This one required some Big League stuff. Small pipe (group 2), and the rarest variant of the infamous Vernon spring fitment, where the mechanism stays inside the shank and the stem snaps over it, instead of the other way around. Meaning all the drilling and cutting inside the stem had to be figured out blind and then executed blind. And a few thousandths made all the difference: the stem had to slide on with increasing resistance until the spring fingers snapped outward at exactly the right instant with an audible click, stay firmly there for smoking, then release their grip with an equal strength pull in the opposite direction.
Even the dot was a bitch, because being a small pipe w/small stem, the vulcanite in the place where it had to be was only about 2mm thick. (Gluing dot material into a drilled-though hole leads to Bad Things later and should be avoided.)
Happy to see the pipe coming---I've only ever seen two others, and this one was in stellar shape for its age---but even happier to see it going. :lol:
Even the dot was a bitch, because being a small pipe w/small stem, the vulcanite in the place where it had to be was only about 2mm thick. (Gluing dot material into a drilled-though hole leads to Bad Things later and should be avoided.)
Happy to see the pipe coming---I've only ever seen two others, and this one was in stellar shape for its age---but even happier to see it going. :lol: