Freehand Pipe Build #1

[cb91710]

A little concerned about the shank. I did get a little thin on the bottom and sides.
Thankfully, it's only a 1/4-bend so the hole goes straight into the bowl and I'll be able to run a pipe cleaner through it without removing the stem.

Okay... best way to put a bend in the Lucite?

[jwhite]

Looks like you'll be fine with regard to the shank. As far as putting a bend in the stem run a cleaner through to prevent collapsing the draft hole and submerge the section you want to bend in hot, but not boiling, water and gently bend. Then place in cold water to set and remove the cleaner.

[cb91710]

Looks like you'll be fine with regard to the shank. As far as putting a bend in the stem run a cleaner through to prevent collapsing the draft hole and submerge the section you want to bend in hot, but not boiling, water and gently bend. Then place in cold water to set and remove the cleaner.

Hot water will do it? I spent some time poking around last night and kept seeing 260+, and cautions that Lucite has about a 3-degree spread between "hard" and "mush".
I was thinking of making a sand bed... but it's not going to take much of a bend, it's certainly smokable at it's present angle.

If the shank cracks, I can cut the corners off the top and round it off to fit a .45 casing

[jwhite]

Well you don't want to boil it, it will go all limp noodle, a simmer will do. The nice thing about the hot water is you can dip and test quickly and repeatedly to get it right and the cold water set gets it right pretty quick. Full disclosure I've only made minor adjustments to vulcanite and Lucite.

[oc_in_fw]

Looking good so far, Rich.

[cb91710]

Okay... got it stained, waiting for it to dry now.

Stain is a PITA in California. Low VOC requirements and such, the only thing available locally is water and oil based... and the water based colors are few and far between (like 4 options at most hardware stores).
Ended up using water based leather stain from Tandy Leather (the main Baldwin Park warehouse is only about 15 miles from here). I used a dark chocolate for the top, and layered a "Java Brown" to darken the grain, lightly sanded, then a topper of "Canyon Tan" to finish it off.

Main mistake... and it's in line with some comments that I've read from pipemakers, is the stem angle. It doesn't "flow" with the shank... it's angled a bit, and I compounded the problem when I cut the excess from the block and ended up changing the angle of the stem seat so it is no longer square with the bore.

I'm hoping I can put a slight bend in the tenon to align it. Oh well... lesson learned for the next one.

Right now, the wax is drying... I'll be polishing it in another 10 minutes or so and will get pictures then.

[jdto]

This is pretty exciting. I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out!

[Argonaut]

For your next one, I'd recommend ordering your stains from PIMO Pipecraft. It comes in powder form, you just mix it with denatured alcohol, it's fairly cheap too. Don't give up on the pipe yet, my first kit turned out hideous, but the lessons learned by finishing the process were very helpful on the next one. Mine was so goofy looking, I still haven't brought myself to smoke it!

[oc_in_fw]

Mine was so goofy looking, I still haven't brought myself to smoke it!

WWJCD?

on edit: by JC I meant John Candy

[cb91710]

And here it is.

I'm going to call it "finished" for now. I need to find access to a better buffer than a sheepskin bonnet in my drill press.
Boiling water didn't do the trick on the Lucite, but I was able to carefully use a Bic lighter without scorching or sooting it.




And a size comparison with my grubby hand....

[cb91710]

Total time on the project?

Are you sitting down?

From the first picture of the brushed top to the last picture of the rough sanded shape was almost exactly 2 hours.
I may have spent 15 minutes brushing the bark off, and another half hour or so with the 400 grit, so we'll call yesterday's work 3 hours.
Today, I got home with the stain and other materials around 3:15 or so (I didn't check, but I remember it being 2:50 when I left Lowe's and that store is about 15 minutes away)
Spent maybe 10 minutes going over the pipe with a final sanding at 600 grit.
I sanded a piece of scrap and experimented with stains for about 15 minutes before committing to the pipe. Actual staining was maybe 30 minutes, 15 or 20 to dry until I wasn't getting any stain off on my hand, slathered on a coat of wax and came in to post the update at 4:25.

