reaming large chambers

[mejoshee]

I just bought a large (G sized) Radice Rind off ebay. Looks like the bottom of the chamber is mostly ok, but the top ~1/2" of the total 2" depth has got some uneven and malformed cake. I'm not worried too much about it since it's towards the top, but how would ream a chamber greater than 1" diameter? Do you think it's necessary?

I was thinking about just getting some sort of straight blade, but this will not guarantee uniformity in diameter. I read that the senior reamer types are not good at expanding to large diameters, so I may have to make my own tool with a blunted steak knife blade or something.

 

[bosun1]

Wrap some sandpaper around a dowel of proper diameter and have at it!

 

[Harlock999]

Wrap some sandpaper around a dowel of proper diameter and have at it!

:cheers:

 

[DrumsAndBeer]

The five piece Castleford reamer set works like a charm. One of the larger bits reams my Sav 315EX Prince with no trouble at all and that a pretty damn big bowl. 

http://www.4noggins.com/castlefordpipereamerset.aspx

 

[mejoshee]

The five piece Castleford reamer set works like a charm. One of the larger bits reams my Sav 315EX Prince with no trouble at all and that a pretty damn big bowl. 

http://www.4noggins.com/castlefordpipereamerset.aspx

I looked into that Castleford set for repeatable and it looks good for almost everything else, but checking the dims and I don't think it'll work. This pipe is really huge! :twisted:

But good news! :idea: I had a stroke of genius and used what I have at home: pair of kitchen shears with a rubber band for resistance on the outside and paper towel at the bottom of the bowl to prevent it going too far. Opening the shears to approximate diameter and turning slowly, I used the outside to ream nice and clean! Albeit not quite as exact, I could eyeball the thickness to make it even top to bottom. 

I'm really happy with the results but I don't think this would work for shallower chambers. I should've taken before pics; it was pretty gnarly. Oh well...

Too bad I can't patent this approach. Took about 3 careful minutes start to finish! Now, to exorcise the ghosts...

Any recommendations on what to smoke and/or dedicate this pipe to? I was thinking VA & VAPers? :lol:

 

[Dutch]

I rarely smoke Virginia blends in my larger pipes, due to the higher nicotine content of most Virginia's. Instead, I prefer to smoke one of the faster burning cigar leaf blends, such as Cornell and Diehl Billy Budd. Larger bowled pipes are especially well suited to English style Latakia blends as well.

 

[alfredo_buscatti]

I used to use a Senior Reamer with the blades reaming 360 degrees at a time. But then I got uneven results as the cake was not the same thickness all around the bowl. For some time now I ream with the Senior entirely closed. I spot ream where and how much needed. I feel this gives me more control, the most important feature of which is I don't over-ream an area of less cake simultaneously as I ream an area with more.

 

[riff raff]

The Castleford set will not work on very large bowled pipes. You probably did just as well with the scissors as with the Senor.  I like how on the Castleford, the blades are all at the same angle, resulting in an even ream for the entire bowl (as long as the bit fits).  But, on the Senor, jaws bulge out on one spot, making it tricky to ream evenly.  I rarely use my Senor.  In my opinion without a lot of care, you can do more damage than good with the Senor reamer.

 

[MisterE]

I just use a pocket knife with a rounded tip. Scrape gently avoiding the rim and too much pressure and it'll come off nicely. Once you get it pretty close to zero, maintain it there by using an aluminum pipe nail after each smoke. You'll almost never have to ream if you are good about doing that.

 

[Aristokles]

Wrap some sandpaper around a dowel of proper diameter and have at it!

Bingo! Works even on very narrow bowls as I used this last night on a Kriswill too narrow to accept any of my reamers.

 

[Anonymous]

Reaming Large Chambers​

Is that the sequel to Debbie does Dallas?

 

[mejoshee]

I just wanted to update that I bought a Kleen-Reem to have on hand for the other pipes, but I think for the Radice, the scissors is really the only way to go for the following reasons:

• Versatility: Assuming I don't use little kiddy (safety) scissors, the one I used should work on very large bowls. Again, beats Castleford and senior ones because it can get up to the big diameters of 1"+. 
• Safe: Relatively. My main concern with sandpaper is that any bending of it outwards would lead you to sanding the inside rim when perhaps you didn't want to (e.g. a clean beveled angle would now have a weird smaller secondary angle, exposing unstained briar, messing up a beautiful freehand plateau).
• Cheap: I didn't have to buy it; a normal person would probably have a pair lying around anyway.
• Repeatable: Using sandpaper and finger pressure to me just sounded like a potential sand-through to the briar if not careful. A dowel would have to be appropriately sized and I would have to work around in a possibly uneven circle, whereas the compression of the cutting surface to the next layer of cake being reamed is the principle of the senior reamers. 
• Easy: So easy, a caveman could do it.... :lol!:

Disadvantages I'd like to point out are that you would need to be careful getting down to the bottom of a U-shaped chamber with a very sharp/pointed tip. I didn't have to worry about the depth in this case because the bottom of the chamber was really smooth, likely pre-reamed by the ebay seller. However, a short chamber like a squat tomato, saucer/Rhodesian, or pot would probably do better with those aforementioned kiddy scissors. Or perhaps a combination of top 3/4 scissors ream, bottom 1/4 senior ream. Of course YMMV.

That's all folks! Thanks for the words of advice; they will go in the memory bank for future travails.

 

[riff raff]

Good points, plus and minus.  Care is required with any implement of destruction, aka the reamer.  (measure twice, cut once...)

 

[DrumsAndBeer]

Reaming Large Chambers​

Is that the sequel to Debbie does Dallas?

:lol:. 

I have reamed a few large chambers in my time and it's no easy job.. 

But hey, you get what you can get right?

 

[Kyle Weiss]

I like Kleen Reems (I think the new ones are called "Senior Reamers").   Can be had for cheap.  I tend to use them more like the tri-edged Savinelli tools, there's a bit more control on uneven cake that way...also have a tri-edged tool a friend made me, pretty much mimics the Sav model.

Reaming is a choice not to be made lightly.   Few pipes "need" reaming, but if you're into estate pipes that may have lacked some regular care, they come in handy.  

Sanding still is the best option for even (and careful) management of most cake.  It all depends on how adept with tools one is--if you have a habit of stabbing yourself with the most basic of screwdriver requirements when in a projects, for your and the project's sake, it keeps the mistakes (and blood) to a minimum.