Have been making BC entry pipes for a while and finally achieved a fairly easy way to make them. It's surprising that no supplier has offered a Shuler BC "kit" and possibly the reason is that a BC entry pipe can't be bought....you have to make it. .040 annealed sheet brass is used throughout.
Below are pix that sorta explain the procedure for making this necessary component for an HC Shuler Bucks County LR.....and some other makers who also used this style entry pipe.
This pic shows the male and female form blocks mad from oak. As shown, these forms will make either a 1 or 2 piece pipe....after making both, the 2 piece is the easier of the 2...anyways for me. For a 1 piece pipe, the juncture of the pipe and finial requires a lot of peening and annealing. The ever present chance of tearing the brass is always there and that's why I prefer the 2 piece ass'y. Once the pipe of a 1 piece entry pipe itself is formed, it's clamped between the two blocks and the spherical radius is peened.
The difficulty w/ the 2 piece is aligning both parts for hi temp silver soldering and preventing the hi temp silver solder of the pipe itself from melting....for this I use a 3/8 dia rod as a heat sink inside the pipe. The hi temp silver solder I use flows above 1200 degrees. Tried several low temp solders for joining the 2 pieces, but due to very little available surfaces area, it was a little fragile whereas the hi temp stuff holds well.
The formed finial dispaying the layout on the inside and the 2 square cutouts are windows to align the layour w/ the centerline on the brass sheet when flat.
This pic shows a drill shank that's used to help w/ the peening of the spherical radius and also the dia. that matches the OD of the pipe. When actually peening, the drill doesn't protrude that much.
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A pic of the finial
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A pic of the male form and the finial.
The actual RR pipe formed from .040 brass and hi temp silver soldered together. The pinning tab favors the finial and one pin is used.
The inside view of the hi temp soilver soldered assembly.
The outside of the soldered BC entry pipe. The wedding bands and engraving will be added later.
A side view.
I'm enamoured w/ the Bucks Couty LRs and hopefully this info will help those who are also afflicted......Fred
