I'll be able to speak more to it this weekend. Things got a little hectic for me! Going to do some experiments on Thursday and execute on a pipe on Friday or Saturday
Filling Bite Marks on Stems
- Thread starter Tate
- Start date
George, curious if G-Flex will work for adding material to a tenon as well? JBSuperglue is an acrylic resin, meaning it dries glass-hard with no "give".
Vulcanite is countless tiny balls of rubber smooshed into a solid, meaning it does have "give".
Result? Tooth/bite compression of a pipe stem made from rubber which has an acrylic patch on it will cause the patch to flake, chip, and (eventually) detatch.
Mucher gooder is to use a type of epoxy called "G-Flex" that is formulated to have some elasticity.
Full usage info here:
Replacing Lost Vulcanite Stem Material
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I'm having a hard time imagining a situation where that would be necessary, even if it did work.
Care to elaborate?
Hey buddy! So far the experiments have been promising. The way it cured on the experiment piece makes me think that it will be way better than the super glue. There is a slight flex that with allow it to withstand a clench I think. It's curing on the pipe now and with sand and shape tomorrow. If I can polish it up in time might even be able to smoke on it.
Also pretty easy to work with. I got the thickened version. I also used a bur bit to make the imprints deeper as suggested in a video.
This sounds promising. I also saw the bur bit suggestion in the video, and it makes sense. I agree with those that have said that the super glue is really hard and I can see that it could flake or crack. Since I refurbish some pipes to resell, I don't want the stem to be unsatisfactory. So, I'm persuaded--now for the purchases.
I have a couple of old pipes that have some deep toothprints in the stem, I think they were previously owned by an alligator! The G Flex sounds like a good solution. I have used similar products in knife repair and they were quite satisfactory.
I'm going to have to order some G Flex and colorant.
I'm going to have to order some G Flex and colorant.
I finally got one filled and shaped. I'm going to polish and post my gflex results here tomorrow. I used the heat gun to get the smaller ones out that would come out. The bur bit to deepen the ones that wouldn't come out and filled with Gflex. I reshaped the button on one side. Shaped and sanded. Now just got polish it up.
Before
After
The shaping and finish is a bit off. I added a bit too much Gflex and kind of dinged it while removing the excess but all and all very happy with Gflex and while clenching this it feels very sturdy and natural.
After
The shaping and finish is a bit off. I added a bit too much Gflex and kind of dinged it while removing the excess but all and all very happy with Gflex and while clenching this it feels very sturdy and natural.
Nice work. What colorant did you use with the gflex. The tint is expensive from the folks who make gflex.
Thanks! I went with the System Three pigment. It was 16.50 on Amazon. With how little you use. It will probably last my life time. Even if I did this alot lol
I used powdered Charcoal in black glue for the initial glue fill. The glue chipped up pretty fast on me like first or second smoke fast. The gflex is going strong on second smoke. Lol
Shooting dark objects against a light background usually results in way underexposed images. The reverse is true shooting light objects against a dark background, but the result is overexposure of the object.
@Tate I don't want to get clay pipe notches from my frequent clay pipe smoking
Picked 5 bags of rubbish today & got bought 2 pints of real ale and the landlord of a flood hit pub near me in Brampton says I can have one for my hard work! No pipeweed while litter picking; I might break my clays...
Thinking of going to pubs with real fires over the winter; when I went to the Battle of Nantwich last January I had a warm-up by the pub fire after we'd smoked our pipes. Need to get some more pipeweed down my throat