out-sourcing drilling work - your thoughts!

[Kirk Fitzgerald]

Okay, first off, I keep making the fatal mistake of asking for opinions with things, I don't want or need peoples 'opinions' with anything, more often than not I ask questions because I am unsure of my own reasoning and worry the actions I may take will lead to misunderstanding my intentions, this happens a lot right enough. I am one of those people who tends to put his foot in his mouth all the time and the more I try to put things right the wider my mouth gets so I can slip in my other foot too, so baring that in mind I shall try to word this carefully (the irony of my last words potential for misinterpretations did not evade me !).

I would dearly love to be able to make pipes myself, I have 'finished' off a few now but in all honesty I do not 'feel' like I have actually made a single pipe as yet because I have not started from scratch with a solid block of Briar. I have finished off a few pipes which have essentially been shaped entirely and just needed tarting up with final shaping and sanding, I have also finished off a few pipe kits. The pipe kits being the closest I have come to making a pipe, but they were pre-drilled and roughly shaped to start with, not exactly making me anything more than a lacky labourer really.

I am hoping to finish off a batch of kit pipes next month and against all odds I am hoping the gods look fondly on me so that I can sell them to raise the money to buy the tools required to start making pipes properly. Now the thing here is that I am one of 'them', the perpetually brassic lint scumbags that most folk in any trade wouldn't give the time of day on the street, doesn't make me feel good about myself and make no mistake there. For reasons I don't really feel comfortable going into here I am unable to work and have naff all money to my name, with a Mrs and two daughters (one is 2yrs the other is 8yrs) what little cash we have is gone in a flash. Please do not misunderstand me here, I am not looking for any kind of handouts here, I am asking for advice with something that could help me get going.

To be able to get into this properly I would need to raise a staggering amount of money, to start with our shed is tiny and falling apart, the first thing I would need to do is buy a shed and base as a workroom, that puts me out of pocket in the high hundreds of pounds, never going to happen. So I will have to make do with out tiny shed, and I mean it is teenie, there is absolutely no way a lathe will fit in there even if I could afford one, which I can't of course. I am looking into the possibility of utilising a drill press and sanding machine for the labour intensive side of things, if I can raise the cash for those then this might be possible.

There will come a time of course when I will want to try my hand at making a longer shank on a pipe, here endeth the usefulness of the drill press and so begins the need for a lathe. I realise that what I am about to ask is going to take me right back to not making pipes 'myself' again, but this is something I feel is going to be unavoidable on the rare occasion.

The issue has two areas really..

First and foremost, would it be that shameful for a pipe maker to outsource the drilling of the shank draught hole for longer pipes!

Are there many carvers here in the UK with the ability of such work and would they be willing to do it?

[LatakiaLover]

O ye of little faith... provided you have a decent (as in, tight tolerance & not sloppy) drill press of reasonable size, pipes can absolutely be made without a lathe. I've done it, and there are several highly regarded carvers who do it that way. Larry Roush is one. The only reason you don't hear much about the method is because they aren't active on the Net.

[Tyler]

I think you will find, unless you get a tiny drill press, that you will be able to spend the next 20 years making pipes of the size that the press can handle. If you absolutely must do something longer, I think being creative with your tools would serve you better than outsourcing.

[Kirk Fitzgerald]

O ye of little faith... provided you have a decent (as in, tight tolerance & not sloppy) drill press of reasonable size, pipes can absolutely be made without a lathe. I've done it, and there are several highly regarded carvers who do it that way. Larry Roush is one. The only reason you don't hear much about the method is because they aren't active on the Net.

Sorry, I didn't make myself clear there, I will hopefully be using a drill press to drill pipes myself, it was for longer shanked pipes I was thinking about, not something I need worry about for a spell I know but it's been nagging me as I consider my initial options on how to go forward.

[Kirk Fitzgerald]

I think you will find, unless you get a tiny drill press, that you will be able to spend the next 20 years making pipes of the size that the press can handle. If you absolutely must do something longer, I think being creative with your tools would serve you better than outsourcing.

You must have been sending creative energies my way, I was thinking earlier as our younger daughter was busy scratching away at me bonce, an option could be to drill as deep as I can with a normal bit, then put on a longer shaft bit and push the already partially drilled hole over the longer bit then continue drilling, can't see it clearly as I haven't got a press yet but in theory it should work. So long as the block stays in the vice clamp on the drill bed alignment shouldn't be impossible, hmmm, yeah, should work.

Outsourcing is not a road I should like to use to be honest, keeping everything in-house would be ideal in terms of keeping costs down, I would only be trying to sell the occasional pipe to finance further wood in the future to be honest, keeping costs down whilst maintaining higher quality material is my goal as most of the pipes I will be making will be for friends as gifts or for my own use (those don't have to be so perfect but those for friends do in my view) and the few I would try to sell for materials purchase I should also like to keep as low priced as I possibly can, I don't want to try to make money from this, it's a form of occupational therapy more than anything but it would help if the 'hobby' could partially finance itself if you follow me there.

[wdteipen]

There are some makers who freehand drill the airway so clamping in a vise isn't necessarily necessary. Most floor model drill presses have at least a 4" drill depth. For anything longer you can always drill it freehand.

[pipedreamer]

I used a drill press for many years and still do,if the pipe asks for it.

[The Smoking Yeti]

There are some makers who freehand drill the airway so clamping in a vise isn't necessarily necessary. Most floor model drill presses have at least a 4" drill depth. For anything longer you can always drill it freehand.

Or you could be Rainer Barbi and just eye-ball everything perfectly?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh8RBsz0AF4

BTW THIS IS A JOKE DO NOT TRY WHAT HE IS DOING, YOU WILL PROBABLY DIE OR BREAK YOUR WRIST!

[d.huber]

There are some makers who freehand drill the airway so clamping in a vise isn't necessarily necessary. Most floor model drill presses have at least a 4" drill depth. For anything longer you can always drill it freehand.

Or you could be Rainer Barbi and just eye-ball everything perfectly?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh8RBsz0AF4

BTW THIS IS A JOKE DO NOT TRY WHAT HE IS DOING, YOU WILL PROBABLY DIE OR BREAK YOUR WRIST!

Yeah, I have no idea how this is possible.

[d.huber]

Actually, now that I've watched it again, I get it. Still freaking impressive.