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Newbie here.

I'm starting my adventure of making my first pipe and have been looking at purchasing pre-made stems from PIMO. I was told by a PIMO employee that the tenon diameter of the stem I want is 9/16-inch. I was planning on drilling my mortise to 5/16-inch. My planned shank diameter is 11/16th-inch. I don't want to spend nearly $80 for the tool to cut down the tenon size.

I assume I can use a file and increasingly finer grit sandpaper to slim down the tenon to my desired diameter? I realize getting it circular in cross-section will take careful work.

Any issues with my plan?

(edited to correct misspelling in title)

That would work, but getting it to be perfectly round would be tough.

You could do what I did with my first pipe and use a dremel to shape the tenon...

Or you could stick a drill bit in the tenon end then chuck the drill bit into a hand drill and use it like a lathe. That worked for me for a little while.

Keep in mind, either of my suggestions will take considerable time.

Yes. Premold stems do not have a finished tenon on them. You will still have to turn your tenon. Files and sandpaper will be next to impossible to accomplish the job. You will either need to use Delrin tenons or buy a tool to cut tenons. There's no shortcut here, unfortunately.

Ok it sounds like it will take a while, but is not impossible. I think I'll suffer the misery of hand shaping the tenon for the first pipe to see if I will make more pipes. If I do, I may purchase the tenon tool.

GPipe wrote:I was told by a PIMO employee that the tenon diameter of the stem I want is 9/16-inch.

I think the Pimo employee probably meant the tenon should be 9/32 and not 9/16. 9/16 would be huge.

Rad

Do you have any friends with a lathe that could help you?

GPipe wrote:Ok it sounds like it will take a while, but is not impossible. I think I'll suffer the misery of hand shaping the tenon for the first pipe to see if I will make more pipes. If I do, I may purchase the tenon tool.

Knock yourself out. I'll reserve my "I told you so" for when you're banging your head against the wall wondering why you can't seem to hand cut a decent tenon. If you are using it as a gauge to determine whether you make more pipes then it is likely to be a short venture. There are better ways but it appears you're going to have to figure it out on your own. Good luck.

wdteipen wrote:Yes. Premold stems do not have a finished tenon on them. You will still have to turn your tenon. Files and sandpaper will be next to impossible to accomplish the job. You will either need to use Delrin tenons or buy a tool to cut tenons. There's no shortcut here, unfortunately.

Agreed. This isn't as hard as it sounds. Cut off the factory tenon. Face the shoulder with forstner bit. Drill mortise for delrin tenon. Drill air hole through delrin tenon. Glue delrin tenon into stem mortise. It's no harder than drilling the mortise in the stummel except you use glue to make it permanent. Much less work than what you are contemplating and you'll get a better stem to stummel fit. I'm a newbie too. I'm parroting what I've read here. I still haven't made my first pipe but I can offer you the best advise you'll ever get here: Listen to the experienced pipe makers when they share that hard earned experience or your offers of help will soon dry up.

And yes, I'm sucking up to the experts. I'll need help later, too.

RadDavis wrote:

GPipe wrote:I was told by a PIMO employee that the tenon diameter of the stem I want is 9/16-inch.

I think the Pimo employee probably meant the tenon should be 9/32 and not 9/16. 9/16 would be huge.

Rad

I thought so as well which is why I called to confirm. The total diameter of the round saddle bit stem is 11/16 and she measured the tenon at 9/16 with the idea that it should be reshaped.

wdteipen wrote:

GPipe wrote:Ok it sounds like it will take a while, but is not impossible. I think I'll suffer the misery of hand shaping the tenon for the first pipe to see if I will make more pipes. If I do, I may purchase the tenon tool.

Knock yourself out. I'll reserve my "I told you so" for when you're banging your head against the wall wondering why you can't seem to hand cut a decent tenon. If you are using it as a gauge to determine whether you make more pipes then it is likely to be a short venture. There are better ways but it appears you're going to have to figure it out on your own. Good luck.

I'm hearing you that it would be way easier to simply buy the tenon tool. I'm kinda frugal and this is my first shot at making a pipe so I thought I'd do things by hand to learn what you already know and are telling me.

If I get halfway through shaping the tenon and I feel the urge to beat my head against the wall, I will be the first one to say you were right. I appreciate your advice.

caskwith wrote:Do you have any friends with a lathe that could help you?

No, but thanks for the suggestion.

wdteipen wrote:Yes. Premold stems do not have a finished tenon on them. You will still have to turn your tenon. Files and sandpaper will be next to impossible to accomplish the job. You will either need to use Delrin tenons or buy a tool to cut tenons. There's no shortcut here, unfortunately.

Thanks for the suggestion. This is a good alternative.

J.H Lowe has some pre-cut tenons here: http://www.jhlowe.com/misc-items.htm
Listed under plastic tenons - smooth.

RadDavis wrote:

GPipe wrote:I was told by a PIMO employee that the tenon diameter of the stem I want is 9/16-inch.

I think the Pimo employee probably meant the tenon should be 9/32 and not 9/16. 9/16 would be huge.

Rad

They were probably just telling him that the diameter on the tenon side of the stem is 9/16 "as molded" - thus would need to be cut down to the size of the mortise

GPipe - better buy a few stems.

It seems like you'll be going the hand shaped tenon direction. A few tips on the best way to do this with minimal tooling.

I mentioned before using a hand drill as a lathe and I think you'll get the best results this way. What I did was this:

1. Once you've got your drill bit firmly rooted in your tenon and things are spinning, take a low grit file (40 to 80 would work) and apply pressure to the tenon, sliding the file up and down the tenon as it spins. This should remove material about as evenly as possible.
2. Once your tenon is close to the correct size, switch to low grit sandpaper. Wrap a piece around the tenon as it spins. This should even out any ridges in the tenon created by your work with the file. Once you've got the ridges out, try your fit. If it fits snugly, stop and call it good. If it fits tight enough that it won't easily seat all the way in, move to a higher grit.
3. Repeat until you've got a nice fit. If you can get up to 600 grit, you'll have a nice looking tenon. At this juncture, fit should be your focus.
4. Throughout this process, stop and measure your tenon a lot. I recommend spending $15 and buying a cheap set of digital calipers. These will prove invaluable.

Note: it will be nearly impossible to get a flush shank/tenon face fit, so get it as close as you can but allow yourself to move on once you're close.
Another note: this process took me.... many hours. I'd wager close to 10.
One more: Make sure your stem is spinning as close to on center as possible. Reseat the drill bit in the stem if it appears to be spinning off center.

Good luck!