How about a little chuckle to think about on your way to work, or whatever tomorrow morning?
My wife loves this Stanwell 939 shape so much, and after I found one for her at Mkelaw-Pipes.com, I came across another one on ebay. This shape usually sells for a fair amount if they're in nice shape, but this one looked real good except for a crack in the shank. No problem, I figured I could fix this myself fairly easily, after reading about it on this site and reborn pipes. When I got the pipe, I noticed that the crack was quite bad, and it had a replacement stem that was poorly fitted. First job, glue the crack together on the shank. I wasn't looking to make this pipe look like new, just smokable. After applying super glue, I put it in my small jewelers vise that has rubber covers on the jaws. As I was slowly cranking it down, it was taking quite a bit of pressure to get the crack to close. Just as I got it together, I heard a crack! Crap! I pulled the pipe out of the vise, and sure enough, I now had 2 more cracks to deal with. So at this point I'm thinking I'll have to send it out and have it banded. I just wasn't sure I wanted to invest that much in the pipe, and thought about how I might band it myself. This can be a dangerous road to go down, if you, like me have never done anything like that. I knew that I could order a band for it, but thought I might have something around the house to use. After discarding several options, I found that the brass base on a 410 shotgun shell would be about the right size.
Long story short, after going through the process of removing the plastic shell and rear of the brass (lots of careful drilling required) I found the brass sleeve a little too small for the shank. Get out the dremel, and more careful sanding, grinding, etc. I got it to fit. Now heat it up and glue it on with plenty of super glue, and press it on in my little vise. More work getting the stem fitted and finished, but finally it all came together. A Stanwell model 939/410.
It looks so, so, a little clunky, not really a smooth fit, but it's strong enough, and the stem fits right, is easy to remove and replace. Really, all I wanted was a smokable pipe, and it is! Plus my wife likes it a lot, especially cause I fixed it with my own little hands, and the shell was from her shotgun too!
Sometimes life is just a grin.... :wink:
My wife loves this Stanwell 939 shape so much, and after I found one for her at Mkelaw-Pipes.com, I came across another one on ebay. This shape usually sells for a fair amount if they're in nice shape, but this one looked real good except for a crack in the shank. No problem, I figured I could fix this myself fairly easily, after reading about it on this site and reborn pipes. When I got the pipe, I noticed that the crack was quite bad, and it had a replacement stem that was poorly fitted. First job, glue the crack together on the shank. I wasn't looking to make this pipe look like new, just smokable. After applying super glue, I put it in my small jewelers vise that has rubber covers on the jaws. As I was slowly cranking it down, it was taking quite a bit of pressure to get the crack to close. Just as I got it together, I heard a crack! Crap! I pulled the pipe out of the vise, and sure enough, I now had 2 more cracks to deal with. So at this point I'm thinking I'll have to send it out and have it banded. I just wasn't sure I wanted to invest that much in the pipe, and thought about how I might band it myself. This can be a dangerous road to go down, if you, like me have never done anything like that. I knew that I could order a band for it, but thought I might have something around the house to use. After discarding several options, I found that the brass base on a 410 shotgun shell would be about the right size.
Long story short, after going through the process of removing the plastic shell and rear of the brass (lots of careful drilling required) I found the brass sleeve a little too small for the shank. Get out the dremel, and more careful sanding, grinding, etc. I got it to fit. Now heat it up and glue it on with plenty of super glue, and press it on in my little vise. More work getting the stem fitted and finished, but finally it all came together. A Stanwell model 939/410.
It looks so, so, a little clunky, not really a smooth fit, but it's strong enough, and the stem fits right, is easy to remove and replace. Really, all I wanted was a smokable pipe, and it is! Plus my wife likes it a lot, especially cause I fixed it with my own little hands, and the shell was from her shotgun too!
Sometimes life is just a grin.... :wink:
