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Basically I: 1) broke it down to nuts, bolts, bearings, pulleys, etc.; 2) stripped off the old paint and rust with a combination of alcohol, acetone, wire brushes, and sandpaper; 3) repainted the previously painted metal with a half-and-half mixture of white and smoke-gray Rustoleum; 4) reassembled...

Wow Robert, that is an amazing restoration job. How did you clean it up so nicely?

Ok, I still need to clean it up a bit from the lathe tool marks and the heat treating process, but here it is: http://i924.photobucket.com/albums/ad87/d6monk/SpoonBit.jpg I used Todd's method with the angle grinder which worked pretty well, and I heat treated it as per Kurt's advice using a little f...

Thanks again Jack.

Thanks both of you, that's very helpful. I have been using a taig lathe to do this, but I saved up for a couple of months and just bought a jet bd-920w. I just got it set up, but have not used it for any pipe making yet. Anyway, I have been using HSS tools, but maybe without the correct geometry/sha...

Hi guys, I was wondering how everyone goes about finishing their stem and shank faces. Recently I saw some pipes where the stem and shank faces (and tenon) were so smooth they look like they had been buffed--mine are much more rough. In fact, all i do on the stem face is cut very slowly on a high sp...

Thanks Ryan.

Well it looks like I'm all set to give it a try once my metal lathe comes in sometime next week. I'll post pictures when I'm done.

Ryan, how did you go about grinding your spoon bits perfectly flat? What did you use for the rough grinding, and did you finish them off with a diamond hone or oilstone or anything like that or is that overkill?

Thanks all of you.

Todd, photos and an explanation would be wonderful! I have been spending more and more time pipe making and I really need to get a better setup and better procedures going.

Something like such kurt: http://www.shop3m.com/3m-fibre-281c-dis ... jzbzh.html.

Thanks Kurt and Ryan. I have an old rock grinder that has a 5" wheel that takes sanding belts about 3" wide. I'd imagine that you could get a parallel and uniform convex face using that. Or use the curved part of a belt sander.

Yeah I've seen that--not quite what I am looking for however. I guess I could buy some aluminum rod, bore out one end to 5/8" for the motor shaft, and internal thread the other end on the metal lathe I am getting to accept a 7/8" hex bolt and then attach the discs with the bolt and a washe...

Hi everyone, I have a baldor motor in the mail that I'm going to use for sanding (so I can stop abusing my lathe), but I have a couple of questions. First, I have been using 3" wave discs chucked in a drill chuck in my lathes headstock, but I definitely want to go for something larger this time...

Thanks everyone, that's some very helpful advice. My friend has a book on toolmaking that covers heat treating so I am going to borrow that from him (there's never a lack of things to learn when pipe making), and I'm going to stop by home depot sometime this week and get an angle grinder (the standa...

Hi everyone, for the past couple of months I've been saving up for a metal lathe (a jet 9x20) and have a preemptive question regarding spoon bits: Once I get the metal lathe I am going to start trying some shaping first then drilling, and I have read that hand drilling is easiest with spoon bits. Ho...

Thanks a lot both of you, I really appreciate the answers to some of my questions that have been building up quite a bit lately on my pipe making journey.

Hi everyone, I was wondering how you go about drilling straight pipes with thin shanks. I ask this because I've heard that people like to keep the wall at the bottom of the tobacco chamber about 1/4" thick to prevent burnout. So now, if I don't want my pipe to have a chin and I want the draft h...

Thanks for the help everyone, exactly what I wanted to know, guess i'll order some then!

For now I probably just want about 40" of ebonite and half that for cumberland, so not a 'factory direct' size order.

Hi again everyone, I have some italian briar coming in in the next few weeks, and when it gets here I wanted to start using ebonite for my stems (I have just been using acrylic and abs with the cheaper briar that I had initially bought). However, it seems that its not too easy to find briar here in ...