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    • I like to make things

    • Posted by lampcommander on 26 Oct 11
    • I've never noticed the blog section before! What the hell!

      I will use this to post things I've done or made, be it crafts or food or whatever, until I forget or let it go too long.

      Let's start with a project I finished last weekend: a pipe.




      This is what I started with. The holes were predrilled by the wood supplier to standard fit. I sketched out an idea of what I wanted the pipe to look like, then drew on the block itself to make sure I wouldn't be cutting into the internal airway of the pipe.

      Using a hand mitersaw (I'm po folks) I lopped off the bottom to make a flat surface, then cut in straight down and at an angle to begin the curvature of the pipe. I used a belt sander at grit 60 to do some initial rough shaping and take off a lot of material, and I used a series of wood files to shape the notch where I had sawn into the top of the pipe. Then came sanding, and sanding, and sanding, and more sanding--100 grit, 150, 220, and then finally 400.

      This is what I ended up with:


      I wanted to get an idea of the grain for staining, so I wet one side with some water:


      After all the sanding was complete, I washed the pipe in warm soapy water and scrubbed it with a nail brush, to make sure I got all the sandy pockets out. Then came staining. I used a Minwax water-based stain, which let me tell you is runny as hell. Had to go slow and fix a couple of mistakes. I used an ebony for the top and an English walnut for the rest. After it dried for about 15 minutes I burnished it with 0000 steel wool to even out the stain and remove excess, and prepared for waxing. I used a block of solid carnauba wax against my dad's floor-standing buffer to polish the pipe.

      The stem is cheap vulcanite, which means it's also very workable. It sands just like wood, and it can be bent. I put it into a glass pan on a bed of salt, sprinkled a thin layer of salt on top, and baked it in the oven at 275F for about ten minutes. I had stuck a pipe cleaner through the stem so that when it was pliable from the heat, I could bend it without accidentally pinching closed the hole. I bent it the way I wanted and ran it through cold water to set the bend in place.

      Soon I will upload a pic of the finished pipe. It looks good and smokes real good, surprisingly!
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    • Storytime with GovSpy

    • Posted by government spy on 17 Oct 11
    • I've put a lot of stories about my real life on Whitechapel, and some of you guys seem to enjoy them. So I've started writing them down, bit by bit, and occasionally they fit a topic on the boards. I recently wrote a few that don't fit anywhere specifically, so I thought I would put them in the blog space (which doesn't have a word limit!). Hope you enjoy!
    • Comments: 68Subscribe to author

    • The continuing story of running a public discussion group...

    • Posted by John Skylar on 22 Aug 11
    • I just somehow managed to create a good time for 40ish people and four Internet celebrities while on five and a half hours sleep and no dinner.

      I'm proud of this achievement and wanted to share it with you, but it also feels very important to note that much more credit goes to each and every one of the aforementioned people. I just poked it a bit when it got off topic.

      Yay!

      Also, somewhat the real purpose of this post: The Way Station in Brooklyn is a steampunk bar run by all manner of awesome people.
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    • WhitechapelGuide

    • Posted by Rootfireember on 11 Aug 11
    • I'm working on a guide to whitechapel in my offtime.
      Sorta a chronicle of it's history, famous/infamous threads and discussions, people, and what NOT TO DO. So far I'm looking at making it into a .pdf and just shoving it up on my webspace.

      Anythoughts?
    • Comments: 10Subscribe to author

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