wharfrathoss' da man! Excellent tutorial, dude, thanks!
Check out the Viking with my hand-made bit! The original (cracked) stem is laying under, mine is shinier! A few "oops"es the white scratch on the top for example, but it worked great and smokes much better now!!!
Also polished the moldy looking Jirsa bit, like brand new!
Here is an extreme closeup (go Garth) showing the original putrid green color around the logo which I cleverly preserved.
On the Viking, I was unable to find a lathe to use so had to hand sand (couldn't chuck the bit in a drill). A little mis-shapen on the tenon, seeing some smelly condensation in the gaps, but overall a snug fit. I may try to nail polish it level (or any suggestions?).
I may have overheated the piece for bending, some brown discolorations streaking around. But it worked. I was too lazy to make the trip to Home Depot so raided the auto paint store next door. Sanded away with 400 grit, then 1000 grit, then 1500 grit (the finest they carried). Then three passes with rubbing compound, again some oops-es missed a couple of spots where its still a little discolored - also compounded the airway with a fluffy. Finally finished with Dunhill's pipe stem cleaner, worked better than any toothpaste I have tried (although it does smell suspiciously like Crest).
Also bored out the pipe a tad, by hand, most of the crud that came out looked like the bowl carbonizer (or I have been too lax in cleaning). Had one bowl this morning, smoked MUCH better than ever before. Some odd tastes filtered through but given all the stuff I've been throwing at it, understandable.
A fun pair of projects!
RJ