Things were going well...
Posted: Mon Jun 24, 2013 1:35 pm
Sort of. I usually try to stay away from tools on Mondays, because things just seem to go wrong. I was seduced by the sight of this piece of briar calling out to me, and I succumbed. I got it all marked out the way I wanted, got it onto the lathe, and started drilling and cutting. I got the shank turned, and then installed my brandy new Pimo tenon tool in the Jacobs chuck. I am not sure I am going to like this tool. It did a good job of cutting a square shoulder and gave me a nice mortise in the shank, but it has these spurs that cut the shank down to 1/2" like it or not. So I turned the rest of the shank down to match.
I got the smoke hole drilled, also with a long bit I bought from Pimo. This is an 11/64" bit. That went easy enough. Fitting the stem was my first problem. I bought three stems. One I gave to a young man in our pipe club who is using my tools to make his own pipe. The next one suffered a fatal flaw (at least for now) when the tenoning tool I bought ended up cutting the tenon just a hair too small. Notice how I blame the tool? So I got out stem No. 3, a church warden. I figured I was going to make it sooner or later, so it might as well be now. I got that fitted successfully and turned the stem and shank to match.
Then disaster struck. I got the briar blank rotated around to start the tobacco chamber. I got it all lined up properly, moved the tool rest in, and being a highly skilled woodturner with many years of experience, gave the handwheel a spin to make sure the wood cleared the tool rest. It didn't.
I went ahead and hollowed out the tobacco chamber anyway, and discovered my holes met up perfectly. I am going to finish shaping the piece just for practice, but I am assuming that gluing the shank back together really isn't a good idea, as least for looks. What about smoking characteristics? Will the heat degrade the glue? I am not too worried about being poisoned.
If anyone has any suggestions on tools, techniques, improvements or changes I can make to improve my process, I would be glad to entertain them. I do not mind anyone telling me I bought a tool I should not have, but if you do, please be kind enough to suggest what I might use instead and why it is a better choice.
I got the smoke hole drilled, also with a long bit I bought from Pimo. This is an 11/64" bit. That went easy enough. Fitting the stem was my first problem. I bought three stems. One I gave to a young man in our pipe club who is using my tools to make his own pipe. The next one suffered a fatal flaw (at least for now) when the tenoning tool I bought ended up cutting the tenon just a hair too small. Notice how I blame the tool? So I got out stem No. 3, a church warden. I figured I was going to make it sooner or later, so it might as well be now. I got that fitted successfully and turned the stem and shank to match.
Then disaster struck. I got the briar blank rotated around to start the tobacco chamber. I got it all lined up properly, moved the tool rest in, and being a highly skilled woodturner with many years of experience, gave the handwheel a spin to make sure the wood cleared the tool rest. It didn't.
I went ahead and hollowed out the tobacco chamber anyway, and discovered my holes met up perfectly. I am going to finish shaping the piece just for practice, but I am assuming that gluing the shank back together really isn't a good idea, as least for looks. What about smoking characteristics? Will the heat degrade the glue? I am not too worried about being poisoned.
If anyone has any suggestions on tools, techniques, improvements or changes I can make to improve my process, I would be glad to entertain them. I do not mind anyone telling me I bought a tool I should not have, but if you do, please be kind enough to suggest what I might use instead and why it is a better choice.