Freehand Pipe Build #1

I wouldn't mess with it, myself. A lot of pipes have a .75" bore, and with that depth it should be fine. Ought to be a great VA smoker. I just think that the potential gain is heavily outweighed by the potential risks. I'd leave it.

Might have to make a new tamper with the kerf and a .45 casing.

The problem with a router is going that deep. I would use one to chamfer or round the interior edge. I certainly don't have any router bits with that sort of reach and still be firm in the collet, a collet extension might work but I'd be concerned with preventing any walk or wobble. I'm guessing you have a 7/8 or 1' round nose bit. I might spring for the spade bit for around twenty bucks and test in some scrap to check balance. Or if you have the bits and extensions drill a 2" hole in a difficult to tool piece of scrap and try it out and see what happens so you don't screw up the briar.

cb91710 said:

Might have to make a new tamper with the kerf and a .45 casing.

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That would be very cool.

Would a forstner bit do the job? I would have thought that it would be ideal for just widening the hole a little.

cb91710 said:

Might have to make a new tamper with the kerf and a .45 casing.

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I used to use a deactivated .303 round as my tamper.

legion said:

Would a forstner bit do the job? I would have thought that it would be ideal for just widening the hole a little.

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The bottom needs to be rounded.

A spade can be used for boring a new hole, but it needs to be reshaped into a ball-end and resharpened.

legion said:

I used to use a deactivated .303 round as my tamper.

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Real men use live tracers.
It lets you know if you're smoking it too hot

jwhite said:

The problem with a router is going that deep. I would use one to chamfer or round the interior edge. I certainly don't have any router bits with that sort of reach and still be firm in the collet, a collet extension might work but I'd be concerned with preventing any walk or wobble. I'm guessing you have a 7/8 or 1' round nose bit. I might spring for the spade bit for around twenty bucks and test in some scrap to check balance. Or if you have the bits and extensions drill a 2" hole in a difficult to tool piece of scrap and try it out and see what happens so you don't screw up the briar.

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Ya, looking at round-nose with 1-1/4" cutting length and 2-7/8" overall.
Rather than the router, I was planning on chucking into the drill press at low speed and working slowly with a constant stream of compressed air blowing the chips out. The overall length will allow me to get 7/8" into the chuck jaws.
Basically using the router bit like a mill.

No way I would attempt to plunge this at full router speed with my skill level.
I still have an old eggbeater drill out in the garage that I used to use for working on guitars.

That might be enough to chuck in, you know your tools best. I'd still do a test run by drilling out some scrap at 3/4 and trying to clean it up and create a smooth bore following it with the round nose. Use a dense, hard to tool wood as a test. So you can see if you want to try it on the briar. I have an old Stanly egg beater and a couple of braces that I absolutely love and use almost daily but I wouldn't use them here.

Maybe use a forstner to enlarge the bore just shy of the bottom and use the ball to ease the shoulders into the existing rounded bottom?

Kentos said:

Maybe use a forstner to enlarge the bore just shy of the bottom and use the ball to ease the shoulders into the existing rounded bottom?

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That might be easier.

Progress.....

Wire-brushed the bark off of the top....




And made the first two cuts.
I used a 1/8" blade on the bandsaw and took my time on the inside curve.

So the original vision was to cut the bowl and shank in an octagon shape, and "sweep" the faces so the pipe would look as if it were an octagonal cone that had been bent.

I don't know what possessed me to believe that such a project was within my skill level, considering that I can't DRAW a good octagon... much less draw an octagon that's almost 3" across and another one that's 3/4" across, then maintain even facets through the change in size and a 110 degree bend....


But I tried and here's the final cuts from the bandsaw. Ended up doing a "U" cut on the shank and running the top surface straight into the bowl. The sides come up on the near side of the bowl, and the 3 bottom facets come up on the far side of the bowl. The sides of the bowl "appear" at the bottom....

Looking good, have you given any thought to how you'll tackle the final shaping and smoothing while retaining the facets.

And the almost-finished product.

This is after most of the final shaping with the Dremel and 80g sanding and smoothing.
As you can see, I trashed the octagon idea and went with a traditional rounded shape, keeping the flat surface on the top of the shank/back of the bowl.

I did some further shaping with the Dremel around the base of the shank to bring the upper radius down to the bottom and make it look like the hole enters the bowl much higher than it actually does.
Then I spent about an hour with 400 grit smoothing out all of the Dremel and 80g marks.
I'm quite happy with the result and will head off to Lowe's tomorrow to select a stain.

I'm REALLY liking the grain pattern in this piece.
The piece was whetted for the pictures to make the grain pop....

That's gonna be a beauty when it's done!

Great job so far! The grain has came out pretty nice.

That is starting to look excellent! Reminds me of some $300 pipes I was looking at the other day

conroygc said:

That is starting to look excellent! Reminds me of some $300 pipes I was looking at the other day

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Not quite.... $150 for the bandsaw and a couple of extra blades and $46.50 shipped for the kit.
Already had the sandpaper.
Still have all of my fingers

Already thinking about buying some more kits

I like it!