In the Ditch : Mortise Insert Popped Out.

This pipe is a Brebbia 602 and it has had a slightly loose tenon for a while now, so I normally use a little bit of beeswax "filmed" onto the tenon to tighten it up. Recently the pipe sat for a little while, and then after picking it up again and smoking it last night and letting it cool, I pulled it apart during cleaning and the mortise insert came out about half-way from the shank while staying mostly on the tenon. Then the stem/tenon came away intact from the mortise insert. I took the mortise insert the rest of the way out by hand. I usually rotate the stem while dis/re-assembling the pipe in order to avoid this, but the insert seems to have rotated and possibly stripped out a little wood and/or wiped the ridges on the end of the mortise insert a little. I'm assuming that the tenon and insert became stuck together because of the beeswax and sitting for a while, overriding the ability of the plastic fingers on the insert to grip the briar.



It looks like it is press-fit in there, I don't see any signs of adhesive. The ridges at the end make for a larger diameter as compared to the rest of the tube. What are my best courses of action to try and fix the pipe?
:puffpipe:

scrooge
I actually have a few that do that. Took them back to my tobacco shop an they told me that they do this to allow for a better cleaning. This is the place that gets dirtiest. I took it with a grain of salt. Kinda makes since. Roma's are notorious for this.

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Interesting. I wonder what is the recommended extraction method if it is meant to be removed? I'm also wondering if these parts are available new somehow?

1coyote
Yup, looks to be a press fit for sure. Line up the mortise and use just a few drops of epoxy, don't use much so it stays clear of the draft. I had to do this twice and it worked well for me. Remember, just a few small drops and tap the mortise in place. Let dry overnight before you fit the tenon. I find once they come lose for cleaning it just causes issues and keep coming apart.

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I was thinking of laying epoxy flush with the three or four circular grooves, inserting it, and then standing the pipe so that the epoxy would flow towards the "fingers" on the end, or at least flow between the circular ridges. Of course then it is NEVER coming out again. I never really thought about that until now, but should I care if I can't remove it? Generally should epoxy "give" a little with heat expansion rather than cracking or de-bonding, or cracking the pipe? I have some 30 minute clear 2-part that hardens up and bonds pretty well, but does not get terribly brittle. I have some JB grey 2-part, which generally seems to get a little harder and more brittle.

aldecaker
That looks like a very poorly-engineered setup to me. If it were mine, I would try a dab of nice non-toxic Elmer's white glue to re-install it. I would shy away from superglue, though.

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I think I've read about people complaining about these. This is a 10 or 12 year-old non-filter Brebbia. I have two of their 9mm filter pipes that I smoke regularly and I think were made more recently. They use what appear to be better systems. One just has briar there, the other has a whole plastic thing going on there. They both seem to fit and work better than my non-filter pipe that you see here. Not sure if they upgraded their whole system, or if their non-filter pipes still use what you see here. I was thinking of using Elmers, but I'm thinking that it will either get brittle and crack with heat expansion, or soften up from any moisture that might get in there. Plus, I was thinking that it's not going to bond well to the plastic.

OK folks, still thinking about what I'm going to do.
First I'm going to take a closer look inside of the shank. I'm not sure if the plastic splines are supposed to cut into the briar, so I want to look for evidence of that. I'm wondering if the plastic splines are just supposed to mushroom out and grip that way when the insert is first installed, in which case I might be able to get a new piece somehow and try that first. In the meantime, I am still thinking about everyones suggestions. :puffpipe:

jpmcwjr

The grooves would help keep the insert in place if one twists the stem while removing. By chance, did you pull it straight out? Elmer's, yes. Least invasive.

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Just to avoid confusion I'm calling the splines on the end "splines", and the circular grooves "grooves", but yeah, the splines are there to anchor the insert into the shank hole. I still need to look at it all more closely. I usually (meaning always, without trying to sound OCD about it) twist the stem while removing/re-assembling. I bought this pipe new years ago and never smoked it, but I know that I disassembled it a couple times back then, when I knew less about pipe care, so maybe I screwed it up back then. I know that I noticed the somewhat-loose stem even back then. (It would rotate a little easier than one would want.) I started using the pipe last summer, smoking it fairly regularly with the beeswax to help with the loose stem, and this insert issue basically just developed. Wondering about graphite powder infused beeswax, if that would help tighten up a stem, but allow some 'slip' when needed.

I e-mailed monjure international asking if I can get a new insert. Maybe a new one with fresh splines will seat better. Hopefully they get back to me one way or another. I took some measurements to see how everything fits together, and the most revealing thing to me was learning what those three rings are for. Having those there causes the inner diameter of the insert to choke down a little in that area and that is what grabs the tenon. I'm guessing that it cools faster right there out of the mold and that causes it to choke down a little.

Realized that I send my e-mail to Monjures webmaster. Just re-sent to their regular add'y, so still waiting to hear back about the possibility of a new part.

Final update, hopefully! Thanks for everyones insight. I was able to get a new insert. Big thanks to Steve Monjure for getting right back to me and finding a new insert for me.

This one was a little different because there were no splines, and the three rings were closest to the chamfered end rather than at the opposite end. The opposite end of the new insert would not accept the tenon, and running the rings closest to the tenon did not seem to make sense, even if I did epoxy the new one in there. It just didn't seem like it was going to work any better than re-using my old one, so that's what I ended up doing. I came up with one thing to try with the old one before epoxying. I boiled the piece and then pressed the splined end over an appropriately-sized swage tool, then ran cold water over it and let it sit on the tool for a while. This did seem to re-form the splined end, and it seemed to seat more firmly when inserted. However, after a while, it seemed to shrink back to the original size and got loose again. At that point, I cleaned up the surfaces, mixed up the epoxy and placed a bead around one of the circular grooves and half-way down the splines, wiped off the excess, and installed it. I did not sand or score the briar as it had some factory scoring in there, and the surface looked like it would offer good bite for the epoxy, and I did not want to remove any material. No epoxy got past the end of the splines, so that is good. I didn't want any down there. There was a thin film on the area of briar between the briar chamfer and plastic chamfer, which I wiped off with alcohol. This area out-gassed some skunky epoxy odor as it cured, but that was all gone by the next day. The only other interesting thing is that once the epoxy dried but before finally inserting the stem, I first coated the tenon and the insert with a sheen of graphite powder, and then mixed up some beeswax with some graphite powder and put a very thin film of that over the tenon, and that all actually seems to work a little better than straight beeswax for stem-tightening in that it still takes up space and adds tension, but it does seem easier to "break" the bond when you go to take it apart after it has been sitting for a bit. It also seems to reduce the drag when spinning and pushing or pulling the stem in or out.

Going to start smoking my Blender's Bench Oriental + Latakia x-blends to see how everything works!