause confusion. Which is it, you commie bastard?

Okay you are right. So what??

However, what I said still appies - for super glue to hold anything, you need to push the pieces together pretty hard. It has much less strength if you just let the pieces "set".

LOL, I was always told super glue was actually designed to be an emergency suture device, which is why it glues your fingers together in a fraction of a second, not that I have ever done that b4 ...

What? Someone was wrong on an Internet forum? And then ADMITTED it!?? My faith in humanity has been restored! (Somewhat).

Wow, I sort of expected a couple one line suggestions, not a full on discussion. While it does make me feel welcome and validate my joining this forum community, I'm afraid you lot have set quite the precedent for what I can expect when I post a new thread.

Yes, I was more inquiring about how to re-affix the busted tenon to the stem. Of course it was initially stuck inside the shank mortise but I had that covered with careful application of a wood screw and some pliers, worked fine.

Honestly I hadn't even considered the possibility of a delrin tenon. I guess I knew that guys did that and it would certainly be nice but this being my first voyage into the vast seas of pipe crafting I can't say that I exactly have a well equipped shop. I've pretty much been relying on prefab and kits for anything that requires a lathe or drill press. Like anyone with a fancy for anything wood-working I have waking fantasies of a well equipped shop, being surrounded by thousands of dollars of tools and always having the right tool for the job or at least something close. Of course, then other than my children's immediate and long term needs I pretty much wouldn't have any motivation to keep a job... In the meantime I'll dream, get by, and maybe at some point be able to decrease my reliance of prefab parts. I've looked at a couple used shopsmiths, I know it doesn't do anything quite as good a dedicated machine but it seems a good value and in truth would really be quite a reflection of my own jack of all trades master of none nature, sentiment that isn't lost on me.

I had tried superglue but I hadn't tried it in a clamp, looks like that's on the menu tonight, nothing to lose I suppose. It's a decent stem I picked up from Tinsky and I could always hang on to it for the day that I do have a drill press handy and could use it with a delrin tenon. I'll be sure to post back here if the superglue works well after being applied with pressure. Without thinking too much about it I went to epoxy first, manly because I already had it out that night for use on something else. Had I thought about epoxy I probably wouldn't have bother but like I said I already had it out anyway. Somewhat needless to say it did nothing but I did have high hopes for superglue because I'm pretty sure that it bonds in a fairly similar way as acrylic cement, which I am unwilling to buy for such a simple task. Hopefully the pressure will prove the magic ingredient so I'm not derailed on this pipe too much more.

Thank you all for making me feel welcome.

-GP

Ocelot55 wrote:You can extract that tenon with a wood screw extractor, but you have to be VERY careful. I find an extractor that is just a little larger then the draft hole. Then gently hand screw the extractor into the tenon. Not too far so you don't crack the shank. Once the extractor is in I like to put it in a vice and slowly pull and twist the stummel to get the tenon out.

I did this with a pipe the other day,and the damned EXTRACTOR broke! Now what the hell do I do? I guess try to drill a small hole in the broker piece of extractor and use another extractor?

Or just drill the damn thing out. What a pain!