Surprise when making a stem for a giant pipe

[LatakiaLover]

It turns out that there is an upward size limit when bending an ebonite stem in a non-factory setting where specialized "heat soak" furnaces aren't available.

The stem on this monster---the Dunhill Tanshell in the pic is a full-sized Group 4 for comparison---was to be bent to be reminiscent of a Dunhill LC.

It had so much mass, though, that between it and the surface area, heating with a paint-stripper-type hot air gun very nearly wasn't possible. It shed heat into the atmosphere exactly as fast as it was "put in"... minus a percent or two. Translation? It took 20 minutes to reach a flexible state.

Turning up the heat wasn't an option (I tried), because it only burned the surface.

It was the first time I've encountered this, so wanted to pass it on.

Definitely a memorable project.

[DocAitch]

Wow! I can imagine having to pee right in the middle of that process.
I have a difficult enough time bending a normal sized Author.
DocAitch

[Massis]

That's quite the beast!

Wouldn't boiling water be an alternative solution for bending one of this size?

[LatakiaLover]

Good heat transfer, but boiling water can cause ebonite to oxidize heavily and instantaneously. Polaroid camera fast. (how much depends on several variables, but there's no rewind button no matter the result)

Hot sand is the other option, but that's not as simple as it appears, either.

Any "soak" method, in fact, introduces tenon softening / tenon fit issues. VERY difficult to set right after the fact when things go bad.

[Massis]

Any "soak" method, in fact, introduces tenon softening / tenon fit issues. VERY difficult to set right after the fact when things go bad.

Yeah I've got hands on experience with that bit :p I've used a heatgun ever since basically...

[JMG]

Holy crap! What were the measurements on that pipe?

[LatakiaLover]

I didn't either measure or weigh it. Can't imagine why, now. I'll probably never see another.

Fun fact: the guy who owns it collects giants, and he not only smokes them... giants are ALL he smokes.

[seamonster]

Fun fact: the guy who owns it collects giants, and he not only smokes them... giants are ALL he smokes.

...a lot of free time on his hands, that guy. *jealous

Sent from my bloopty-bloop, using hooty-hoo.

[caskwith]

Rich Esserman then? lol

[LatakiaLover]

Yo, Chris --

It was a long-ago TV show called All Creatures Great and Small when I first noticed that you Brits supposedly drove on the wrong side of the road. Figured it was a Monty Python sort of gag to take the piss out of Yorkshiremen. Later, the same bit with Doc Martin way out in Cornwall pretty much proved it.

The other day, though, I watched a BBC cop show that was set in London, and... literally everyone was doing it. They had even---I'm not kidding---modified every car in every scene so its steering wheel was on the wrong side to make DRIVING on the wrong side safer for the duration of the show's production. The signs and painted lines on the road were modified, too.

Holy shit. That's some serious committment to humor, right there. And I'd always heard the BBC was tight with money.

[caskwith]

Once you start a joke you gotta keep it up.

[LatakiaLover]

Them's the rules...