Mansion House Stem Repair

[nevadablue]

I swear I already had a thread on this pipe, but I can't find it.
I got this Mansion House (Comoy second) in a lot off of ebay. The pipe is in good shape except for the end of the stem. I want to restore it, so I started today.
The pipe:

And the poor unfortunate stem:

I intend to repair it using a delrin plug to keep from filling the stem with epoxy. The epoxy will be blackened with some carbon black I got with it.
The plug in the stem. The stem has been filed to get clean material and to shape it and roughen it so the epoxy will stick. I need to build a dam at the end to make shaping the lips easier.

Hopefully there will be more pics tomorrow after I get the epoxy mixed and applied.

 

[jpmcwjr]

I recall seeing the first two pix somewhere along the line. Good luck!

 

[nevadablue]

The first layer of epoxy is hardening now. Pics and a second coat tomorrow I hope.

 

[nevadablue]

Here is the first coat of glue. I underestimated the fluidity of the glue and it ran around the plug and into the stem. No problem, I will talk about this later.

After that first coat, I added a blue painter's tape dam to hold more glue around the lips and allow me to build up the missing area. I also forgot to take pics. But, the fluidity of the glue got me again and I had a BLOB of glue that I had to carve, file, grind and generally wear away to find the mouthpiece again. And, I admit, the delrin plug got stuck. Not the fault of the delrin though. The other stem I am repairing for my GBD pipe worked fine. On this one, that liquid glue simply 'locked' the plug in place.

The dental engine came to the rescue. We did a 'root canal' on the plug and got it out and I was able to clear the airway too. All is well.
After the dentist was finished, more filing and sanding happened. This is the result.

I left this quite rough on purpose. Now I must build a proper dam so I can make the top lip of the mouthpiece. I will be more careful this time and ensure that nothing can get into the airway.

 

[nevadablue]

After the dam failure, I tried something different. A couple of layers of matchbook cover type cardboard, covered with Carmex (my all around lube for pipe stems, threads, etc, and for waxing things) stuffed into the slot. Then a simple dam of blue painters tape. Two layers for stiffness. This was propped so the liquid glue would sit deep enough at the end to form the new lip.

And, that worked nicely. Now I have material to make a proper lip. Or, round it off and leave it as-is. An alternative to the p-lip.

 

[nevadablue]

I was doing fairly well with the shaping after the epoxy cured. The lips were roughly shaped and I was working on the stem. I even taped it to avoid scratching the part that I didn't work on. OOPS, I cut a groove next to the tape, with the jewelers' file. No more tape during that phase. I couldn't see what I was up to.

So, another layer of epoxy was added. Here, it is curing.

That was yesterday. This morning the filler had cured enough to start filing again. I have it roughly shaped now and this is how it looks after a sanding with 400 grit to see the shape. The lips still need to be worked down to size and the airway polished. Then, on to reaming and cleaning the pipe.

 

[alan73]

:clap:
Great tutorial, I think I might be brave enough to follow your lead on a pipe that needs almost the exact same repair

 

[nevadablue]

Thanks Alan. Note that I used the T-88 epoxy. It seems to be just fine, but I think others here use the G-flex from the same maker. Supposed to be more flexible. I have some of that too. I bought it upon recommendation, for repairing cracked briar.