So not including bending the stem and buffing, I've got maybe a total of 5 hours not including chasing materials.

[jdto]

Pretty darn cool. I suppose you don't have a heat gun, eh? I got one for a very reasonable price from a local hardware store that would probably do the trick on the stem and not melt/scorch it.

[oc_in_fw]

And here it is.

I'm going to call it "finished" for now. I need to find access to a better buffer than a sheepskin bonnet in my drill press.
Boiling water didn't do the trick on the Lucite, but I was able to carefully use a Bic lighter without scorching or sooting it.




And a size comparison with my grubby hand....

Very nice, IMO. If I had done that, I would be very proud. Just think how nice your next one will be, now that you have some experience.

[cb91710]

Exactly.

On my way out to smoke it now

[Argonaut]

Don't want to curl any toes here but, my first kit was from Mark and the stem fitting proved very difficult to make work for a novice. My next two kits came from PenguinBriar with a push tennon fit, like a lot of the Nording freehands. It lets you focus on the stummel without worrying about trying to flush fit the stem to the shank. Seeing this thread makes me want to order another kit.

[cb91710]

LOL!

No, this was 98% my fault.
The shank was drilled properly and square. My problem is that my bandsaw has a 3.5" capacity, and the block was closer to 3.75 total. It was only 3.5 to the end of the shank, but as you can see in the original photo, the left to right taper in the bark surface required that I cut the shank end down almost flush with the milled surface.
Short story, I screwed up on the angle, then I translated that angle into the final shank cuts, thinking that the hole was bored at a sharper angle.
The 2% fault that I'll assign to Mark is his pencil lines on the side of the block were slightly off and I worked my rough cuts around giving 3/16-1/4" clearance around his marks.

So lessons learned:
1 - Don't buy the extra extra large blocks
2 - Use a drill bit and make my own centerline marks, whether I drill them or they are drilled by someone else.
3 - Military stems are much much more forgiving than traditional flush stems
4 - A sheepskin pad chucked into a drill press is barely adequate for buffing the wax
5 - Tandy Leather stain works wonderfully, and they sell a sample pack of 12 colors for $30 in 1.5oz bottles. I might have used 5 brush loads on the 3 colors that went into this pipe.

http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/e...e/2650-01.aspx

[cb91710]

BTW: I'm glad I didn't enlarge the bowl.
I just walked back in and that was a half bowl!

Smoked a little wet as I expected, but not bad and I avoided any moisture in my mouth by holding it stem-up to allow it to drain back into the bowl.

[jwhite]

Don't want to curl any toes here but, my first kit was from Mark and the stem fitting proved very difficult to make work for a novice. My next two kits came from PenguinBriar with a push tennon fit, like a lot of the Nording freehands. It lets you focus on the stummel without worrying about trying to flush fit the stem to the shank. Seeing this thread makes me want to order another kit.

Nope I agree entirely fitting the shank to a recessed tenon is tricky and the military style bits are much easier. I also like the alcohol or water soluble dyes over any you'll find at the chain hardware stores Arti is my favorite manufacturer absolutely beautiful color and clarity.

But great first attempt and clever bending of the stem I was going to recommend an alcohol burner if the water didn't do it. I may have to try one myself.

[cb91710]

BTW: This is not a dent or "chink" in the top ahead of the bend.
The Lucite has a very bold "Cat-Eye" quality that changes as the stem is rotated. The photo angle and lighting make it look like it's tweaked there.

[cb91710]

I also like the alcohol or water soluble dyes over any you'll find at the chain hardware stores Arti is my favorite manufacturer absolutely beautiful color and clarity.

My main concern was toxicity of the oil based stains, even though the bowl is not stained.

The main drawback to water based stains is normally their effect on the grain, but the briar seems to be dense enough so that there was no grain raise from the stain.
And even if there had been, it would have been corrected with the final 600gr sanding after the darker base color was laid on before the final lighter color.

I'm VERY happy with the color and the way the 2 shades of stain "popped" the flame in the grain.