How to Tighten Wiggly Stem Joint?

[romaso]

Do you have a plumber or metalworker friend? They might have an idea.

 

[Dave4211]

If they're both tapered, taking a bit off the tenon might make it fit. Not sure from the photo that they're tapered though...

PS Like your kitty in your avatar (they like padded guitar cases)

Yeah, it's hard for me to tell if the mortise is tapered. The stem looks tapered. There's still a missing detail.

Mickey the Cat...

He's an odd cat, but we get along alright. I'm glad he's here.

 

[LimestoneCowboy]

Thanks so much for the thoughtful replies. I will measure for length and taper in the morning.

 

[LimestoneCowboy]

Can't sleep....the tenon (shiny metal part) is 19 mm long and tapers about 1 mm from 12.59 mm to 11.60 mm. The mortise is 6.5 to 7.0 mm deep and 11 mm wide. Approximately 6 mm of the tenon fits into the mortise.

 

[LimestoneCowboy]

So, it doesn't seem like the tenon is bottoming out. The width of the tenon (11.6 mm) vs the mortise (11 mm) seems to be the issue. And neither is perfectly round. I shall ponder more after some sleep!

 

[tobefrank]

Damn, that sucks. It’s still worth letting the seller know. Who knows, they may offer to pay for return shipping or at least give a small refund or something.

If I was the pipe maker I’d like to know if one of my pipes didn’t work out. That is of course assuming they didn’t know about it when they sold you the pipe.

 

[rdpowell]

So, it doesn't seem like the tenon is bottoming out. The width of the tenon (11.6 mm) vs the mortise (11 mm) seems to be the issue. And neither is perfectly round. I shall ponder more after some sleep!

I think you should contact the seller/maker before you do anything. I know I would want to know if
a pipe of mine had problems and would want to rectify it quickly. They may not even want you to send it back and
just send you a another one. But, without letting them know you'll never know what they may want to do about it.
If after contacting them you get no satisfaction then just put a little clear finger polish inside the mortise and see what happens. There are much better ways to tighten this up but, none that I would want a customer to try on his own.

 

[LimestoneCowboy]

I think you should contact the seller/maker before you do anything. I know I would want to know if
a pipe of mine had problems and would want to rectify it quickly. They may not even want you to send it back and
just send you a another one. But, without letting them know you'll never know what they may want to do about it.
If after contacting them you get no satisfaction then just put a little clear finger polish inside the mortise and see what happens. There are much better ways to tighten this up but, none that I would want a customer to try on his own.

Thank you, I did contact him and he asked for a photo. I think I'll make a gif or short video to show the looseness. It's very unstable.

 

[rdpowell]

Can';

Thank you, I did contact him and he asked for a photo. I think I'll make a gif or short video to show the looseness. It's very unstable.

Ya can't ask for more then that sir, I hope he does the right thing, wish you the best sir.

 

[mingc]

I can't really tell from the photo but the meerschaum shank seems to terminate before the end of the metal cap, so that there is nothing supporting the end of the cap, or the end of the tenon when it's inserted. If so, it looks like a bad design.

 

[jhowell]

Is the tenon tapered? Maybe you can grind/sand a bit off the end so it will fit deeper (& thus tighter) in the mortise? Looks like the mortise isn't very deep before you hit the meerschaum shank.

This ^^^^

 

[LimestoneCowboy]

This ^^^^

This may be the answer. I didn't believe so at first because the stem did not seem to bottom out according to my measurements. But those measurements were only taken at a few points, and were within a mm or so.

The seller has been in contact with me and asked me for my phone number so that he could send me a video to illustrate how to remedy the problem. I sent my number to him and am still waiting. I did tell him that I have a small belt sander that I could use to sand down the stem. His response was, "great, but I will tell you exactly where to sand". That was a day ago. I await further instruction.