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I always encounter a bit of "take-up" in the cross-slide on my Atlas 6" lathe; hardly surprising, as it's about 50 years old. However, there's often a couple of thousandths worth of slop in the lead screw of most cross-slides, in my experience. Especially on smaller, older or Taiwanes...

For $40 bucks or so (given the $20.50 current bid) y'all could take a closer lookand figure it out, perhaps.

I've smoked pipes with everything from miniscule to maxima bowl wall widths and the one that continues to astound me is a small, 20's vintage BBB blast Dublin (my Grandfather's) with walls maybe 1/4" thick. That pipe is the nicest flake pipe I own, hands down. It gets a bit warm, during the cou...

As has been previously mentioned in other posts, a good supplier of cast acrylic rod is: http://www.delviesplastics.com/ . They've got up to 3" diameter rod in a host of colors. Only restriction is that they price it by the 48" length. A 1" machine-grade piece will run you $23.50 + s/...

I'll be more specific: what you're looking for is an "Ali-Gator-Grit" 6" DA Back-Up Pad, #3247. It's got a short, threaded shank, as that's the set-up for a pneumatic DA sander, but there's enough shank to grip in a regular chuck. They're only about 10 bucks, so pick up a couple. Alte...

As I said in Todd's thread on sourcing, I'd be very happy to participate in a group buy once a supplier is determined. I'm good for 20 blocks, maybe more, depending on the final price. I'll be watching for details.....

Mitch

I'm using a sponge-backed 6" disk for stick-on paper which I found at the local Loewe's. It's designed to be used in a random-orbital sander, but can be chucked into my lathe using a regular drill chuck. It's got a tapered backplate so it allows a lot of freedom in working into tight radiuses. ...

LOL. Good post! I'm becoming a devotee of good files/rasps. My recommendation - if you can find yourself a pair (#49 coarse/#50 fine) of the hand-made French rasps that Nicholson used to market, snap 'em up! You can rough out a sawn block almost as quickly as with a belt sander, with all the 'contro...

Being a novice carver, I decided to order a small lot of large ebauchons from Yazid at briargrains.com. Figured I'd work with some cross-grained blocks at a lower cost while I developed my skills. The small amount of plateau wood I've gotten via Stateside suppliers has not demonstrated the dark colo...

Up until now, I've been using the mill to drill stummels and doing rough shaping using the band saw followed by belt/disc and hand sanding. However, with the imminent arrival of my Jet Mini lathe, I'm wondering - do you turners use a roughing gouge and then go to a spindle for the upper bowl or shan...

Hmm. Yes, it's difficult to describe. If you were holding the stummel in a "normal" smoking position, then the vertical axis would be up and down the bowl. The horizontal axis would be left and right across the stem. It seemed in your video that you were able to align/center the stummel on...

I noticed in your (excellent) video on drilling the draught hole that you were able to re-align the stummel properly on the horizontal plane by just loosening the chuck, shifting the stummel to the proper position and tightening the chuck. Does the Oneway allow off-center gripping without manipulati...

Thanks for the feedback and advice! Oddly enough, as I was booting up the PC to log in I was thinking about posting a follow-up to ask if anyone had tried to rusticate over a fill......thanks for the confirmation and instructions, Trever! :) I think I'll fill and rusticate the shank fissure to ensur...

....FILL! 8O I'm working on a pipe which had the potential to be a nice, 1/2 bent Dublin (if there is such a thing). Loose straight grain on the bowl, running nicely up the shank. However, sanding has revealed a number of fissures in the wood. Even though I could deal with the 2 which are on the bow...

Pook, Tough one to answer without more info on what your tastes run to, blend-wise. There are a whole bunch of non-aromatic mixes available, but...do you like straight Virginia 'baccy? VA + Perique mixes? Burley? I take it that SWMBO is not fond of Latakia blends, even the mild ones. No surprises th...

Random, you are a sick pup! If you start producing leather-adorned pipes, I, for one, will refuse to purchase them!

Hah! Trust Tyler to pull our discussion back to the pragmatical aspects of pipe crafting. I have to wholeheartedly agree that design (physics, not aesthetics) has more to do with the quality of the smoke than materials. My Missouri Meerschaum smokes just great and it's made out of a reamed-out corn ...

I hear ya, Marks! That's my biggest concern about the technique I described. The problem is that I need to apply heat/moisture to a very small and "focussed" area on the pipe. I don't want to raise the grain or expand the wood in the area surrounding the dent. Since this is basically a &qu...

I'm working on an old Kaywoodie that has a "dent" which is somewhere between a dent and a cut. In other words, the wood fibers are not cut but the dent is very sharply defined, almost as if the pipe was dropped on something with an edge. I've heard of a technique where you place a drop of ...

In addition to what Tyler said, I'll add: 1. it's "exotic" ...and from what little I know about bamboo, finding stock which is both thick enough and has those little "knuckles" every 1 to 1 1/2" is dam' difficult, so...... 2. it's "rare" ....also, I gotta believe m...