Briarcraft BriarMeer missing liner

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Sobrbiker

Lifer
Jan 7, 2023
4,319
56,498
Casa Grande, AZ
So I took a chance on a cheap Briarcraft BriarMeer on eBay. description was they weren’t sure about liner but thought it was gone.

Well, it’s gone. Thinking of just using it as a big pot-there isn’t residue of glue in bowl. I don’t see any defects
I’m currently taking crappy stain off, topping bowl, and have fixed stem being overclocked.

Before I bother doing stem repair and clean up I wanted to ask those more experienced than myself:

How thick do chamber walls need to be? Walls are right at 5/16”…
1FE0CB71-4EFB-4EEA-934F-F85F029BE924.jpeg658B74DE-B269-40C6-A871-0FFF2FAA6E6C.jpeg583F14CF-8F6F-4767-8D75-1F293D799D16.jpeg74ACE896-E57E-41CA-8C4B-F02F26242F91.jpeg361676AC-94F6-4DAE-AF60-9F90BF3A7107.jpeg
 

Sobrbiker

Lifer
Jan 7, 2023
4,319
56,498
Casa Grande, AZ
Maybe you can find a small enough meerschaum coloring bowl to cut and fit inside the chamber. Or have a new insert made ???
It was cheap (<$15 shipped) so I’m just using it as a practice platform.
Since I posted, I’ve reamed shank; reamed/sanded bowl; cleaned/sanded stummel; decked bowl; stained stummel; reamed stem; drilled larger airway in stem; shaped up slot in bit; sanded chatter/chips in bit; sanded stem 1500-12000 by hand.
Leaving stain to dry overnight and will polish stem/stummel tomorrow, and see where I’m at.

I did find a place in Eskisehir that will drill a block lining to size for $17 plus shipping, so if it does turn out well a new liner isn’t off the table.
 

Sobrbiker

Lifer
Jan 7, 2023
4,319
56,498
Casa Grande, AZ
Pipe’s doing a salt soak currently, and I’m pondering smoking as is versus trying a liner. Bowl would be bigger than my usual, but not huge-.89”x1.4”

-are there issues from draft hole being slightly above bottom of chamber? I’m not one to worry over lost dottle, I just don’t know if draft hole will “burn out”.

Vermont Freehand has pressed meerschaum inserts on site, but my concern would be breakage while shaping outer dimensions, reaming bowl to size and drilling draft hole.

I’ve reached out to Calabash Pipes World in Turkey to see about their block liners. Their site states “we carve any size meerschaum liners”. We’ll see what they say.

Might be hard not to smoke it while I decide what to do. Any input welcome!

Pre-polish, pre-salt treatment progress:
7F035436-D11C-4241-B313-8CA31DAD8D0D.jpeg5917C913-77A3-4A05-A552-94FD8214FB48.jpeg1AE46A49-5784-4BE0-82A5-6C698C399D01.jpeg
 
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Sobrbiker

Lifer
Jan 7, 2023
4,319
56,498
Casa Grande, AZ
You can buy meer bowl liner insert blanks from Vermont Freehand, you can turn one down to size pretty easily with a drill and some sandpaper.
That may be option one at the moment, as the pressed meer from them is 1/4 the cost of Turkish block blank.
If I may ask-
When you did yours from them did you get any chipping when drilling draft hole, and what kind of head gave good control to shape bowl?
What did you use to chuck blank up in drill? I don’t wanna split the thing securing it.
 
Jun 9, 2015
3,970
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Mission, Ks
That may be option one at the moment, as the pressed meer from them is 1/4 the cost of Turkish block blank.
If I may ask-
When you did yours from them did you get any chipping when drilling draft hole, and what kind of head gave good control to shape bowl?
What did you use to chuck blank up in drill? I don’t wanna split the thing securing it.
Well I turn em on a lathe, but you can do a simple insert with a variable speed drill in a vise.

The process is as follows.

1. Turn insert to fit in stummle,
2. press/glue insert into stummle.
3. Drill draft hole into insert.
4. Drill chamber down to draft hole.
5. Trim insert down to match rim.
6. Sand chamber and chamfer meer portion of rim.

If you choose to press it in, put the slightly oversized insert in the freezer and warm the stummle with a heat gun. If you have a slight interferance fit in this state you will have a tight fit when temps equalize.

You can use a reamer to cut the chamber profile and then sand it smooth.
 

Sobrbiker

Lifer
Jan 7, 2023
4,319
56,498
Casa Grande, AZ
Well I turn em on a lathe, but you can do a simple insert with a variable speed drill in a vise.

The process is as follows.

1. Turn insert to fit in stummle,
2. press/glue insert into stummle.
3. Drill draft hole into insert.
4. Drill chamber down to draft hole.
5. Trim insert down to match rim.
6. Sand chamber and chamfer meer portion of rim.

If you choose to press it in, put the slightly oversized insert in the freezer and warm the stummle with a heat gun. If you have a slight interferance fit in this state you will have a tight fit when temps equalize.

You can use a reamer to cut the chamber profile and then sand it smooth.
Thanks, I’ll be utilizing a drill press.
Trying to wrap my head around chucking insert up to turn down the ID.