chimney

PSA: See 2023 System Day Challenge at end of post Not being overly enthusiastic about Dunhill pipes and the online fervor they can create in an online auction, coupled with the fact that the early 1980s were a dark time in pipe manufacturing, I never bought into the whole birth year pipe fad. I always passively looked for a decent 1982 Peterson, but hallmarks from this year don’t show up too often. My search had been fruitless for some time when much to my surprise, a pipe showed up on eBay by a well-known and respected estate seller and fellow Pipedia contributor. So I submitted a bid, one I thought was not overly enthusiastic but a respectable contender. I ended up winning the auction with $1 dollar on my max bid to spare. A week later this beautiful little 1982 Deluxe System smooth, 1982 showed up at my doorstep. The only thing wrong with the pipe was it was missing its chimney, which I had known prior to bidding because I asked the seller. Knowing that the typically out of stock chimneys sold online as replacements were made with the current M6.3X1 threads rather than the M7X1 threads used in the early 80s and that the new chimneys also lack the cross vents typically drilled in condensers of the earlier era I elected to turn my own replacement, not a problem for a man with a lathe. I started by measuring the threads in the tenon to determine whether they were M6.3X1 or M7X1 and determined that they were in fact M7X1. I made a drawing to establish some rough dimensions based on a condenser from a new Pub pipe and the known details of older cross-vented chimneys. Once I had a set of dimensions to work from, I could select an appropriate piece of stock. In this case a .5" (12mm) piece of aluminum rod stock fit the bill. After selecting my stock, I laid out all the tools I would need to complete the task. The first order of business was to turn a chucking holder for the treaded condenser blank. This would be used to hold the threaded blank in the lathe chuck and as a depth stop for cross vent drilling later in the process. I started by turning the holder down to my desired OD and drilling a pilot hole for the female M7X1 threads. I then tapped the holder with an M7X1 plug cutting tap. With the holder all sorted it was time to start working on the condenser itself. I started by facing the stock and drilling the 3.5mm bore of the condenser and chamfering the thread side bore to 60d. A quick look in the Machineries Handbook told me the major OD for M7X1 external threads should be 6.9mm, so I turned down the threaded portion to 6.9mm in preparation for thread cutting. Once the major OD was established, I cut the threads by hand with a die and then relieved the…