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attention European pipemakers
Posted: Sun Mar 24, 2013 9:56 pm
by pipeguy
Hello all, I wanted the attention to ask the makers from across the pond some info about this machine since it only appears to be used in Europe. I've seen these in green mostly but this one is black I can never get a close enough view to get a name but perhaps someone can recognize the logo widely used by pipemakers in Europe. Any ideas ? thank you all for you help
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMevH5bu ... tg&index=2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69q_rBtR0rg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFC5HJXa3_g
Re: attention European pipemakers
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 12:22 am
by dogcatcher
It looks like the headstock of a wood lathe. In the real short video, the second one, on the right of his dust shield he has a wooden sander attachment that screws on to the threads. It was drilled and tapped to fit the threads on the headstock or whatever it is. Looks like he uses it as a sander, the others use it as a buffer or maybe combination of both. I got the idea from some pipemaker site when I was searching for a buffing system for callamaking. No idea of who, what or where, but I adapted it for a shop that I building in New Mexico where I have minimal space. Each wheel, sander etc., will be used on one mandrel.
I have made the same for buffing to fit my lathe, I drilled and tapped a maple blank, screwed it down on the spindle and turned it, then from the tailstock end drilled and tapped for a piece of all thread, did the same for a "nut" to hold the buffing wheel.

Re: attention European pipemakers
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 5:03 am
by caskwith
I don't think it's a lathe headstock as it appears to have only 1 or 2 speeds. I would guess it is a type of industrial motor built for just these kind of operations and the french pipemakers adopted them.
Re: attention European pipemakers
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 7:15 am
by UncleDraken
I'm from across The Pond.
I have no idea what it is. I thought it was a lathe headstock, but Mr. Askwith knows a lot more about these things than I do.
I hope this was helpful

Re: attention European pipemakers
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 7:55 am
by pipeguy
I think Chris is on to something although I think it is variable speed Noone recognizes the logo on the sander? Someone out there must know This has been a 5 year old mystery for me I have emailed the makers with no responce sadly
Re: attention European pipemakers
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 3:30 pm
by JonBood
Regardless of what it is, I think you could accomplish the same set-up with a regular lathe or a polishing/sanding machine?
Correct me if I'm wrong but a lathe with French wheel and polishing arbour mounted to the Jacobs chuck would do the same, and it would also have one additional feature...turning

Re: attention European pipemakers
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 5:14 pm
by pipeguy
Yes Jon, you are quite correct, and I have all the machinery a pipemaker could want. ( actually we never have enough) but I pride myself on getting to the bottom of things when I want to know something. This however has been my "White Whale" so to speak and it's frustrateing the hell out of me.

Re: attention European pipemakers
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 6:41 pm
by dogcatcher
I still have no clue, but on the second link, that guy has 6 videos about pipemaking. He has been around the block a few times, his methods are as automated as I have seen and has a heck of a set up on his machines. I don't know the correct terminology but his method of drilling the blank is down to a science, as is his basic shaping of the pipe. Watching those 6 videos are an education in itself.
Drilling bowl and shaping bowl?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p33po-EOnYs
Shaping shaft stem on lathe?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kha7goHoCe0
Drilling air shaft on jig set up?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1IY5LovnrA
Shaping the bottom on lathe?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvOs4Wt_q9k
The above video, sander shaping?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69q_rBtR0rg
Adding stem?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKGa3jYY4Dk
Like I have said, I am not a pipemaker, I am a game callmaker that was looking for info and came across the pipemakers information that has given me numerous ideas.
Re: attention European pipemakers
Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2013 5:01 am
by caskwith
pipeguy wrote:Yes Jon, you are quite correct, and I have all the machinery a pipemaker could want. ( actually we never have enough) but I pride myself on getting to the bottom of things when I want to know something. This however has been my "White Whale" so to speak and it's frustrateing the hell out of me.

I know the feeling. Have you tried emailing David Enrique or Trever Talbert?
Re: attention European pipemakers
Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2013 5:04 am
by caskwith
From looking at the videos this chap is parto f the old school 1 (or a few) man factories. He has specialised equipment purely for the purpose of making the same shapes in large numbers. There are/have been similar British and German makers who do essentially the same kind of thing with varying levels of specialist tooling. For the most part the makers on this forum follow the more modern Danish and North American method of making induvidual pipes with little in the way of automatic shaping equipment.
Re: attention European pipemakers
Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2013 9:20 am
by The Smoking Yeti
caskwith wrote:
I know the feeling. Have you tried emailing David Enrique or Trever Talbert?
I was gonna say, ask Trever.
Re: attention European pipemakers
Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2013 1:09 pm
by oklahoma red
The briar shaping machines you see in the various high-production pipe factory videos are known in the trade as frazing machines. Who knows how many decades old some of these machines are. I would be very surprised if anything like them are still being produced.
They will either spin the stummel against fixed blades such as in boring the bowl and shaping the exterior of the bowl all in one shot. Or in the case of shaping the heel and bottom, the stummel is loaded into a clamping device then moved against spinning cutters. I think most of these machines are of French origin.
There are three YouTube videos that were shot in the Chacom factory in France and really show how these things operate. Sorry, I don't have the links.
Fascinating to watch but woefully impractical for the custom maker. By the time you got one set up you could have already made a couple of pipes.
I personally would like to know more about some of the wheels being used when final clean-up shaping has to be done by hand. Some are obviously French wheels with regular sand paper mounted on them but others are very thin and some have some gnarly looking teeth on them. Grind off a finger in a blink!
Chas.
Re: attention European pipemakers
Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2013 2:36 pm
by birba
Re: attention European pipemakers
Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2013 3:43 pm
by oklahoma red
birba,
Yep, that's the first of three. Interesting tour. OSHA would have a field day with those machines!
Chas.
Re: attention European pipemakers
Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2013 5:15 pm
by birba
Haha... and never return