Lakemonster Posted November 26, 2005 Share Posted November 26, 2005 Thats the best way I can describe it. This thread is about how Egyptian hookah stems are made.... at least how each of those piece on the stem are formed. Before yesterday, I simply assumed that these parts were stamped by use of hydrolic machinery using a mold... a process that would take less than a second to perform. This is not so. While at Social Smoke, I was shown footage of how the top piece is made (where the bowl seats and the ashplate fits up. What is done is, they use a lathe type device. This is a motor driven horizontal metal shaft that they fit up a solid piece of steel in the shape of the desired part to be made. They take a disk of sheet metal a bit larger than a compact disk and mount it at the end of the mold piece ( which is attached to the drive shaft) They turn that rascal on and then the guy grabs a metal tool that looks like a big socket wrench and applies it to the disk as it is spinning.. this causes heat from friction... the metal heats up and is able to be formed down around the mold. Using this tool, the metal is worked up and over the contours of the mold... the metal begins to become very maleable and it looks just like a potter molding clay on his wheel. It blew my mind........ I had no idea you could do something like that. I certainly got some schoolin. Each one of those pieces takes around a minute or so to form..... this doesnt take into consideration the time it takes to change out the mold head or even getting into assembly time. All those parts are taken and buffed out... I didnt see any footage of that. but I would imagine they do like most of us would... use a grinding wheel with some sort with some brushes and then a muslin wheel with a series of rouges. Perhaps I can lay hands on that file..... and host it..... or maybe SS might consider doing so...... its a pretty big file... so it would be a bandwidth eater. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HookahDuck Posted November 26, 2005 Share Posted November 26, 2005 Interesting stuff! I'd definatly love to see pics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mushrat Posted November 26, 2005 Share Posted November 26, 2005 and i'll bet we'd all be HORRIFIED at what they get paid for their efforts... (not a knock on SS or anyone..just a statement of fact) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lakemonster Posted January 26, 2007 Author Share Posted January 26, 2007 Resurrected for the n00bs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sicklecow Posted January 26, 2007 Share Posted January 26, 2007 Wow, very cool. Thanks people at SS! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killersnowman Posted January 26, 2007 Share Posted January 26, 2007 its called spinning. they use that same technique to make the large nose cones for rockets and such. though they use thicker sheet metal and torches to heat it up.do a search for metal spinning to find more. its a very cool but old technology. o btw my father owns a precision machine shop and i have been working and learning alot in it lately. hopefully this will become a full time position for me =)cya! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erica Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?p=metal+...D1%26ei%3DUTF-8??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lakemonster Posted January 27, 2007 Author Share Posted January 27, 2007 Bingo, erica.... but imagine a human applying pressure to the disk with a hand tool........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erica Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 Yea I saw one of those too...The video was really bad quality though..Pretty neat stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scalliwag Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 Yep, I have heard of metal spinning and worked as a welder for years but never witnessed it. Most metal spinning shops just do spinning and forming. I know the equipment for the big stuff is astronomically high $$$. The conical fermentors that we want Lake takes that kind of equipment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scalliwag Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 this vid is still small stuff, but bigger than the otherhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gwrk0SwDJhI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HAHkoo Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 (edited) scalli beat me to it. Edited January 27, 2007 by HAHkoo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allia22 Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 they're identical links... except HAHkoo forgot the www in the html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scalliwag Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 Hahky never reads my posts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ioannisds Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 That was magically delicious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lakemonster Posted January 27, 2007 Author Share Posted January 27, 2007 WOW, Scalli..... that link was great!makes me want to get a bigger arbor and try my hand.Wicked trip wit him using his thumb and a rag to give it a shine..... dats da shit, yo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rattler Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 That's how they make them in the middle east! WoW that's pretty cool. It takes so much work to make one piece I can only imagine making a bunch and soldering them together to make a hookah. Impresive video find Scalli. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HAHkoo Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 QUOTE (Scalliwag @ Jan 26 2007, 06:34 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Hahky never reads my posts woops sorry bout that i was reading the thread sometime ago and left the window open. So i appologize =D i hope you forgive me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smiley Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 I saw the Video It was very interesting. It almost makes me want to try to make one.Smiley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scalliwag Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 Just Teez'n ya Hahky. I fig'ed you saw the first and just jumped to the end and posted the vid. Ya like a son to me brutha!!! Besides I actually had not checked every post myself so it could have happened to me for that reason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zerodynamic Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 wow... i never knew so much effort went into making a hookah... I think I will enjoy smoking mine a little more from now on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Social Smoke Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 Wow, even though I have seen metal spinning in person, I have forgotten how amazing it is. I took the original video that we showed lake about 2 years ago on a trip to Egypt. I was totally shocked when I learned how much work goes into each and every spun metal hookah. The video that scalli posted by the way is exactly how they do it in Egypt. They do smaller peices so it does not take as long, but the procedure is exactly the same. I counted one time that on a small hookah there were about 9 individual spun pieces and on an x-large hookah there were as many as 15.Although we do not carry the solid brass hookahs that come out of Syrian or Egypt at this time, I have to say that hose also have an amazing amount of work in them. The solid brass hookahs start from a very crude casting that has the general shape of the center section of the stem. The worker then puts those cast pieces on a lathe and starts to form it very similar to someone lathing a block of wood into a baseball bat. Then they cut all the groves and designs into the metal within a matter of minutes and all by hand. Its all pretty interesting and quite impressive to watch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shavo989 Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 Damn, that was a cool thing to watch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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