delrin issues

[Albert.A]

Hey guys. A little while ago I ordered some 8mm delrin rod, because I thought I'd try my hand at making delrin tennons to see if I liked it. And today the rods arrived.
First thing I notice is that the rods are not straight, and the second thing i notice is that the rods aren't the same diameter, like, at all.

So I simply wanted to know if you guys usually machine your delrin or if it comes in neat, tight tolerance rods? Because I think I just made a fool of myself.

These are the ones I bought, the page is in swedish but maybe google can translate for you.

http://ironbill.se/index.php/cPath/175_61_256

One thing I noticed in the description is that is says it machines well, but from what I understand you guys says it machines awefully, so it may be the wrong stuff.

Anyway, does anyone know where to get the right stuff? In millimeters (I don't do that inch mumbo jumbo)

/Albert

[caskwith]

Delrin machines beautifully but your tools must be razor sharp!

Size will depend on what you ordered, tolerances vary depending on manufacturer and sizes ordered, contact your supplier for a tolerance chart, any good seller will have the information prepared. Often you will find a tolerance of about +5% (tolerances are very rarely a minus)

If you want to size to be exact then you need to order precision ground stock, again this will vary in tolerance. I order mine as +/- 0.05mm.

[Albert.A]

from where do you order it?

[caskwith]

From a company here called Direct plastics, I wouldn't really recommend them though, their customer service is pretty poor and internation shipping is expensive. Try your local suppliers, ask them for tolerance charts and ask if they can special order precision ground if they do not already stock it. They should be able to help you out and be glad of the business.
Don't mess them around with a silly order though, order a decent amount of that will last several years, industrial suppliers don't like selling small amounts.

[LatakiaLover]

Albert --- Delrin tenons are not a magic bullet in any sense other than they allow people to make pipes who otherwise could not, since turning good tenons requires buying specialized tools. (They are also useful in repair work, but that's a different thing entirely.)

Making dead-reliable Delrin tenons to high grade standards, though, has as many pitfalls and gotchas as vulcanite, and punishes those who treat it casually. Understanding the material itself is also necessary.

Bottom line: If you are currently able to make high quality integrated tenons consistently, there's no reason to switch. (Ditto for the reverse situation.) One group of guys have found a way to hike around the world from pole to pole, while another group has found a route around the equator. Both are equally difficult and take the same amount of time to traverse, but the problems and hazards encountered along the way are vastly different. End of story.

[andrew]

Is a lathe a specialized tool?

andrew

[DeflictedPipes]

It was my hope that I could get a drill press and use delrin tenons for making stems without a lathe. But maybe that's not the case? I wonder what the tolerance is on the delrin rods Steve (VT Freehand) has?

[taharris]

Derlin is not rocket science.

I have gotten mine from McMaster-Carr and Vermont Freehand and both work just fine.

If your Derlin is not exactly 8mm then find at drill bit that will work with the Derlin you have.

Todd

[LatakiaLover]

It was my hope that I could get a drill press and use delrin tenons for making stems without a lathe. But maybe that's not the case?

No worries. You can make "drill press" pipes without difficulty provided you have some way to produce a usable tenon. In decades past, that meant a specialized rotary cutter chucked in a DP. A few years ago, glued-in lengths of Delrin rod became another solution.

[DeflictedPipes]

No worries. You can make "drill press" pipes without difficulty provided you have some way to produce a usable tenon. In decades past, that meant a specialized rotary cutter chucked in a DP. A few years ago, glued-in lengths of Delrin rod became another solution.

OK, thanks. Sorry, you had me worried with your comment above. I'll go back to lurking and grinding my knuckles off on my sanding disc.

[KurtHuhn]

Onlinemetals.com and mcmaster.com both stock excellent delrin (acetal) rod that I have found to be perfectly suited to pipemaking. The dimensions always seem to be spot on - not too tight, not too loose.

[Vermont Freehand]

the stuff I carry in fractional sizes measures extremely true, like the 5/16 delrin measures 0.315 on every piece, wih no varying. A true 5/16 is 0.3125, so the stock is 0.0025 oversized.

Maybe I should start carrying the metric sizes too...

[E.L.Cooley]

Steve you must have a giant wharehouse.


Sent from my banana phone.

[Vermont Freehand]

Steve you must have a giant wharehouse.

you wouldn't believe me if I told you..... but I run this out of a one bedroom garage apartment, luckily have a few bays downstairs for most things, and the walls of my apartment are lined in inventory. I'm like an organized OCD hoarder of pipe making supplies.

[E.L.Cooley]

Steve you must have a giant wharehouse.

you wouldn't believe me if I told you..... but I run this out of a one bedroom garage apartment, luckily have a few bays downstairs for most things, and the walls of my apartment are lined in inventory. I'm like an organized OCD hoarder of pipe making supplies.

Not without photographic proof.


Sent from my banana phone.

[wdteipen]

Ooooh. Yes, we need to see pictures of Steve's inventory setup. That's like porn for pipemakers.

[E.L.Cooley]

Imagine floor to ceiling wall to wall.


Sent from my banana phone.

[sandahlpipe]

I'd love to see pictures of Steve's inventory.

[Albert.A]

Thanks guys. I didn't really think it would be a magic bullet, I was just curious to see if I liked delrin better then integral tenons, plus, with my current economy, I'm happy with every cm of ebonite saved.
But now I think finding the right stuff will be more expensive than buying more ebonite. To bad Mcmaster isn't swedish, they really seem to have everything one might need, well exept metric delrin maybe...

/Albert

[Charl]

Metric or inches doesn't really matter, what matters is that you get a bit that will work for the particular delrin you got.