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I have read/looked through the hand cut stems without a lathe photo essay, but I am kind of confused at how different it is from using a lathe. Am I wrong in thinking the shaping is more or less the same, but drilling is made alot easier with a lathe? Unless the stem is completely round the whole way (which pretty much none are), then you have to do the same no-lathe shaping for any stem, right?

I guess what I am asking for is a less detailed and much more concise photo/text essay/step-by-step of how to hand cut stems with a lathe. Does anyone have a link or feel like posting their method?

I use the lathe to drill and turn the rod to the diameter I want and to cut the tenon. All shaping of the stem is done by hand.

Rad

What Rad said, and what you said. Since stems aren't round you're mainly using the late to cut the hole and tenons (if you're using integral tenons). Most everything else is done by hand.

The one shaping exception I'd add in is if you're doing a more "fancy" kind of stem that has a ball or different accents on it like this:



Anything round-ish you can turn on the lathe. Everything flat has to be done by hand.

As far as tapered stems go, you can set up the taper by cutting it on the lathe, but you still have to flatten it out by hand. The lathe just helps you set the taper up more precisely, and I'm willing to bet that a lot of people just taper off the lathe.

Fit the delrin tenon, drill the rod and turn to diameter, I also set the taper if needed. After that it is all done by hand and by eye.

Thanks guys. Hopefully I can get my first handmade stem done soon.

I make my whole stem on the lathe. I have a fancy secret high tech lathe that NASA gave me that turns round things flat. It's awesome.

LUCKY!

You could always get rid of the lathe and buy a 5 or 7 axis milling machine. All you have to do then is just press go and bam you have a pipe and stem.

But really, what everyone else said.

Abe

LAH wrote:You could always get rid of the lathe and buy a 5 or 7 axis milling machine. All you have to do then is just press go and bam you have a pipe and stem.

But really, what everyone else said.

Abe

At one time while I was still hobby making I did have similar ideas. I am very interested in engineering and machining and when I have the space and time I would like to get into CNC machining a little. My idea was, using a handcut stem as a model, create cad drawings of common stem shapes and use a CNC mill to rough out the shape then finish them by hand afterwards as things like the slot and button would still need handwork. While it would be impractical for most of my work I thought it would be good fun to use now and then and would really help were I to take on a Pipe of the Year or something similar.

caskwith wrote:

LAH wrote:You could always get rid of the lathe and buy a 5 or 7 axis milling machine. All you have to do then is just press go and bam you have a pipe and stem.

But really, what everyone else said.

Abe

At one time while I was still hobby making I did have similar ideas. I am very interested in engineering and machining and when I have the space and time I would like to get into CNC machining a little. My idea was, using a handcut stem as a model, create cad drawings of common stem shapes and use a CNC mill to rough out the shape then finish them by hand afterwards as things like the slot and button would still need handwork. While it would be impractical for most of my work I thought it would be good fun to use now and then and would really help were I to take on a Pipe of the Year or something similar.

At work we have a 3 axis CNC mill. My boss will make a pipe occasionally, and he will do just like you said. Make a drawing, and write a program for the stem. With a 3 axis mill you have to use a ball end mill for milling your stem and that leaves grooves that need to be taken care of by hand, which you might not gain any time other than being able to work on something else while the machine is running. If a 5 axis mill was used you could use a standard end mill and produce a very smooth finish with little hand work. That would be pretty cool to do. Like you said, it's pretty impractical unless you have to produce a bunch of the same stems. But, CNC's are still cool!

Abe