Tools to Get Started

Thanks Greg, good starter for a complete noob such as myself. I'm heading to our pipe club meeting tonight and I might pickup a eubachon at the shop and see if I can't do something like this with hand tools. The power tool experiment I had was disastrous so maybe this will work instead.

Great vid... Wishing you likes or views or whatever!

I didn't realize you were that Greg

Nice video Greg and thanks for putting it up. I have quite few tools from my days of making handmade custom knives years ago which includes a 2” Wilton belt grinder. Mine is much older than the one pictured and does not have a variable speed control as they did not have that option back in the late 70’s , but it basically looks just like the one pictured. My buffer is also one speed (high), but if handled properly it can and should do the job, well at least it did for steel and the plethora of exotic woods that I used for the handles. I also have a 9” band saw which needs some cleaning and a new blade, as does my workshop which is a total mess. I’ll soon be posting a picture of an ebauchon block kit I have for a first try, and another that I plan on using after that which is a plateau block kit.
If all turns out well I’d like to try my hand and make them from scratch, including the stems, but I have a question which I feel astrange1 would obviously be much more qualified to answer. I realize that a lathe is one piece of equipment that is integral to pipe making, but I’m somewhat confused s to what type, i.e. wood lathe or metal lathe is needed (obviously both would be nice). I’ve used a variety of tools, but I’ve never used a lathe and have absolutely no experience with one. Can one cut a tenon on a stem, drill the hole, and also use it to drill out the bowl and mortise the shank with a good quality mini wood lathe (Rikon comes to mind) , or must all stem work be done on a metal lathe? Perhaps a question better put forth on a pipe making forum but I just thought I’d throw it out.

I learned on a Wilton!

Damn good machine and I made a hell of a lot of knives on that sucker. :wink:

Very informative video. Thanks a bunch!

I have this belt sander, pull off the little guide behind the belt and it does a good job following curves if you're careful, takes off wood really quick if you're not!

A dremel, a collection of files and rasps and a buffer set up for polishing and waxing seems to do a pretty good job on a pre-drilled pipe kit. Drilling would need a lot of precision and I haven't tried to tackle that yet.
*edit, tried to add a link, but it posted the whole video... this one only uses a drill press for drilling.
This set of videos doesn't use a lathe, just a drill press.

Thank you,"that",Greg for the pointers.