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Has anyone else felt like they screwed up the tenon on a stem while heating it up? I don't like bending my stems in the pipe because I'm paranoid that the tenon will bend while I'm putting pressure on the rest of the stem, is this true? Or am I not heating up my stem enough? When I heat up the stem outside the stummel I think that the tenon may be getting too much heat and bending on it's own.

What's everyone else do?

Heat it and bend while the stem is attached. Otherwise how do you know if you've gotten too much or not enough bend?

As long as you've got a tight flush fit, the tenon can't bend. It *can* shrink a bit if you get it too hot, but you would have to be heating way too close to the shank to do that, I think.

Rad

P.S. The stem should be very pliable before you try to bend.

How long does it take you, on average, to get the stem pliable enough? I have a $75 heat gun from Lowe's that I use. I can't remember what it's peak heat is but I can roast 1/2 pound of coffee in 15 mins. with it.

about a minute.

But I only use a $19.00 heat gun.

Rad

well I must be doing something wrong because I either bent the tenon or it shrunk... so I might be heating too close to the tenon? Do you only heat the area where you want the bend?

hmmm... yeah i guess I'd have to be. Hadn't really paid much attention to what I was heating and what I wasn't heating. Do you heat gun users have some sort of nozzle that concentrates the heat? Mine just has a big round nose that it spits the heat out of. It, own it's own, is like 2" wide. Sort of hard to concentrate heat with a 2" wide spout... Can i get an attachment or something? I seem to remember seeing that on a paint gun somewhere, a sort of attachment that brings the round spout down to a flat one, just as wide but not as tall....

bscofield wrote: I don't like bending my stems in the pipe because I'm paranoid that the tenon will bend while I'm putting pressure on the rest of the stem, is this true?

Not sure whether you are using vulcanite or acrylic, but when I bend acrylic stems, they are very pliable once heated, and I don't have to put any pressure on them to bend them. Maybe you are not getting the stem hot enough at the bend point, and too hot near the shank.

random wrote: I don't think I've ever seen one with as large a nozzle as you're describing.

Why thank you!

bscofield wrote:hmmm... yeah i guess I'd have to be. Hadn't really paid much attention to what I was heating and what I wasn't heating. Do you heat gun users have some sort of nozzle that concentrates the heat? Mine just has a big round nose that it spits the heat out of. It, own it's own, is like 2" wide. Sort of hard to concentrate heat with a 2" wide spout... Can i get an attachment or something? I seem to remember seeing that on a paint gun somewhere, a sort of attachment that brings the round spout down to a flat one, just as wide but not as tall....

All you can really do is to move the stem in and out of the stream of hot air and constantly test it to see it it's pliable enough. I heat only the area that's gong to get a bend, not the entire thing, and I can still hold onto the area near the shank with no discomfort.

Use an alcahol burner. That way you can see exactly where you're applying heat. Also, keep the stem in the stummell so that the tenon can't be directly exposed to heat. Or, barring that, have the tenon inserted in a cylindrical wood blank. Using the blank as a handle, pass the stem back and forth through the flame and then bend it to the desired angle.

Todd

I have noticed that chubby, author-type stems can be difficult to bend if a gradual bend that extends all the way to the shank face is desired. Because of the thickness, it takes a fair amount of heat to get the stem pliable, and it's easy to get a slight misfit at the shank face. For me, the key is to grasp the stem firmly and close enough to the stummel that the top "skin" of the stem stretches, the part of the stem that grows longer in a bend (vulcanite, we're talking about). Leather gloves help a lot. I use a heat gun, too, with the flat diffuser nozzle. Crossways to focus the heat, long-ways to spread it out over a longer area. Not all heat guns are the same -- I normally use a Black&Decker that takes a minute or so on the higher setting. This summer I forgot the heat gun when I packed tools to take to Colorado and wound up buying a $20 gun at an Ace Hardware. Much hotter than the gun I was used to, blistered the crap out of the first stem I bent. Does a fine job on the lower setting, though, with no diffuser. Which is to say, I guess, that it's not the tool that matters so much as your experience with it.

Have any of you tried heating the stem in a mixture of salt in a hot oven?