stem chuck

[pipeguy]

I made this the other week thanks for looking

[oklahoma red]

Looks like Yankee ingenuity to me. Neat.
Chas.

[D Marshall]

Good lookin piece of work, that could come in handy for alot of various procedures.

[Ocelot55]

That's really cool. I can see that being really handy if you work with a lot of pre-fab stems.

[BigCasino]

from the picture it looks like the tenon is being cut off center? or is that just an illusion of some sort?

[Sasquatch]

That's the kicker with prefabs in my experience - the tenon isn't round and isn't centered, and if you use the outside of the blank as a guideline, who knows where the hell the airway will end up.

That's the only advantage of turning "between centers" - you wind up with the airway in the middle (but this often comes at the expense of drastically re-shaping the outside of the stem.

[pipeguy]

Very observant, the stem was just a prop for the pic

[andrew]

That's the kicker with prefabs in my experience - the tenon isn't round and isn't centered, and if you use the outside of the blank as a guideline, who knows where the hell the airway will end up.
That's the only advantage of turning "between centers" - you wind up with the airway in the middle (but this often comes at the expense of drasticallyre-shaping the outside of the stem.

One of the many reasons to cut your own stems....

[Charl]

Very cool. I used to have a piece of rod with a slot and a pin. Sort of worked, but pre-molds are such a schlep!

[CACooper]

Here's my setup, suggested Paul Perri.







Machined cone in the end of aluminium bar stock, with a rubber chair leg cover slotted to prevent spinning of the stem. The cone always centers the bit end. Brilliantly simple, and it works extremely well.

I really like your chuck idea, as it would work well for repair work to drill and replace a snapped tenon. Incorporating a cone, centered at the bit end, perhaps even adjustable, would ensure centering of the stem. Just a thought.

CACooper

[oklahoma red]

And some West Coast ingenuity this time. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention.
Chas.

[Leus]

Just don't go greedy with your cuts - torsion will break a stem fixed like that in no time.