Clueless

I have no clue what I did in the shop today. I forget what state things were in when I started this morning. Maybe my brain has a limited amount of fuel and it's all used up.

At least I know what I'll do in the shop tomorrow. Tomorrow I start sanding and finishing the hook-shaped pipe. That seems to take me about a day and a half. I may not be good but at least I'm slow.

Wanna see a picture?

Invisible day

Today was a long day, but looking back I'm not sure where it went. Errands and chores ate up a big portion of it.

I found that I only had one stem blank made up and two stummels ready for stem fitting. I had three pieces of pre-drilled rod but couldn't get the heat right on any of them. Polycarbonate is easier to work with than Ultem, but it still has its quirks. Then I realized that I didn't want to make up more stem blanks with my current forming tool and didn't have the materials to make another. Finally I decided just to pick one of the pipes and go forward with the existing stem blank. I chose the hook shaped pipe.

From a stem blank to a fitted stem there are several steps. First the blank has to be cut to length and its end faced off, then it needs drilled to the proper size to accept the tenon, then countersunk. Then the tenon needs to be made, and inserted into the stem with a press. Finally the tenon's length needs to be adjusted and its corners rounded to prevent scarring up the inside of the mortise insert when it's put into the pipe.

What I call a stem blank is a piece of polycarbonate that has had the bit outlet formed and the first half-inch of the mouthpiece partially shaped. Just enough for me to judge its quality. I'm currently using 5/8" diameter stem rod.

So after the tenon is added to the stem and fitted to the stummel, the stem is bent. It's bent at its full 5/8" diameter. Once polycarbonate is raised to the right temperature it becomes flexible like rubber. I use a piece of teflon rod to prevent the airway from squeezing shut when the stem is bent, teflon has a melting point of 500F.

Once the stem is bent, the pipe looks very ugly. The bend is seldom in what appears to be the right place, and it's just a bent piece of 5/8" diameter rod. At that point I begin shaping the stem with a rotary grinder. It's an interesting and enjoyable procedure, though it can be challenging to work the stem from a fat bent rod into something that looks like a stem without shaping through the airway.

That's about all I got accomplished today for some reason. Tomorrow I'll continue on the hook-shaped pipe, things should speed up from here.

Short day

I once read an article about how Bo Nordh works. As I remember, it said that he never hurries. I try to follow that example... when I hurry, I mess things up bigtime. Yesterday I thought the Belge that I've been working on looked pretty good -- but this morning what I found was that another hour or two of filework was needed to get it as far as I can take it at this level.

Today I brought the Belge and the hooked-shaped stummel as far as I could at the filework level.  Next is fitting them with stem blanks, then shaping stem after bending it, then finally finishing.

Guillaume, I've spent an hour putting together a couple pics.  There's time today for me to fit the stems and bend the bent one, maybe even start shaping them.  But I prefer to wait until morning for that, in case they don't look right after a night's sleep.  Plus, when all your electricity comes from a generator and you are your own plumber and landscaper and everything else, there are plenty of things that need doing.

Here is the Belge that I've been going on about.  The airway dips twenty-thousandths of an inch just outside the draft hole, but the airflow is fantastic.  Wall thickness is about 3/8" or perhaps a little more at the heel, and about 1/4" at the rim.

This is the hook-shaped pipe at completion of filework.  There is shape-adjustment needed for both stummels, but it's too delicate to perform with files.

The airway on the hookshaped pipe is absolutely perfect as far as I can tell, which is not easy with a bend that radical.

Blogger continues to drive me nuts, this time with its goofy handling of keystrokes, I need to disable most of their keyboard shortcuts.  More tomorrow I guess.

Now able to read comments

I have downloaded the new Opera 9 and now I can view the text of comments instead of simply guessing at what they might or might not contain. A small victory but still a victory!

Shaping

This afternoon I was able to get into the shop and accomplish some work. The straight Belge is now ready to have its stem fitted and the shaping of the stem done and then the finishing.

