Cold Pipe

[herrmann]

Hi all; My question is when a pipe with a stinger in it is still warm to the touch, will it do damage to the stem if I unscrew it from the pipe to get rid of the gurgle or saliva in the stem? Thank you for responding. Herman

 

[Effortlessdepths]

Hi all; My question is when a pipe with a stinger in it is still warm to the touch, will it do damage to the stem if I unscrew it from the pipe to get rid of the gurgle or saliva in the stem? Thank you for responding. Herman

I wouldn't think so, I remove my stems when the pipes are hot all the time to clear moisture, I imagine removing a stinger wouldn't be harmful.

 

[mso489]

I think the unscrew stinger/stem would be no problem. The old rule was, don't remove a push-bit stem while the pipe is still warm, but experienced pipe smokers on Forums say they break that "rule" regularly with no bad consequences. But with the unscrew stinger/stem, I don't think it is a problem.

 

[sablebrush52]

That depends upon how the stinger is attached to the shank. For example, Kaywoodie stingers screwed into a metal collar that was glued to the inner wall of the mortise. As long as the pipe was allowed to cool down before the smoker unscrewed the stinger there was no problem. But if the pipe was still warm, the glue softened a bit, so when the stem was unscrewed and then screwed back in the glue would give a little bit, causing the stem to lose it's clocking and the bit wouldn't be level when screwed in. Kaywoodie was aware of this, so when pipes were sold new, the bits were slightly underclocked, allowing the smoker a number of warm stem cleanings as the clocking moved to normal, before it eventually overclocked.'ve seen the ad that Kaywoodie put out, selling equipment to repair services that allowed for easy reclocking of the stem.

 

[crashthegrey]

Screwed in you are fine, but don't overdo it as stated above. A little heat gun can fix any alignment issues.