I have been a fan of Reborn pipes for some time, After seeing his blog using charcoal and tinted super glue I kept thinking " if you can use charcoal why cant you use vulcanite shavings?" Need less to say stumbling upon your video solidified the Idea. It has worked with great results. I also liked your video on bleaching. Thank you for the video. Cheers
I am currently working on a stem using the vulcanite shaving method you mentioned. So far it is working fantastically. Thank you so much for your video.
I think that if you applied a little heat (either with a heat gun or hair dryer) after you apply the super glue/filler, it would collapse any air bubbles or pockets of air inside the filled portion of the stem, and maybe give you a better overall result. Of course, 2-4 coats of filler may be necessary for filling imperfections in pipe stems, regardless of whether or not heat is applied during the filling process. Either way, great video as always!
I've found that simply applying heat cleans up 90% of bite marks and small chatter, as it allows the vulcanized rubber to reform to it's original shape. Of course if you have missing material, or deep bite marks, it won't fully re-form, but it does fix a lot of it. You just need to be careful and not apply too much heat. I also used your advice on filling holes - worked like a charm! You'd never know there was ever a hole in my stem. Thanks for the video(s)!
Great vid! Maybe I should take a junk vulcanite stem and shred it up into a container. :) but that would increase surface area and speed up oxidation a lot probably. I see you used medium thickness. I believe they offer thicker levels. May help if not mixing with other materials. It may not get into all the crevices either though.
I ended up doing that and it worked great. Used a dremel and made enough for many, many stems. Saved me a lot of time. First hole in stem came out awesome. Barely can tell. Don’t be reticent in trying!
As an FYI, not all carbon powder is the same. I tried some that I had for teeth cleaning, it hardened up almost immediately. I've also found the gorilla ca glue with 10 seconds work time similar to the #20 from stewmac. Thanks for the vids!
If you have a mini-lathe, you can buy Ebonite rod-stock on Amazon or Ebay for around $20 a ft (30cm) for 12mm dia rod. Since it 'softens' at around 180F (80C), You can EASILY 'form it' by using a heat gun and pre-formed pine molds to 'curve', 'bend' or 'shape' anything you need'...then finish texture with 240-360 grit sandpaper (1000 grit for finish, with a touch of heat). Why keep playing with broken hard plastic, when you can almost re-invent a repair business with new Ebonite?
very informative. I have numerous stems that have holes on the top side where some teeth have bitten through. would vulcanite be the best approach along with the stewmac? if so, where can i buy some vulcanite? thanks again.
Thanks for the informative video! I tried this method and ran into some difficulties. I was able to fix a hole but I have small spots of vulcanite appearing brown within the otherwise black patch. Any idea what I did wrong or how to fix it?
I use a sanding disk on my dremel which makes it go really quick, but you can also just use a sheet of 100 grit wet/dry sanding paper and run a vulcanite rod back and forth over it.
Have you bought a tenon tightening kit? They work great. I know this is an old post but I wouldn’t do that to a tenon. It would have to be just perfectly round and don’t think it would take the torsion over long time.
I think what you saw is the micro mesh pads. At the beginning I sanded it with 300 and 600 grit paper just to get it even and then it I went directly to the pads. The white diamond is a hard buffing compound that you get in wood working stores for use on a buffing wheel
Sorry for bothering you once again. The only “white diamond” I can find is a metal polisher. Is the the correct thing you use? It’s a liquid. Please advise if you have time. Thanks
'Repairing a Vulcanite Stem' is rather misleading...and takes away from the actual repair process. Keep in mind, there is an actual 'rock mineral' referred to as Vulcanite (not used in pipes). While the actual 'hard rubber' you see in many pipe stems is actually 'Ebonite', and was developed by Charles Goodyear, same man of Goodyear Tire fame. If you want to see how easy it is to 'form hard rubber Ebonite' from basic stock, the search terms you really want to use is Ebonite, or Hard Ebonite... It is NOT that hard to actually create your own stems, or repair stems, if you learn a bit about working with hard rubber...
