pipemakersforum.com

I like http://www.finewoodworking.com/PlansAndProjects/PlansAndProjectsPDF.aspx?id=24089 this one and http://books.google.com/books?id=dPsDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA31#v=onepage&q&f=false but unless you have a collection of churchwardens, you will need to modify it a lot. It is however one of the cl...

Amazing! Brilliantly conceived and executed!

Bob

Used to live near White Rock Lake, but now I live near the first Bush library. I hear you guys have gotten one of them too now. Those things seem to get around.

Bob

Following this method allowed me to get a really great black for a contrast stain. http://www.pipemakersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=3263 For the record I used matcha (powdered green) tea as my tannin source. Boiled down into a paste, and smeared on. Heat speeds the Iron acetate and tan...

Good briar goes a LONG way. A crappy piece of briar won't save a well engineered pipe, but an extraordinary piece of briar will save a less than ideally built pipe in some instances (luckily I know the instances and could index them here but am out of space). This leads me to a new question, how do...

Thanks, David! The 5mm is larger (by a smidge) than the 3/16" that I had put down as a limit. Thanks for the heads up, I am always looking for the right search words to filter through and find stuff. Nick had an interesting entry, with a pile of formulas in 2004, http://www.pipemakersforum.com/...

Nice work. I love a knife with a clean line and a clean bevel.

In defense of Southern Hunters, they will sometimes pay their repair bills. I have repaired more than one automatic deer feeder that had been scattered with buck shot from above.

Bob

Interesting question, and one I have been asking myself. I have been making and varying pipe hole positions, often on purpose. Just by looking at cross sections, it seems a perfectly match the entry hole to the bottom of the pipe, when the angle between chamber and air passage is sharply less than 9...

The more I study pipemaking, the more it intrigues me. My primary motive for getting into pipe making is to improve my fit and finish skills. Building instruments, and building fine furniture as a means of study can be rather expensive when compared to pipemaking. And pipemaking with a stem growing ...

It may have not conformed to your plan, but the brilliant display of grain more than makes up for it. Grain can often make a shape that is precisely correct, look quite wrong. A free form that ignores grain can go even worse. So when grain is so wonderfully illuminated in a free form, as you have do...

Erica Arborea is definitly unique. There are few woods that I can think of that you could reliably do this to. You might get away with a good soaking, but you would be expecting to regularly face warping, checking, cracking and even discoloration.

Bob

I found the article that stuck out in my mind as rather off. This fairly well put fear into me when I saw it. http://books.google.com/books?id=mi0DAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA155&lpg=PA155&dq=pipe+stem+chuck&source=bl&ots=_hZyN1BpMM&sig=lYdet5qrX18bT6-tYHhBShIVfko&hl=en&ei=PS-aTO-R...

See through disks such as these, http://www.woodcraft.com/Family/2080224/Holey-Galahad-See-Through-Discs.aspx are tempting to try. Fairly expensive by my standards, but it is an interesting thought. This does look perfect for anyone one really serious about shaping pipes with and angle grinder! :) Bob

If you use a bandsaw or need bandsaw parts, then you need to contact Iturra Design. Seriously. Iturra Design 1-866-883-8064 KALLL@comcast.net No website, but the catalog is the definitive manual for adjustment, repair, tuning and using a bandsaw. Call them while you are in front of your bandsaw, ord...

I got to play with a little bit of vascomax. I made a spear plane and an oyster knife out of it. The stuff really impressed me. I am not impressed with the edge it holds, but if you are going to extremes, vascomax is definitely the far end. For an oyster knife, it is probably the best possible mater...

They are both fabulous. Yet another pipe I want to copy.

I almost pity the blocks of wood and rods of Lucite destined to become an inferior copies by my inept pipe making skills. Sad really.

Bob

Massive doses of fresh garlic would probably help more with both of those issues. :D Vascomax is the steel I would use if money was no object. It's expensive and it chews up ceramic grinding belts faster than ceramic grinding belts chew it up. Kind of like a high tech spring steel. Stainless and tou...

Thanks, Kurt, I too have reservations about cast iron. It is fairly common however in a lot of chucks, adapters and face plates. Back plates are almost always made of cast iron. One if cast irons nice qualities is that it will dampen vibrations. It is not as resonate as a lot of other materials. The...

After loosing faith in DoomChuck, I am now planning a complete overhaul. DoomChuck 2 the revenge of DoomChuck, will be much tougher. DoomChuck basically works, but I would not trust it. It does not pass the rubber mallet test. After seeing it's capabilities for all sorts of things, and the potential...

As an update, without the bolts, the soft jaw configuration needs the two sides being gripped to be quite parallel in order to grip well. So it works fine for turning some of the nicely flat mesquite I am using, but most of the briar chunks that I have will not grip securely as the two major sides a...