Advice, frustration, and possible help

[cmueller]

So I finally moved back to upstate NY, set up my tools, and may have gotten myself in a little too deep. Before I left PA I was was lucky enough to make a connection with a local pipe and tobacco business owner who liked the pipes I made for one of his customers and wants to sell my pipes at his store. This is actually the great part considering I have only made 20 pipes and have so much more to learn and improve on. The bad part is that he would like at least 10 pipes, the sooner the better. My major frustrations always go back to the stems (pre-made with delrin tenon) which very rarely seem to sit flush without busting my balls for hours. I have tried several different ways to keep the pre- made stems sitting plum in the vice ( V-slot on the vice and then some rubber jaw contraption that sits on the vice jaws for round stock ) but my success rate of getting the stem right is 30%. Is this just the woes of not having a lathe or am I doing something wrong? Also, if anyone lives close to Albany, NY and would be willing to let me visit and see your process of making a pipe I would appreciate it very much. Thanks guys.

[Sasquatch]

Certainly sounds like a tooling issue. You should be able to do delrin tenons without a huge amount of fuss.

I'd look at the vice situation - how are you holding the stem, how much are you able to grab, how far "up" the stem does the vice hold, etc.

[Ocelot55]

Start cutting stems by hand. I don't think I'll ever use pre-fabs again, the material is so inferior to rod stock and most times the stems are so poorly shaped that they require extensive modification to smoke right.

[cmueller]

Generally, I hold the stem on the fatest, round part of the stem. One side of the vice is flat and the other side has a magnetic hard rubber jaw that has various size circular cutouts to hold round stock. Maybe it would be better to use a V-shape on both sides?

[Sasquatch]

That's my guess - cut a v groove in some flat stock and use that on either side of the vise. Grab the barrel of the stem and let the fishtail end protrude down through the table on the drillpress.

And..... once you start.... finish. No repositioning, no movement.

So your sequence would be - put the stem in the vise. Face what's going to be the shoulder with a forstner bit. Then drill out the hole for delrin.

Glue in delrin, and once it's dried, drill out the airway in that piece of delrin.

That should give you a pretty straight fit.

[Charl]

Could also be that the table moves. I've found that these little DIY drillpresses can't handle the pressure.