Drilling a Talbert Briar

I have finally finished assembling the pipe drilling video. It covers, from start to the end of drilling, the methods I use to shape and drill Talbert Briars. I also, on occasion, drill using my lathe or drill press, but the majority of my drilling is done as it shows in the video (and anyway, lathe and drill press drilling are well-known and dull subjects for videos). I hope it will be interesting!

The video is 16 minutes long and can be downloaded in a 114 meg AVI file here or, for those with slower connections, in a 15 meg RealPlayer file here. Even the bigger file is a half-size video - I found that encoding a full-size 640x480 AVI produced video files of at least 250 meg or more, and I simply don't have the bandwidth to handle lots of people downloading a 250 meg file. However, if anyone has a site and the bandwidth to spare, I would be happy to host it elsewhere - just get in touch by email.

(As an aside, I really shouldn't have to post this but I know I'd better - Yes, it would be an imposition to write the file to CDs and mail out discs. I know that otherwise I'll get an email box full of letters all starting with, "Hi, I'm Joe Pipemaker. I enjoy your blog and really don't want to impose, but could you put that big video file on a disc and mail it to me?" What Joe Pipemaker doesn't realize is that there are thirty-four other amateur pipemakers all writing me with the same thing! So, not to be rude, but no. I do hope that someone will provide the free bandwidth for hosting the big file and it will be a moot issue anyway.)

The pipe in the video is the Seahorse shape previously previewed. It isn't for sale yet - it is one of a set that I'm doing for a collector's request, and after he's picked his favorite, I'll post the rest to the site for sale. I'm fond of the shape - like the first couple of Ibex designs I did, it looks a bit odd from this or that angle, but I intend to make many more like this and refine the design as I go.

The poll voting has slowed, but I will let it run for another few days at least. At the moment, 51% of the votes are for more videos, so today's post should make people happy! The second choice, at 28%, is for no change at all - encouraging, to say the least. 10% voted for more interactivity, such as a discussion forum. I'm not sure about this - I know one could be integrated into the blog via a side menu, but I don't really know what purpose it would serve, since there are already so many pipe-related messageboards that the community has fractured into a hundred splinters. The Pipemakers Forum would seem to cover everything related to pipemaking already, so I'm not sure what a forum would be about. Also, for those who did not realize it, the blog itself functions as a messageboard - just click the "Comments" link below to leave your feedback about anything that is posted. Others can see your messages and respond, and I try to answer all the ones I can. If anyone has other ideas of what interactivity I could offer, please get in touch!