Pipe making... first attempt...

[bluenoser]

Came home to some mail I've been waiting nearly a month for



Decided I wanted to give pipe making a try so I ordered some briar blocks and decided to give it a go tonight.

Screwed up early on by having my air hole too high on the chamber, oh well first try, bound to make some mistakes. Was nearly perfectly centered though so I just need to watch my depth a little better when drilling the chamber.



Marked out the outline I wanted to go with and turned what I could with the lathe, wish I'd of ordered a 3/4 inch chamber bit instead of the 7/8 as it's almost a bit large for the size blocks I ordered, They'll be a bit thin walled but I'll survive.



After the lathe I trimmed off a lot of the excess on the band saw



A little bit of shaping on the sander and mounted the stem in to get it smoothed out. My 5/16 bit is slightly larger than the delrin rod so my stem is fitting a bit loose in the shank, did some reading and have heard clear nail polish will build it up enough to make it snug. Either way, next pipe will find a better fitting bit...



Decided rusticating it would probably be my best bet for the first try, covers mistakes and slip ups better so I took out the rotary tool and got to work.





Sanded up to 1200 grit. Still needs a little finish sanding in a few spots but coming along ok. Going to pickup some dye tomorrow and hit it with some black for inside the rustication and some light brown for the rest, should look good when done.



Then I notice the little dark spot on the bowl near the stem seems a little open. Palm over the bowl and blow into the stem and I have air coming out of the crack in the bowl. Guess my first try might not be functional, but it was a good learning process and hopefully the rest of the blocks are free of this defect.