First off, these bits are killer! I'm very excited about this. Unfortunitely this is not a great pipe, but considering the block I had to work with, it's amazing I have a pipe out of it at all, and the shape first method made even attempting to make a pipe out of this block possible.
I decided to kill two birds with one pipe, so to speak. First pipe with the BP bits, and shaping before drilling, and my first attempt at a volcano. I hate to post it, especially considering the great volcanos Brad, Todd, and Jeff have been posting, but in the effort of encouraging others to post their first attempts at the new method with the BP bits, I'll go ahead a humble myself before you all, once again
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I mentioned some of this in another thread about these bits. I've had a weird shaped block sitting off to the side that I figured would never work for anything, and thought it would be a good candidate for playing around. I'll be darn if it turn out to be a pipe, at least something resembling one
I'm going to love this shape first deal once I get it down. Hmmm.... I guess I allready do love it, even though I'm a complete hack! Thankfully I had a good first experience. The chamber is a little deep, but workable. The drilling was not exactly where I planned it, but it seems to have work out all right, except one wall got a bit thin at the top of the bowl.
I re-shaped the 3/4" bit for this. While beautiful in it's original shape from BP, it was just too pointy for me. Judging from the looks of this bowl, I may round it up a little more still. It cuts great, even after my re-shaping! I used a 5/16" brad point to drill a pilot hole, stopping about 1/4" short of hitting the top of the draught hole. I used a point chucked into the tail stock to guide me for the pilot hole, and then used the chamber bit by just pushing the stummel into it by hand. That seems to have worked great, at least in this case.
So, this pipe has issues to be sure, and will just stay here, but I'm really excited about this method! I've also gained an even greater appreciation for the volcanos I've been seeing coming out of some of you guys!
