Forever stems; to buy or not to buy?

[OnePyroTec]

Well, I ordered one to try out. If the draw is too restrictive I'll just open it a bit with a drill. It's a straight stem so that should be no problem.

If you do open it up, go slow at it. You can get the acrylic hot and make the drill bit stick. To un-stick it, you run the risk of breaking the stem. I've opened up several of the "ebay" stems to my likings. Besides opening up the drought hole, I use a slot tool at the bit to widen the slot, and put a chamfer on the end of the tenon. Good inexpensive slot tools can be had from Vermont Freehand/ Steve Norse.

[Pugsley]

If you do open it up, go slow at it. You can get the acrylic hot and make the drill bit stick. To un-stick it, you run the risk of breaking the stem. I've opened up several of the "ebay" stems to my likings. Besides opening up the drought hole, I use a slot tool at the bit to widen the slot, and put a chamfer on the end of the tenon. Good inexpensive slot tools can be had from Vermont Freehand/ Steve Norse.

About a hundred years ago, when I was a young man, I worked in the machine shop of a small industrial plastics manufacturer, so I've had some experience with that type of thing. But believe me, I ruined my share of product learning. I've opened a lot of stems, both vulcanite and acrylic, and haven't ruined one yet. (Knock on wood.)