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has anyone had anymore experience with the abs material absylux? I know there was a hoohaw on the forum a couple of years ago, but nothings been said recently, and I wondered if there was a good reason? Its cheap and turnable, from everything that was said earlier.

I have no idea about the composition or properties of it. I have noticed that a lot of the ABS stems I've seen seem to contort after a few smoke. So I would guess that it doesn't hold up well with heat?
We've used it before to "repair" radio kits and it was very easy to manipulate, but if the radio was close to the HVAC vent it would reshape, sometimes melt and break or basically adhere itself to the metal bracket

Oddly enough I was thinking of pulling the original thread back up.

I'm in the process of ordering some abs/absylux and have been reading through the earlier posts to see what people think of it.

David.

here are several threads reagarding it
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2945&hilit=absylux
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2934&hilit=absylux
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2922&hilit=absylux

and here's the original.
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2833&hilit=absylux

Quality varies among manufacturers. The two batches I've tried are both from Chinese suppliers. One is total crap. The other is at least equal to the lucite bits on most factory pipes. I guess the best ABS is made in the US. Assuming you get from those manufacturers, it's certainly serviceable as far as pipes go. I'm not sure whether this material gets fragile and brittle years down the road. Some lesser vulcanite bits do. ABS feels better than acrylic to the touch and to the teeth, IMO.

I just got some abs rod to try.

It works much like delrin, sloughing is probably the best word.
Extremely easy to drill and face. The stem I made for myself as a tester is very comfortable, softer between the teeth than ebonite. Not sure if it keeps it shape over the long haul (years) but from everything I've read its very durable.

And its super cheap, for those of you (like me) who venturing into handcut stems, and great material to practice at least.
I'm curious what DMI's experiences with the stuff are

My experience is: contact 14 companies who say they sell it, get one reply. The rod is available but subject to a minimum order of £150 plus carriage which is £50, placed the order and sent the cheque. They then say sorry we did not realise you were in Northern Ireland carriage will be £75 and we forgot to add the VAT @17.5% so the total is now just under £300.

At which point I told them to rip up the cheque.

So if anyone over here knows a company that will sell me a couple of meters please please please tell me.

David.

I just got a short length off ebay for a sample, but try this:

http://www.indplastic.com/index.cfm?id= ... &pageid=40
they have int'l shipping through "bongo" (no idea if this is good).

http://www.mcmaster.com/ has int'l only for business clients, i'm not sure if its easy to register with them. their abs is super cheap though.

or http://www.sdplastics.com/ abs and acrylic.

This is all US with int'l shipping.

I ordered some back at the time of the original thread. I think from online metals but don't remember for sure. It was super cheap, looked to be good stuff. I made one stem which will be my last. Cut and turned easy, sanded very easy. The fun ended there. It refused to take a shine no matter what I tried, never could get a glossy finish but finally achieved a dull matte one. It would get to the matte stage and I would think just buff a little more but then I would buff just a little more and it would, I suppose, overheat and become even more dull looking. The fun really began when I tried to put a bend in it. It was almost impossible to get it to stay. I would get the correct angle, put it aside, come back the next day to find about 50% of the bend had straightened out. I finally bent it almost double, came back the next day to find, (what I was trying to achieve, a full bent), I still have the pipe, haven't tried to sell it even though it is a beautiful pipe, always assumed it would straighten completely out the first time it was smoked. Might smoke it myself one of these days. My recommendation, stick with Ebonite. bob gilbert

I was trying to catch up on my reading and just came across this thread.

Absylux is still working great for me.

I was reading about Bob Gilbert's troubles with it, and I wonder if maybe he got some inferior stuff or something, because I never had any trouble getting a mirror finish, and I sure never had any trouble with bends relaxing.

The only real issue I found was just that the rod I have gotten wasn't as rich a black color as ebonite. You have to get an Absylux stem and an ebonite stem into a bright light to see the difference, but you can definitely see it when you do.

Other than that, though, I'm still real happy with Absylux as a stem material, and I have dozens of customers who agree that it makes a fine stem.

Perhaps there is a difference between colors. I only tried the white, have never tried black. bob gilbert