pipemakersforum.com

You know it! haha. The HSS one is a bit of a personal moral crusade for me after I heard of someone throwing away a load of HSS tool and drill bits because they had "blued at the tip" and they assumed were therefore trash, all those tools could have been mine in a workshop clearance but s...

That pipe looks much better....I like the band a lot, it suits the pipe. I agree with Jeremy......I would consider using Briar for a while to extent your experience. I don't come from a woodworking background but turn quite a bit of Oak on a center lathe........it took a bit of getting used to what ...

Wow....I've only ever had good FREE advice on this forum........from some very experienced pipemakers....who take the time and trouble to help.

It's a strange post this one!

Thanks for the reply

It's a slight compression fit...(I work on a really accurate lathe) You will struggle to pull the tennon out when held in a vice and with a pair of mole grips.

Just to add......I'm talking about about acrylic stems!

Reading a few posts I have just realised that most pop makers bond the delrin tennon to the stem with an epoxy. I have done this in the past but most of my stems are now pressed in! I haven't had any problems and a couple have been very well smoked........... Comments appreciated as there will be pe...

That Ropp has a nice bowl shape. The shank is pretty fat, it would be called an LB in the Dunhill catalog. And yet I'll bet if I break it down in terms of proportion, it's really exact. Lemme try. https://i.imgur.com/3ZCHmzX.jpg I draw a line from the top of the bowl to the shank. I draw the same l...

You probably can't go wrong with that. I will say that the knurling tool is complete garbage in my set - which I suspect is made by the same folks that made the LMS set - but once you have your lathe up and running, you can make your own with no trouble. The thing you will find you need almnost imm...

What lathe? Tooling recommendations might be highly dependent on what you've got to start with. Good point......I use mainly carbide tips......but you need a fair old RPM to get a decent finish....around 1200 for 7mm-15mm Aluminium gets me a great finish with a decent feed rate.....a couple of my o...

Just an update! I bought a couple of Hex collet blocks from Amazon (different makes) One is great and machined quite accurate....the other needed a bit of "fiddling" as it was slightly out! I will use this one for holding Alli bar horizontally when drilling 3mm holes as the V in the small ...

I've just had a look at a hex block..... Does this go straight into the 3 jaw chuck and can material therefore pass through the center?.... If so it looks better than the parallel shank....

Good advice, thank you.....I will get the dial gauges out as well......might as well set up the chuck while I am it.

My word for some reason I hadn't thought of that.......that sort of decides it....I can use square stock as well. My only concern was the straight shank, as usually I would use the collet chuck with an MT shank. thanks for the replies.....I have another question regarding a drill press that I will p...

Thanks for the replies.
The Jaws on the 8" chuck aren't ideal for small acrylic rods.... and I also turn quite small brass.... so I could change the collet size (I already have loads) and hold the work better.
Ideally I would also like a small 4 jaw so I could cast then turn square acrylic.

I have access to a center lathe where I work and which I use in my own time. It would be pretty quick for me to put a straight non morse taper ER32 collet into the 3 jaw chuck with a 19mm collet holding an Acrylic 19mm rod to turn the tenon / drill etc. I am trying to get my set up working for me as...

Real name: John Jepson Age: 57 Location: Durham U. K. Years a pipe smoker:5+ How you got into pipe making: Modding cobs and looking at old pipes thinking that would be nice with a new stem! Other interesting facts: I have made quite a few modded cobs over the years but lost my workshop when we moved...