Spent $22 today, please tell me what I got.

[Mister Moo]

Originally Posted by T.G

... fixed loose stems by heating them up and gently expanding out the tenon with a small rod...

Consider...

Smoking pipes almost always tightens up loose stems; when that fails a drop of beeswax will usually do the trick; if THAT fails a coat of clear fingernail polish and some gentle sanding practically always works. When all those things fail consider expanding a tenon with heat and an expando-tool. Practice heating/expanding on a crap stem before moving on to something you care about.

[Curly Cut]

Originally Posted by Mister Moo

Consider...

Smoking pipes almost always tightens up loose stems; when that fails a drop of beeswax will usually do the trick; if THAT fails a coat of clear fingernail polish and some gentle sanding practically always works. When all those things fail consider expanding a tenon with heat and an expando-tool. Practice heating/expanding on a crap stem before moving on to something you care about.

yep

[T.G]

Originally Posted by Mister Moo

Consider...

Smoking pipes almost always tightens up loose stems; when that fails a drop of beeswax will usually do the trick; if THAT fails a coat of clear fingernail polish and some gentle sanding practically always works. When all those things fail consider expanding a tenon with heat and an expando-tool. Practice heating/expanding on a crap stem before moving on to something you care about.

Makes sense. Kind of why I put all the disclaimers in there, since I've never had to do it, I've never really looked into it to see what was the best way.

Now the OP has like 5 different ways/methods to think about for how to repair the loose stems.