Check Out This Pipe Repair: Loose Stem

[mso489]

I have a number of pipes, so mostly they aren't exposed to intense wear, but eventually, something goes wrong. One of my two Pete B11, bought new and about five years old, came up with a very loose stem. Everything seems to be intact, and it is smokeable, but it is pretty loose and not going to stay in position when heated again, I don't think. My memory of the "fix" on this is to apply bees wax to the part of the stem inserted into the shank to take up the slack space and provide a very mild sort of adhesive. I don't want to gunk the stem up, so I thought I would review this with Forums members before I did it. Alternatives may be suggested, the simpler the better. I want to start with minimal repair, and advance to great measures if needed. There are always good repair people, but I think that might be not be needed for this. Thanks for suggestions. (Note: This happened after an air conditioning repair, so the cooler ambient temperature may have played a role.)

 

[jpmcwjr]

I'd start with moistening the tenon and mortise, then smoking, repeating several times. If no joy, then beeswax on the tenon. Heating, with moisture present, may well cause the mortise to expand the wood slightly, gripping the tenon a bit more. Good luck!

 

[balkisobrains]

Beeswax works well on my one pipe that needs it. I shave a bit off of the bottom of a beeswax candle and roll it into a cone, heat the bottom of the cone, and then spin the tenon against it. Then press your thumb against the beeswax that has been deposited, spin the stem and drag the wax until it is smooth and even. When you re-insert the stem into the pipe, any excess should curl towards the bit end of the stem, and you can leave it there or coax it out with a pipe cleaner before the two are completely joined. Every so often wax has to be re-applied. Trick is not to apply too much or too unevenly. I think that this happened to one of my pipes because I did not know about the "twist stem in clockwise direction when removing and installing" rule of thumb, and I would just pull or push it and twist it back and forth, and I think that caused it to become loose.

 

[anarchisthermit]

I have one that was exceedingly loose. I applied a very thin layer of thin CA glue to the mortise. Since the pipe had a Delrin tenon which CA won't stick to, after a minute I stuck the stem back on to size it and then removed it until the glue dried. Several dozen bowls later it is still snug.

 

[randelli]

Teflon tape

 

[Chasing Embers]

https://youtu.be/khWHIzdBbhw

 

[jeepnewbie]

The beeswax worked for me but seemed to not hold up that long but that was a fairly loose tenon. I've used a metal pick and a tea candle to expand the tenon back out to a proper fit and has held up well. Teflon tape can work but makes a nasty mess for clean up down the road. I've restored a couple with that style fix. Good luck.

 

[smoothsailing]

I run into this with many of my estate pipes. I expand the tenon from the inside out using jewellers round tip needle nose

. I carefully heat the tenon with a Bic lighter or heat gun and slowly insert the tip of the needle nose into the tenon, checking for a good fit each time, I then allow it to cool or dip into cool water to harden the tenon once again.

 

[fluffie666]

If you're looking for a quick repair, there are many ways to accomplish getting a tight fit. Bees wax, pencil graphite, teflon tape, q tip and water. All of it may work. Expanding the tenon a bit with a round piece of metal heated would be a permanent fix. All of these choices would repair the pipe and make it smokable again so you wouldn't have to worry about the bit falling out. However, if you want pipe restored, that's a little out of my jurisdiction at this point. I would recommend sending it to a good pipe restore person. Getting the mortise perfectly round to fit the tenon snug like it did once before is the reason I have so many expensive estate pipes sitting around and collecting dust.

 

[mawnansmiff]

Though I have never tried it myself I have my doubts as to whether heating the tenon and expanding it with the shank of a drill is such a good idea as surely only the very end of the tenon is expanded leaving the remainder a sloppy fit or have I missed something?
Regards,
Jay.

 

[gambit88]

You could warm the tenon up a bit and press it against a flat surface. It will expand the tennon a bit. If you press too had you could split the tenon so be extra careful.

 

[lonestar]

Start with the basics. Put a drop of water in the mortise and let it soak into the wood all around the hole. It may take several tries to get it to tighten up, but this is often all it needs. Next I would try putting something in the mortise to makd the walls thicker, but then I could ream it out if it got too tight and you may not have that option. A bit of clear nail polish or super glue just around the top of the mortise would do the trick. Don't line the whole mortise with it, you don't want the smoke to come in contact with it. If it is too tight you can scrape it back off with something pointy like the end of some scissors. Just be careful not to gouge the wood.

 

[mso489]

A world of good info here. chasing, thanks for the youTube, very informative. So, from all the good input, I may start by just smoking the pipe again and seeing if that tightens up the stem. If that doesn't do it, maybe the moisture. And if that doesn't work, I will try the tea candle heating process, with maybe a bit of bees wax as a back-up. If you haven't watched the youTube on this, and have nine minutes, it is really very useful. Besides the repair, there's other good information, but all very brief and well presented. No goofing around or monotonous delay. All fixes are of interest -- I've just picked out the least invasive and easiest to reverse or proceed beyond if needed. I want to preserve the pipe repair person option if needed. Probably not on this minor complaint. Thank you all, and any further remedies are welcome.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Very welcome, I've found that technique very useful.

 

[alexnc]

SmoothSailing presents a good looking idea. I need to get one of those. I've used beeswax on estates to good results, it does need re-doing occasionally. I've been careful and not had any gunky problems.