First time fitting an Army Mount stem

[ontariopiper]

Thought I'd share this here for everyone that likes to restore/repair their own pipes. I had been avoiding this job for a while in order to get my nerve up  I had one shot to get this right, so I worked slowly and carefully to carve down an oversized P-lip stem to fit a Peterson Irish Made X105 army mount stummel.

Apart from laying out the length and contours of the finished stem, judging the slope of the cone to fit the mortise was the tricky bit. Too sharp an angle and the stem would wobble; too shallow and the stem wouldn't seat deeply enough in the shank. I roughed in the new shape with a dremel and sanding drum then spent about 3 hours of bench time hand filing and sanding to get the fit right.

Really happy with the finished pipe, though I'm now wishing I didn't have to send it back to its owner!  

The full write-up goes live on www.dadspipes.com tomorrow morning for those interested in reading. Thanks for looking.

 

[Corncobcon]

Wow! That turned out great. I wish I had the patience to do that.

 

[Blackhorse]

Nice. Very nice.

 

[Ozark Wizard]

That's great! I really need to get back into that stuff again. I'm just not supposed to be bent over tables and lugging tools about. Nice work on the pipe!

 

[ontariopiper]

Thanks, gents! The job itself was actually easier than I had anticipated, though a lot slower. A 1" belt sander would have made short work of stock removal, but I don't (yet) own one so it was dremel and files for this poor slob. The dremel (or my shaky hand) left dents and pits in the vulcanite so I had to stop well short of the mark and finish the cone by hand.

OW - I hear ya on hunching over a desk. I made sure to take regular short breaks to stretch and limber up. IF I don;t my lower back and shoulders can get a bit screamy! The dubious rewards of having enough birthdays, I suppose. :roll:

 

[user 2027]

Good looking pipe! Been tempted to buy an Army Mount stem pipe. I love my Peterson Spigot.

 

[Brewdude]

Looks like a fine job Charles. Must've been very tricky getting the angle just right. Love me an army mount!

8)


Cheers,

RR

 

[ontariopiper]

Looks like a fine job Charles. Must've been very tricky getting the angle just right. Love me an army mount! 8)

It took a lot of fiddling for sure, Rande. Digital calipers were handy on this one to give a sense of diameters at the business end of the stem - it's a much flatter slope than I would have originally guessed. This is probably where a lot of DIYers go wrong trying to fit an army mount stem. If the cone is sloped too much then the only point of contact between stem and mortise is the inner edge of the metal shank cap. This will make the stem wobble and render the pipe nearly impossible to smoke.

As I only had one stem available to work with, I made sure to take my time, remove stock slowly and test-fit often.