I basically started by taking down the edges from my bandsaw and rounding things out, frequently checking for symmetry around the bowl. Since I don’t have them, I used hand rasps and files. Be conservative, because 1 cut too close may mean your pipe is going to be a lot thinner-walled than you want it to be.Ī lot of people like to do this part with a disc sander or a dremel. I then used a smaller, more delicate band saw to take off the corners around the tobacco chamber and shank to eliminate large amounts of wood that would have to be later rasped/filed/sanded off. I measured ⅜” on either side of my air hole line and cut off the extra wood on either side of my shank with the band saw. Take your time here, and drill down in very small increments.Īt this point, you technically have a pipe! Now it’s just taking off the extra material you don’t want. I would check the bottom of the hole frequently to see when the hole was just starting to show, and then proceeded about 1/16” at a time until the bottom of the air hole was right at the bottom of the tobacco chamber. I clamped it down, and then slowly started advancing until just before I got to where I thought the air hole was going to intersect. To do this, I lowered the turned-off drill press with the bit into the tobacco chamber and turned it manually until it was evenly scraping all sides. Again, I could not exchange bits without unclamping the wood, so I had to line it back up again (not ideal). I swapped in my custom made bit to finish the chamber. I then subtracted this amount from my total tobacco chamber depth, and used a ¾” Forstner bit to drill the tobacco chamber to this point. I measured on my custom made tobacco chamber bit the length from the tip of the bit to where it starts curving. I then clamped the shank onto the drill press table. I did not have my stems yet, so I had to wait until later. Ideally, at this point, you would fit your stem and tenon into the mortise to make sure it is a good fit, and to try to limit cracking the shank while you still have more wood surrounding the hole. I think you’d be safe making it about ⅞” deep, though, since most tenons I’ve seen are around ½” long. I wanted to make this exactly my tenon length, but someone said it’s good to make it a little deeper, so it almost becomes a moisture reservoir and give you a dryer smoke.
#How to make a smoking pipe print out crack#
This is even more important to go slow and back out frequently, because if you don’t, you will make your hole a little wider than it should be, or crack the shank. Lining back up again was tricky, but doable. Ideally, you would not move the wood or drill press platform when switching to the mortise, but I had to because my drill press was not big enough to get the bit out with the pipe clamped in place. I went slowly, and frequently backed out to blow off the saw dust/material I was taking out. I used a 5/32” bit to drill to that point. Then I measured from my squared end to where my air hole and tobacco chamber center lines intersected. I clamped the soon-to-be tobacco chamber onto the drill press table, and used a ¾” Forstner bit to square the shank end (in retrospect, I think I would use a larger forstner to square the entire shank end, not just a ¾” circle). You can use this hole to decide if you need to adjust the contour of the bit any more. I think the key is trying to be symmetrical on both sides. I tested out the bit on a scrap piece of wood, and was surprised how nice of a contour it made. I tried to back bevel the edge after I got my shape like the original spade bit was to make it sharper. I bought a ¾” spade bit from Home Depot and used a grinder to remove the point and corners and make it rounded. At least for a straight pipe, I think it was helpful to use the guide on the bandsaw to make all the edges perfect right angles, to later help with drilling. I waited to cut off the sides of the shank so it would be sturdier for me to clamp to the drill press table. I then used a bandsaw to cut out the outline of the pipe. After tracing out the shape with pencil, I also drew lines of where the center of the air hole and tobacco chamber would be. I made the bowl 1 ½” across on the block, to allow for a ¾” tobacco chamber. I decided to make the shank at least ¾” to allow for drilling and shaping. I grabbed one of my straight pipes as a reference, and basically traced it onto the block. I was going to make a bent pipe, but thought I should try to keep it as simple as possible for my first one, so I decided to make it a straight pipe. However, I was given a block of Osage Orange, and research online showed it is an extremely dense wood that reportedly smokes well. I was going to make my first pipe out of briar. Pictures of my process along the way can be seen in this album.
Thought I would post my experiences making my first pipe, as a guide for those just starting out, and to get feedback.
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