Hi Everyone, as mentioned in my introduction post, BOTL needs quite a bit of updating, patching and whatever else I might come across. Over time BOTL may be unreachable on occasion as I do migrations or updates, etc. Just be patient - we'll be back! I'll generally try to keep these maintenances until later in the evenings.
You had me at Harbor Freight.Oh harbor freight has their own brand of plastic dip that's cheaper. Just a thought.
Looks great man!
I went this route for my wine glasses and love it. Kind of a combination classy/industrial.
(and the wife approves)

You're right. Seems to be a non-issue. The holders are smooth and the ends don't come into contact with the stems.Looks great! It doesn't look like it from the pic, but did you find a solution to your concern about scratching? I have had no such issues so far with mine.
So easy to put up and there's another advantage: as your collection grows/changes, it's super easy and quick to reconfigureI like this idea, mite take a trip to home depot in the morning.
Honestly, that never even occurred to me. I am pretty anal retentive about running an alcohol-soaked cleaner down the stem and shank after each smoke (with a rest period, of course) and hitting it with a shank brush, too. So, I don't know if I would encounter that too much but, still, something to watch for.Up or down is an old question with an old debate. Great ideas. Only thing is and this I just what I learned over the 25 years of smoking pipe.
Main reason pipe stands were with bowls down is because the extra tars and juice could flow down and muck up the bowl and not make the stem sour. I over clean the inside of my stems, shank and bowl before I put on the rack. I have bought enough estate pipes to see how some others treat their pipes. One pipe stem I got off the Bay took more cleaning just the stem and shank then my weekly pipe rotation of 30 pipes that week. I think if you smoke a system pipe and don't clean it before you rack it you may start to find little pools under your rack our spilling on lower pipes. Just a thought
I am sure most people clean the pipes well, I just wanted to share with others that may not clean well before racking that some issues should be observed, last thing I want is someone to (not clean and rack, then pick up the pipe load a bowl go to light it and take the lighting puff and only get a mouth full of juices. ) I have done that with straight pipe and really wet tobacco. After smoking a few minutes set it down with the bowl higher then the stem, only to come back a few minutes later taking a test draw to see if still lit to get yuck mouth.I can say that since I implemented my rack in January, I have had no problems with moisture traveling into the stem while they are racked. I do run a pipe cleaner through the stem and wipe the bowl after every smoke.
I also have one pipe that has a chamber similar to that of a system pipe. It is compulsory that the chamber be cleaned after every smoke as it always contains very nasty stinky juices that I wouldn't want left behind in any part of my pipe.