DIY

Public Service Announcements: THE PETE GEEK NEW ERA MLB BALL CAP EVENT and--THE NATE LYNN PIPE RESTS are almost here! (see end of post) Nate Lynn's Pete Geek pipe rests are on their way to me and should be shipping out to you late next week. I'm also crazy excited for a 10th Anniversary Pete Geek Event our own "Abba" Mark Hunt suggested at the Chicago Pipe Show--an MLB New Era 59FIFTY LOW PRO Pete Geek ball cap. These are the pinnacle as far as ball caps go, as New Era has been the hat maker for Major League Baseball since the beginning. More about this at the end of the post. But now, something amazing that I've never seen in the Pete Multiverse before-- A 305 Dublin System Transformation by Nate Lynn CPG After 2024’s dismal St Patrick’s day release I started thinking about taking an estate pipe and adding some St Patty’s day flair to it. I found this 305a (the dublin version made from c. 1979-84) on eBay for a great price and other than the oxidized stem and a slight bit of rim darkening it was in amazing shape. I polished up the band first then removed it and started the process of stripping the finish. I did this by an alcohol soak, rubbed it down with some steel wool then did an acetone soak. I also wet sanded with acetone and 1200 grit to get the old stain out. Finally ready for stain. I used Fiebing’s green and soaked it thoroughly. I buffed the stain off with a cloth while it was wet as I didn’t want it to dry almost black.   Then I buffed it with polishing compound and carnauba wax and glued the band back on. Then came the really fun part, could I mold, and cast a resin stem? I used a pipe cleaner to suspend in the middle of my  the mold box. After the mold cured I removed the stem to find a bunch of air bubbles, but I was not discouraged as I was knew there would be some clean up and polishing that had to happen anyway, what I most excited about was the Peterson “P” emblem showed so my future stem would have that as well. I mixed up some small amounts of orange and white resin, ran a scotch taped covered pipe cleaner in the middle of the mold to hopefully keep my future airway clean, poured it in and said a prayer to the Almighty God. When I opened the mold I was decently happy as I had a stem with an airway. What I wasn’t happy about was the amount of air bubbles that got trapped even though I vibrated mold for quite some time. So will be recasting the mold and the stem at my friends house who owns a vacuum chamber. That will remove the bubbles from it. THE NEW DO-IT-YOURSELF MERIT BADGE   NATE LYNN'S PETE GEEK PIPE RESTS WILL…