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I've got a question that has been rolling around in my head for awhile now and there's no better place to get the answer than here. I could have used this last night when I was fitting a delrin tenon into a stummel and cracked the stummel which was followed by some colorful language of course. I happened to be checking out some new pipes on a website and looking at a close-up of a stummel that had a support ring made of what looks like brass surrounding the mortise opening. The pipe was a freehand and definately not turned on a lathe so how does one cut the groove for the ring and were would one get the rings??? The only answer I can see is a hole saw. Thanks in advance for your help.

Kevin

You can use a hole saw if you have one that matches the tube stock that you have. That might be difficult though, since hole saws have kerfed teeth that may make for a loose fit of tube stock.

What I personally have done (though I admitedly haven't done this in a couple years), is to cut teeth into the end of the rod stock you're going to use. Once the hole is deep enough, epoxy it in, cut off the excess, and grind it flush. Of course, this only works for metal tube stock....

As always Kurt, thanks for the input. I'll try cutting some teeth into a brass tube and boring a circular channel on scrap briar first of course!

Kevin

When I add brass rings I usually just match the diameter of the brass in question to a drill bit, the drill the hole for the brass followed by the standard bit size for the Delrin insert. It isn't terribly difficult to do it freehand on a lathe or using rubber jaws on a drill press vice. Good Luck.

Stephen, I can't quite picture what you're describing. I believe Kevin wants to fit a thick walled brass band rather than the usual thin silver/nickel shank band to reinforce/hide the cracked shank.

Thanks guys for the comments. Kurt had the answer I was looking for which is a technique that Cornelius Mainz (spelling?) appears to use on his pipes as well as others. In the past I used a delrin mortise along with an integral tenon made out of ebonite/vulcanite/acrylic. I showed these pipes to a rather famous American Pipemaker and it raised both eyebrows so I'm not sure if that was good or bad. The good part is the epoxy acts as a stabilizer on the surrounding shank adorments and prevents cracking when inserting or removing the stem. As long as everything fits like a glove with no gaps it smokes great same as any other well constructed pipe. Anybody else ever give this a try?

Kevin

Frank wrote:Stephen, I can't quite picture what you're describing. I believe Kevin wants to fit a thick walled brass band rather than the usual thin silver/nickel shank band to reinforce/hide the cracked shank.

Ahh, I was thinking of a brass ring insert in the face of the shank, not a brass tenon band.

I think Stephen is right that kevin wants to reinforce the shank by adding a ring around the mortise .

let me illustrate



cutting teeth in a brass tube the same size will do fine as long as the shank is made in briar or other softer materials.

I've made mine from steel rod with a mortise hole same as on the pipe going through it ..I have a long guide pin (same size as the tennon) that i stick into the shank and with that i can cut the hole for the ring after the pipe is fully shaped with the pipe in hand and the cutter spinning at low speed in the lathe. This is how most Scandinavian makers do..

Hope you understand my jibberish