A sticky stem - advice needed!

[Emperor Zurg]

I wonder if you could put the pipe in a very humid place to swell the wood. If it didn't come out with the wood swelled, maybe a few swell/dry cycles would be enough to loosen the grip on the alleged stinger.

How do you know if the stinger - if it is a stinger - has left or right hand thread?

[T.E.Fox]

Interesting thoughts guys. I can't say I've heard of a left hand thread on such applications, as they are usually only used when a right hand thread would become loose during use - say on certain circular saw arbours. There's nothing to say that they didn't enjoy the idea of being different though! It may be such that the two surfaces have essentially grown together. I'm toying with the thought of running around the edge of the wood that meets the metallic washer with a very fine kerf saw down to the tenon to both remove that locking face and allow somewhere for more penetrative agents to ingress. It would alter where the stem sits once tight of course, but I can worry about that hurdle when it comes time to jump it.

[Emperor Zurg]

I know of a couple penetrants (Kroil being the best one) that would most likely free it up but the trouble is you wouldn't want to smoke the pipe afterwords. Ever.

I would loose my patience with something like this pretty quickly. If the pipe is to be a smoker, then it needs to come apart. Period. It needs to be cleaned and probably needs the stinger removed too. (I hate them things) A pipe that can't be cleaned is worthless as a smoker (to me anyway) and the way I figure, it's impossible to ruin a turd. Therefore, at some point, I'd make up a couple of soft jaws to hold and support the shank and stem as firmly as possible and just wrench the bastard apart and let the chips fall where they may. If it shatters, it goes in the trash; if it comes apart, we move ahead from there. Either way the roadblock is gone.

[GWBowman]

My dad gave me a pipe he picked up at a yard sale/flea market. I couldn't get a pipe cleaner through the stem. Alternated hot water (I mean don't put your hands in it hot) and 91% alcohol. Just sayin'

[NeverBend]

Everyone's giving solid advice to a frustrating situation.

I would torque it both ways, sometimes it breaks the seal going in the wrong direction.

Sounds to me as if there's something sealing an already too tight fit but I've worked on pipes where the smoker glued the stem in.

I'm in @EmperorZurg's camp, it has to come apart to have value. @GWBowman advised using a pipe retort and that could help if you haven't tried that.

Good luck.

[Haebar]

With the pipe at room temperature put it in the freezer and take it out within 15-20 minutes. Try to remove the stem then. This a time-critical operation; you have to take advantage of the differential contraction of the two materials by catching them at the critical moment when they are contracting at different rates. Be sure to hold the pipe at the shank so you don't break it off at the shank.

[Lostmason]

Having broken one by losing patience with it ,,,listen to these guys,,,,Warren came to my rescue with another nose warmer,but I still feel bad for breaking the one.

[TheHobbyist78]

Being relatively new to the wonderful world of pipes I don't know if this will help; perhaps someone can corroborate this. I'm an union electrician, and oftentimes when we are pulling out old feeder wires and the ancient Yellow 77 wire lubricant has become nothing but a dried on cake which locks the wire inside the conduit, we will pour Diet Coke down the conduit and let the aspartame and sodium benzoate eat through the wire lubricant. I wonder if this sort of approach would work on a stuck pipe stem as well. There shouldn't be any leftover sugar residue since, well, Diet Coke doesn't have any to begin with. Perhaps it would simultaneously eat through any ancient tars as well as allowing the water to swell the wood. Are there any opinions on whether or not this might work as well? I'd be curious to find out myself.

[GWBowman]

Being relatively new to the wonderful world of pipes I don't know if this will help; perhaps someone can corroborate this. I'm an union electrician, and oftentimes when we are pulling out old feeder wires and the ancient Yellow 77 wire lubricant has become nothing but a dried on cake which locks the wire inside the conduit, we will pour Diet Coke down the conduit and let the aspartame and sodium benzoate eat through the wire lubricant. I wonder if this sort of approach would work on a stuck pipe stem as well. There shouldn't be any leftover sugar residue since, well, Diet Coke doesn't have any to begin with. Perhaps it would simultaneously eat through any ancient tars as well as allowing the water to swell the wood. Are there any opinions on whether or not this might work as well? I'd be curious to find out myself.

It would be worth trying. I suspect from the date the thread was started, he has either got the stem out, or gave up. Diet Coke...I'll keep that in mind for some stuff.

[Bruck]

Pete mentioned glue. If it's glued, sometimes acetone will dissolve superglue. Of course it will probably play hell on your finish as well, but that just adds to the fun

And I will observe obliquely that that is an absolutely adorable little pipe. Hope you can save it from itself!