Really? Before you can REST a case George, you actually have to MAKE ONE. Meantime, am I the only one here who thought it just a bit strange that you passed on attacking a suggestion to suck the broken bit out with a magnet (?) but thought the idea of just leaving all alone and drilling a NEW hole bypassing the stuck bit or coming in from the front silly?
Meantime, first you suggest cutting off the shank to get to the bit, ruining the bowl and briar in the process, then do a 180 and come out of nowhere with a custom made coring tube with 1/10th inch teeth (which you cut very nicely) suggesting the OP make one like it is nothing! Was I the only one who saw this as just another self-aggrandizement to showcase your personal skills? You even offer to send him one. Of course, it WAS nothing much to make, IF you have the requisite tool making skills to know the right way to cut teeth for hard wood.
But I’ve realized that perfectionists tend to only see things certain ways, but your idea WAS better than mine if it worked as it would leave you with a clean straight hole whereas bypassing the broken bit would have left a messy interior harder to clean. That is why I preferred the idea of drilling in from the front of the bowl and just tapping the bit out with a drift pin. Any woodworker worth his sand could fill that hole with a plug that would be very hard to see.
Well, nothing else has been said here while I was away but am I the only one here who thought it odd that you didn’t offer to have the OP just send you the pipe to core out that bit for him? I mean, you do fix pipes, right? This sounds like a lot less trouble than trying to hammer out a piece of silver into a tapered cone.
My impression of you, George, right or wrong is that you have been a wood smith or craftsman of some sort all of your life. You call yourself a “tool geek.” Well, I’ve worked in specialty steels professionally, making metals you’ve never heard of for the defense department and nuclear subs. https://www.atimetals.com/Pages/default.aspx I own a machine shop and used to run an engineering firm making custom parts for optical gear. And though not a pipe fixer for anyone but myself, I’ve restored totally busted up, destroyed antique tables and such that people in the antique restore business would not even touch and have made them look like new. So I do know a thing or two on making and fixing things.
I’m sure your talents are greatly appreciated by many here who you’ve rescued their issued pipes and I have no doubt you have a great familiarity with the brands, etc., but when I read some of your comments, tips, the way you chopped down a broken shank rather than fix it, the way you fumbled through trying the wrong way to make an unneeded band, and your fear of even simple fixes to Meerschaum pipes calling them “spooky,” I am not impressed and realize that your skills are really rather limited to within a certain framework of confidence, but at least whatever you DO choose to fix and settle on, you do seem to do a very nice job because you seemingly only take the jobs you feel totally confident you can really handle in the ways you want to. I've never been able to live that safely and more prefer and am used to going into things I have no idea the problem or solution, then finding one that works anyway because I have to. It is called engineering.
Mind you, I would never levy this sort of response to the forum, but you do seem to keep asking for it. As to those other two pipe fixes I referred to, I will post my comments on what SHOULD have been done to them on those threads.
Regards,
