GBD Rondelle Transplant Help

[Ryan]

I have a GBD that is missing the rondelle. I finally found a suitable donor pipe and I would like to remove the rondelle and place it on my pipe.

How should I go about removing it? Will heat alone do it?

 

[Ryan]

I’m going to bump this and hope I find some help. I see info on the web about placing it on a stem, but I haven’t seen anything about removing one. Anyone?

 

[briarblues]

Ryan, I have no concise idea what would work easily and without damage to the Rondelle.

George would the best person to contact, IMHO. Heat might work, then again, without knowing if it is pushed into place or glued .... you may end up with a damaged Rondelle.

My gut instinct is to carefully remove material from the stem. Cut it down, near the Rondelle and very gently remove material until only the Rondelle is left .... then again.... that's a ton of work....

 

[kcghost]

Calling @georged, calling @georged.

 

[georged]

Some of them are solid---about half the thickness of a dime---while others are foil.

The solid ones can be transferred but it is VERY difficult to do, while the foil ones cannot.

Also, removing them can't be done without destroying the original stem.

 

[Ryan]

Thanks for the tips!

I bought this pipe just for the rondelle, so I’m not worried about the stem. It’s really just a donor. I am now concerned I won’t be able to do it at all. I guess there is only one way to find out.

There is something I’m curious about though, if they are this hard to remove how do so many of them end up missing? I see them missing from stems all the time, and those stems are not destroyed!

 

[georged]

Thanks for the tips!

I bought this pipe just for the rondelle, so I’m not worried about the stem. It’s really just a donor. I am now concerned I won’t be able to do it at all. I guess there is only one way to find out.

There is something I’m curious about though, if they are this hard to remove how do so many of them end up missing? I see them missing from stems all the time, and those stems are not destroyed!

Depends on the specimen.

They were pushed into the rubber using an arbor press with a heated ram.

If the "fold over" of the surrounding rubber was too shallow, sometimes they just fell out of their own accord years down the road. Removing those can be clean and easy. If the fold-over was heavy, they have to be cut out. In-between cases can usually be heated and pried out (though that risks rondell damage if you guess wrong, get your angles wrong, etc.)

 

[snagstangl]

So you are saying its possible...

 

[ssjones]

I've never had the need to try this myself, but Steve Laug did it back in 2013, with a soldering iron. Details:

Installing a GBD Rondelle on a New Stem

Today I finished restemming a GBD 9438 with a new tapered stem. The original saddle stem was unrepairable. I removed the rondelle from that stem and studied how it had been installed. From the appe…

rebornpipes.com

 

[georged]

So you are saying its possible...

It's definitely possible, just very tricky and unforgiving.

Unless you have a heated ram arbor press available (or equivalent), a recess for the rondelle must be cut by hand... a recess that's a perfect "negative" shape and depth-wise to glue it into, and is in exactly the right spot/position on the stem.

After the stem is otherwise finished. (a.k.a. screw up and start over)

Here's a replacement stem I made for Greg Pease many years ago with a silver rondelle. (Silver specimens are unusual, but not truly rare).

 

[georged]

I've never had the need to try this myself, but Steve Laug did it back in 2013, with a soldering iron. Details:

Installing a GBD Rondelle on a New Stem

Today I finished restemming a GBD 9438 with a new tapered stem. The original saddle stem was unrepairable. I removed the rondelle from that stem and studied how it had been installed. From the appe…

rebornpipes.com

Melting without having zero side-to-side movement/axial control, arbor press-style, leaves the edges pretty messy, though:

 

[Ryan]

Here are the pipes I hope to do the transplant upon. I don’t have much money in these pipes, and they aren’t valuable collectors items either, so I may go for it after I think about it a while longer and then overthink it also.



I did try the stem with the intact logo in the pipe with the intact stummel. The tenon fit ok, and could be be worked out, but the overall diameter of stem is larger than the overall diameter of the shank.

I don’t think that’s something I would want to deal with, given the stem with the missing logo is actually better overall shape and has less oxidation than the logo-intact stem.

Lastly, this is what my dog thinks of my tedious pipe posts.

 

[Ryan]

Here is the “intact” stem pushed in to the good stummel. I am starting to think it might make more sense to try and make this stem fit? Or am I wrong?

 

[georged]

Here is the “intact” stem pushed in to the good stummel. I am starting to think it might make more sense to try and make this stem fit? Or am I wrong?

View attachment 280959
View attachment 280960
View attachment 280961

It depends on three things ---

How exact you want the fit to be (what's acceptable); the tools you have available; and the amount of work that you're willing to put into it.

 

[Ryan]

I would like it to look good, but I didn’t need it to be perfect.

I have a pretty full wood shop available to me, but I only have a vague notion of the tools that are applicable to this situation.

I’m willing to put in some time. I am looking forward to this project.

 

[bayareabriar]

Put a piece of electric tape over the one you want removed. Heat up the area with a heat gun and see if it comes out. Might damage it, might get it right out.

 

[RustiePyles CPG]

I've had pretty good luck removing them with a very thin fine tooth backsaw. I saw down the length of the stem behind the emblem being sure to remain parallel to the emblem. This will produce a slab of stem material with the emblem in the middle. Then you need to sand the back of the slab up to the emblem exposing the entire back of the emblem, this will allow you to simply pop the emblem out of the slab.