Making a wood pipe- A picture tutorial

Discussion in 'DIY and Homemade' started by SkunkWoodz, Nov 21, 2014.

  1. #1 SkunkWoodz, Nov 21, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 21, 2014
    Hey grasscity blades!  There's been plenty of discussion on wood pipes, and how to make them.  I decided to make a picture tutorial for anybody who would like to learn.  If you have different methods and techniques please feel free to contribute.  This is just the way I do it.  So, off to the steps.
     
    1.  Safety. 
    as soon as I step in the shop I put my safety glasses on and make sure my cuts and scrapes are covered up to prevent gunky infections.  Thanks to a pitbull fight at my feet between a couch and coffee table, I gotta cover this one up.  High quality electrical tape is the best for holding bandaids on.  Make sure you have proper fitting glasses, no extra baggy clothes or necklaces, gloves are good but not neccesary.  Just be safe guys, can't tell you how many times I've sliced open a finger or flung some shit into my eye.
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    2. Wood selection.  
    Now if you don't have any options at home like this, then you'll need to order some from the internet, or find a suitable wood in town at a specialty wood store, you can use oak from lowes or home depot, but the dust is more toxic than other choices.  Keep an eye out for cherry, hard maple, most fruit woods are good, black walnut, briar is the best choice (what's used in most traditional style tobacco pipes)  For this piece I chose some black walnut.  I've been working this piece down around this huge knot.  
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    3. Decide on a design.
    This piece I wanted to go simple simple simple, so I traced out my tobacco pipe.  Try to stick within your capabilities and available tools.
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    4. Cut your design out.
    You'll need a saw and some clamps for this one.  I pretty much just use the big saw, and the coping saw if I have to make an angle or curve.  Don't forget to take material off from the stem area as well, save yourself a lot of file shaping and sanding.
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    5.  Design the airflow.
    This part takes a little patience and precision.  Find the center of the bowl and trace the lines down the sides.  Next you'll need to figure the depth of your bowl.  What I do is hold my stem drill bit on the side how I want my stem to look, could be straight, angled up or down, whatever.  Then mark off the top side of the drill bit.  This line represent the stem chambers upper wall, we do not want to drill our bowl past this line.  Take your drill bit for your bowl and hold it up against the pipe until the tip touches the stem's line, then mark the drill bit at the proper depth, a piece of tape is perfect for this.
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    6. Drill out your holes.
    Take your time with this too.  For the stem I use a 3/16" drill bit and the bowl a modified 3/4" spade bit.  A 1/2" regular bit will make a decent bowl too.  You don't want to rip a side out of the bowl or crack the stem from over heating.  Drilling the stem is trickiest due to the length, keep the bit cool by pulling it out every 1/2 inch or so remove the dust, sometimes I spray it with water.  Overheating your drill bits will ruin the metals temper and they'll lose their edge quicker.  I typically start by drilling the bowl hole, then the stem, then I connect the two with a 1/8" drill bit.
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    7. Start shaping down to the final contours.
    The most grass roots way to do this would be a pocket knife, rasp, or file.  I bought a 1x30 belt sander from harbor freight tools about 4 years ago for 32 dollars.  One of the best tools purchases of my life.  If your a crafty person at all I'd recommend getting one, this and a dremel.  Anyways, I start of with 40 grit belts and work my way to 120.
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    8. Make it cool dude!
    Flames, mushrooms, stars, whatever! use your imagination!  woodburners, dremel carving, artistic drawing and painting, wire wrapping, etc etc etc,
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    9. Sanding.
    Time for the real elbow grease unless you do it all with a dremel.  I start with 120 grit and move my way up to 320-600 grit, sometimes above that depending on the wood.  For times sake with this piece I barely touched it with grit, lightly with 120 then again light and quick with 320.  Pro tip for you, save your fingers and extend the life of your paper by putting it on something soft.  I used to glue sand paper to cork until I found these adhesive back foam pads for crafting at wal-mart, they are absolutely perfect to back your sandpaper.  Just make sure to label them again so you don't forget what grit you have.
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    Pro tip #2 To sand the inside of a bowl, jam some rolled up paper in your drill and have at it!
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    10. Preserve the wood and finishing.
    I like to put a coat of mineral oil on first, let is soak in for about 30 minutes, then buff on some bee's wax or carnauba wax.  Don't get it inside the bowl! you want the inside of the bowl bare wood, sanded to 320.
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    11. Season the bowl (aka blaze up)
    I like to put my mini torch lighter in the bowl for a few seconds, just to get a tiny bit of carbon present, then I smoke some beasters to build up some "cake" on the bowl walls.  A screen in the bottom is nice too to help prevent combusting any wood where the hot air is concentrated.
     
    Hope this helped some blades.  Happy toking! 
     
    and again, if you want to add something or describe/show a technique you have or prefer, please feel free!
     
     
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  2. That's sick


    Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
     
  3. Dude your so fucking talented
     
  4. That's bad ass! Does is have a Carb on it?
     
  5.  
    Thanks for the positive replies guys!  And no, no carb.  I've done them on this style before but I won't be using this piece so it was something easily overlooked.  
     
  6. Nice!!! The majority of posts in this section are about apples and Gatorade bottles so when I see something with true artistic talent I get excited.
     

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