New to the group, new to the craft

[Xped]

Hi all,

Love the forum...lots of excellent information and advice.

I've only been smoking a pipe for about 6 months now and loving it. Was never a cigarette smoker but I loved my cigars. I've been having fun trying the various tobaccos and getting familiar with their own special nuances...my latest is an order I received from Carol at Pipeworkes & Wilke...#191 and Vermont Maple Cavendish. These seem to be great quality for an aromatic. I also enjoy Dunhill's 965.

Anyhow, I've got an order from Mark Tinsky's operation supposed to arrive some time next week. I ordered a pipe kit and also a couple of undrilled blocks of briar and finished stems. I figure after I try my hand at making a pipe out of a kit...the next step would be to do the drilling.

I'm kind of a tool nut but still lack some of the popular equipment I've seen used on this forum for making pipes. For now, it's a Dremel, files, sandpaper, and a hand drill (for buffing). The Dremel seems like a decent tool to begin my new found hobby (besides, I already own one). If I decide I like it, then I will consider adding a few more tools. I don't have a lathe or a drill press...so the next step would be to decide which route to go. Lathe = more money than I want to spend (considering all the accessories one needs). The drill press sounds like I'd get more bang for my buck right now although I've read of the frustration it can cause.

Thanks to all the contributors here...you've made the craft of making a pipe sound very interesting and I'm already hooked before the briar gets here. I look forward to learning more for you all.

[TreverT]

Welcome aboard! I started with a Dremel and a pipe kit. Made quite a few pipes from kits before I finally decided to invest the bucks into a drill press. For the first few years that I made pipes, my entire shop consisted of:

One Dremel
One 3600 rpm bench grinder with sandpaper discs taped to the sides
One power drill with buffs on mandrels
One drill press

It was with this lowly setup that I made these guys:

[Xped]

Hey Trever...

Thanks for the welcome! The pics you've shown certainly give me some encouragement and inspiration with the pipe tools I own.

Any advice/tips on using the Dremel for pipe making? Just out of curiosity, which Dremel bits did you use most? I figure the sanding drums will shape quite nicely. I've got the flex shaft so that should come in handy.

Also, I just found a nice Delta 9" disc/6" belt sander used for $45 (all funds Canadian...not like that matters much as our $$ is almost at par with US $$ ). Will be picking that up next weekend. Looks like it will be good for some shaping and squaring the blocks up.

I'm thinking that a drill press might just go on my Christmas wishlist. Any ideas as to the requirements I'd need from a drill press (size, power, etc)?

[LatakiaLover]

I'm kind of a tool nut but still lack some of the popular equipment I've seen used on this forum for making pipes.

Xped,

I agree with Trever that tools have little to do with the result, they just let you arrrive there faster.

Here's the first pipe I ever made (technically the second, as the first was tossed before completion because of a crack). The tools? A $50 rust-bucket 10" drill press, a $2.00 spade bit ground into a bowl profile, and a cheap hand drill clamped horzontally in a bench vise. A hardware store rubber disk was chucked in the drill, and sandpaper attached with rubber cement. That's it.
















These last two are hi-rez shots that are fairly large, so if you're on a dialup connection, do not click on them. (Provided for grain detail for those who want a closer look---the pipe is literally flawless when examined with a 10x glass)

What outrageous luck for a first piece of wood, huh?

[Xped]

Nice lookin' pipe, LL.

I agree about the tools only being part of the equation. I could easily ruin a block of briar the same using a lathe, dremel or just sandpaper. However, when trying to learn the craft from those that do use the "tools of the trade", it is somewhat easier to be using the same tools. I will only upgrade mine if I do catch the fever. For now, what I have will have to do...and I think that it should do me just fine for what I want to accomplish.

[hazmat]

If you choose to go with a drill press, make sure it's somewhat heavy duty. I'm not saying you need to be able to drill through 8-inch armor plate, just that you want the unit itself to be steady and stable and you want the feed to be as true and consistent as possible. You also want to make sure that you have enough stroke to drill draft and tobacco chamber holes as deep as you'll need. The smaller, bench-top presses only offer 2-3 inches of stroke and that's not always enough.

The first press I bought(and still have) is a bench-top Craftsman I got for approx. $99 or so. It worked like a champ for several years, but eventually the feed got wobbly and I have to play hell to get a good, centered drilling. Now I use it mostly for buffing operations and have been drilling on a mill.

Good luck whichever direction you choose to go!

Matt