The deeply bent hook-shaped pipe is halfway through intermediate shaping. The outside contour of the stummel is done, but I decided to wait until morning to do the shank/bowl transition because I am not yet sure how it should look.

Working from the block's grain to a basic shape, then from there to a more refined shape, and finally to a finished pipe is a true joy for me. Unfortunately I tend to lose my enthusiasm for going into the shop when I feel that I am making pipes simply to make them.

Perhaps tomorrow things will look less bleak to me.

About your comments

So far there have been 2 comments. I have rejected them both. Why? Because the blogger software is such crap that I am unable to read the full text of the comments. You are supposed to be able to expand them by clicking on a triangle next to the first few words of a comment. It simply does not work and I have tried it with 3 browsers.

I will mull over possibilities for resolving this.

The latest comment was from FdP, who said that an occasional photograph would be welcome. I apologize, although photographs would be welcome, my camera is also a piece of crap. Once I dig the thing out from a bag which is stored under the bed, the only place I have to store it, it's a matter of a couple minutes to snap a photo. But then I have to take out the little memory card, and stick it into a floppy disk adapter, then wait several minutes for the thing to slowly load the files onto my hard-drive, then use a pair of forceps to get the damned card adapter out of my computer. If photographs are required for the blog, I will simply delete the blog. A new camera would be welcome, the Nikon D100 is a mere $1000US. A purchase once in a while would be welcome. At this point I am making exactly two pipes. Once they are made, there will be no more made until something sells; when something sells I will see about making another to replace it. I realize that pipemakers should not have this attitude. Unfortunately carving pipes is my only source of income aside from begging off relatives and it is unfair to expect them to support me. Pipes will sell or they will not be made. I cannot do otherwise.

I apologize for the rant.

Rough day in the shop

I had an absolute blast in the shop today -- it was roughing day.

I roughed out the straight Belge, and I'm very pleased with the shape. It's ready for either file-work or stem fitting and sanding, depending on how the shape looks tomorrow.

I got the mystery-shape half-roughed. I'm not sure what it's going to look like yet, other than that from the side it'll probably look like a hook. Very deeply bent, curved rim that flows up into the shank. I tend to work from the givens to the whatevers. That seems to make it more fun.

Hot time in da city

The three epoxied blocks were done curing yesterday afternoon. By the time I got to them I was tired from moving dirt -- get away from it for a few weeks and you're out of shape all over again.

So after they were done curing, I drilled the draft-hole and shaped the chamber of the first one, another Belge. I have a thing for the Belge shape, I like the flat top coupled with the canted bowl, it's kind of "art deco" and I am a big fan of art deco. The bottom of the tobacco chamber on that one is twenty thousandths of an inch below the draft hole, which kind of pisses me off, but the airflow is great and it passed all my airflow tests with flying colors.

I had time to drill the draft-hole and start shaping the chamber on the second block, a very bent variant of #73 I think it is, which in profile has kind of a scoop/hook shape. Finished shaping the chamber this morning, the chamber shape on this one is perfect as close as I can see, at first it was a little off in terms of pulling air straight down, but after a few minor tweaks it's pulling the air straight down and the draft-hole is dead in the middle of the bowl. It pulls as open as any straight pipe.

Drilling the third draft-hole, I lost the block. The drill was too acute, and the airway nicked the chamber. So it goes, next time I'll get a little different angle on it.

The rest of the day was chewed up by a trip to the city. But I did score a couple bandsaw blades, woo hoo!

Sometimes I wonder why I persist in calling this a "business". It's an addiction, not a business. In a business you make money, I've been doing this for three years and still haven't turned a penny profit. That will end real soon one way or another, no choice in the matter. Either the market will accept my work, or I'll close the doors, one or the other has to happen soon. Anybody who's waiting for a sale, there won't be any more reduced prices, ever; if I have to close up shop, anything unsold will go into my collection as a keepsake.

Enough of that depressing crap. Tomorrow morning I get back to carving, the part of the process that I love the most. There's nothing else quite like carving a block to its final shape, holding the grinder handpiece like a paring knife and going at it. I love it.