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Hi,

I was wondering. Is there such a thing as clear delrin or does it only come in black? And if so, would anyone have any idea where to find it?

The reason I ask is that in some of the lighter colored lucite stem stock the black delrin tenon is visible through it once it gets thinned down a bit.

There is no such thing as clear or translucent delrin or acetal. It does, however, come in white.

ok, thx for the info

I'm actually smoking a pipe I just made with a tortoise patterned lucite stem, and hate that I can see the black tenon sticking into it. I was just wondering if there was a better way to solve this for those of us unable to cut an integral tenon.

At the risk of trying to re-invent the wheel, I wondered if this might work: http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?sku=44654 I'm sure it won't be as smooth as delrin, but it shouldn't be any worse than cutting the tenon out of the lucite blank. Any chance it could work?

stummel bum wrote:At the risk of trying to re-invent the wheel, I wondered if this might work: http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?sku=44654 I'm sure it won't be as smooth as delrin, but it shouldn't be any worse than cutting the tenon out of the lucite blank. Any chance it could work?

Give it a shot, and please report back success or failure.

Extruded acrylic is a bit of a pain to deal with due to its sensitivity to heat, but if all you're doing is drilling a 4mm hole in it and cutting it to size, it shouldn't pose too much trouble. I'm not sure how to alleviate the issue of still having the adhesive visible inside the stem at the tenon - but perhaps using a special acrylic bonding agent would make that junction invisible. I don't know. I've never tried this avenue.

I'll keep you guys posted if I try this.

I'm positive it won't make for an invisible join, but seems that it would at least be less obtrusive than solid black. I've been using CA gel for gluing my delrin so this should at least be semi-transparent inside the stem.

Stuff's cheap enough I'll give it a go. I was about to get some white delrin for this purpose anyway so why not.

I'm looking forward to hearing your results.

If I remember correctly, CA will tend to turn the acrylic a white color where it is in contact. Usually when we have used acrylic at work I believe it is solvent bonded which leaves a crystal clear joint. They may use acetone for this but I cannot remember for sure. I will follow up with one of the techs and let you know what I find.