pipemakersforum.com

Luthiers, after many years of experimentation, have found Spruce to be the best, most resonant wood, and therefore, most suitable wood for violin tops. Just like pipemakers (and pipe smokers, btw) have found briar to be the most suitable wood (as opposed to, say, meerschaum, which is an entirely di...

Grammaton, Do you have a picture you can send me so I can get an idea of what I would need to do? Glue a piece of 1/4" plywood (I used aircraft plywood - 5 ply) a bit larger than 2" square to another piece a bit larger than whatever size disk you want to end up with (I used a 5.25" c...

I made a sanding disk from 1/4" plywood. That way I can grip the disk with the same chuck that holds the briar blocks.

Dragon toe... I like it.

tigercasual wrote:...I'm trying to get a consensus...

Good luck with that.


I use white wheels, but I don't remember what grit they are - 80 and 120, I think.

I don't do that much reshaping, but when I do, it takes a bit longer than it would with a coarser wheel.

I have no idea if Purpleheart is toxic (I suspect it's not) but it doesn't stay purple for long after you work it. It turns a boring brown color. Sometimes you can temporarily turn it purple again by exposing it to sunlight, other pieces just stay brown with exposure to sunlight. It's also really ha...

You're going to be spending more time sharpening than turning - by a wide margin. Grinders can be bought cheaper than a decent bowl gouge.
I don't know any productive turners without at least one grinder, some have two.

I made my first pipe from a piece of hard maple. The chamber was drilled with a re-ground spade bit. The stem was made with an acrylic pen blank. I made a sanding disk from 1/4" plywood.

That pipe still smokes better than any of my Petersons.

Here's what I came up with so far. It's not to much "out of the box" so I might make another one. There are a few things I have to fix on this one though. Have to make the bend on the stem better and redo the finish. But anyhow... Here she is. I hesitate to offer criticism, but if it were...

Beautiful! I love the shape.

MrJeff wrote:Thanks for the replies. I'm not looking for a shortcut, or anything. I was looking at a router bit in the hardware store and thought to myself, "That sure looks like a pipe bowl."

It looks like a pipe bowl no more than 1-5/8" deep, 1/8" at a time.

I tried it - with the aforementioned poor results. It worked, but it wasn't worth the trouble and expense of the bit.
I've since gone back to re-grinding spade bits into the right shape.

If you have never run a lathe before then I would suggest you buy something else. These lathes are good enough to make anything you could make on any other hobby lathe. But, they are a bit loose and rough out of the box. I think the small one might give you trouble with the motor controller (based o...

It looks like a scraping tool being held in the chuck.

I face before the mortise, or at least attpempt to. I think the clamping or the spindle bearings are gonna be the culprit. I'm working on new soft wood jaws slightly tapered grooves. I realized after posting, that with just a V groove, the tapered stems are only making contact in one small spot. Al...

Parting tool. You can make one out of any hard steel that's thin enough for you.

KurtHuhn wrote:Sir, your theories intrigue me, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter! Mayhap you be willing to conduct a public demonstration of this wonderment?

I built a can opener from an old paint shaker and a hatchet. It's only single speed at the moment, but I'm looking for an old drill press.

I like to rough in at 5000 SFPM or 3600 RPM because it's fast and material sloughs away like nobody's business. I like to tweak the shape at 1750 RPM because I have more control for subtle details. I like to sand at 1750 RPM or 875 RPM because sanding discs last longer and you don't burn your wood....

It seems to me that the time and effort required to make a drill press into a variable speed sander would be better spent elsewhere.
The speed range on my DP is 200 rpm to 3630 rpm in 16 somewhat oddly distributed steps.
How many speeds do you need for a sander?

I was kidding about relying on dials and special tools. Sorry if it read differently.

I'm not saying I don't wish I had a metal lathe, cause I do, but not for making pipes. In a pinch, either one can do most jobs. But both are best suited for their intended purpose.