Questions About Making, Forming, Melting Stems

[chopz]

Ok I bet a few of you here have done this. I was wondering at what temperature stems can be bent, thinking acrylic particularly. As far as forming a mouthpiece - can it be bent and shaped at a certain temperature? Anyone here who's worked with raw stock and carved or bent, and made stems?
And a related question - if i put a stem in the dishwasher at 180ºF will it melt or deform?

 

[pentangle]

don't know the right word in english but i use an high temperature phon.The ones used to remove vernish from wood.You may need to stay the phon 20 cm far from the stem.take a minute or so and take a look that lucite or ebonite don't make bubbles on the surface.Ebonite is ready to shape first than lucite.The shapeing must be done with fingers as well as the material became soft.Shaped the stem it will needs to be sanded and polished if ebonite, simply polished if lucite.

Hope that will helps

 

[chopz]

thanks pentangle. i hadn't considered a heat gun. i was thinking of either hot water or an oven.

 

[ichbinmuede]

I just bent my first stem today and I just used a zippo standing on the table and carefully holding it above the flame and heating both sides. I put a pipe cleaner in to protect the draft hole from collapsing.

 

[ejames]

If it gets hot enough a hair dryer will do the job. Have one in my shop that I use. Heat gun is quicker though. You can also use a candle.Boiling water and vulcanite don't play to well together,makes them oxidize real quick!

 

[lankfordjl]

I bought a small pipe on ebay whose tenon was slightly bent. I boiled water in an electric kettle, put the tenon and base of stem in the water (for probably 50 sec), took it out, put it in the shank, and held it in place. It worked perfectly!! Things are straight again.

 

[rickpal14]

I just bent my first stem today and I just used a zippo standing on the table and carefully holding it above the flame and heating both sides. I put a pipe cleaner in to protect the draft hole from collapsing.

I saw this same process on youtube and it worked great. After heating he dipped the stem in a bowl of cold water to set it. am going to try it this weekend......

 

[spartan]

Post the video! I wanna bend stuff too. ::

 

[rickpal14]

Bending Pipe Stem
Here it is... hope the link works as I always have trouble with that!!...........

 

[rickpal14]

It worked!!!!!!!!!!!!!! See what happens when you spend enough time here!!!