christopher
02-27-2007, 06:32 PM
Hey all,
For the stick-stackularly challenged, and others. . .
When I first started doing stick-stacks, I found that the solid layer of color on the inside really threw me off; because there was a layer of color at least as thick as the clear overlaying it, it made it really hard to judge the thickness of the glass and I would tend to always pull them with too thin of a wall thickness.
After that, I started overcorrecting and leaving them too thick, and I would crack them when I went to work them.
Being my compulsive self, I put together this excel spreadsheet to help me with figuring the size of my stacks.
Here's how to use it:
Go to the first worksheet (Input) and put in the information about your raw glass (input fields are in yellow). If using the “Eugene Rain” method, you want to put the length of the rods that are actually inside the tube (I usually reserve about ¼” to ½” for rubberband/hoseclamp space. So if you were using 7” rods, you would put 166 (because 166mm is about 6.5”. If using N8’s method (fusing the rods to a collar first), you can just put the length of the sticks, since all of it goes into the final stack. The calculator inputs should be in millimeters in order to comply with the standard among glass companies. You can enter your information in inches, but you have to be consistent throughout).
Enter the size of the rods you will be using (length is automatically transferred from the “tubing” input section). I usually just figure the average diameter of the rods (man, those GA seven mils make this easy) enter it once, and fill it down. If you’re that picky (or if your sticks have a LOT of size variation) you can put the sizes in independently. Make sure you fill down for as many sticks as you’re using.
Now go to the output worksheet. It will not give you meaningful numbers until you enter the desired diameter and wall thickness of your final tube, at which point it will give you the output (how long the final tube should be) in the blue fields. This allows you to change one or both of the numbers (diameter or wall thickness) and see how it will affect the tube.
Feel free to modify, format, add macros, distribute it, or whatever. All I ask is that you leave my name on it and give credit.
I realize that this is just providing information that a lot of you already know intuitively, but it may help those who are just getting the hang of the stick-stack. Feedback is welcome, I hope the calculator is helpful to some of you.
Christopher
For the stick-stackularly challenged, and others. . .
When I first started doing stick-stacks, I found that the solid layer of color on the inside really threw me off; because there was a layer of color at least as thick as the clear overlaying it, it made it really hard to judge the thickness of the glass and I would tend to always pull them with too thin of a wall thickness.
After that, I started overcorrecting and leaving them too thick, and I would crack them when I went to work them.
Being my compulsive self, I put together this excel spreadsheet to help me with figuring the size of my stacks.
Here's how to use it:
Go to the first worksheet (Input) and put in the information about your raw glass (input fields are in yellow). If using the “Eugene Rain” method, you want to put the length of the rods that are actually inside the tube (I usually reserve about ¼” to ½” for rubberband/hoseclamp space. So if you were using 7” rods, you would put 166 (because 166mm is about 6.5”. If using N8’s method (fusing the rods to a collar first), you can just put the length of the sticks, since all of it goes into the final stack. The calculator inputs should be in millimeters in order to comply with the standard among glass companies. You can enter your information in inches, but you have to be consistent throughout).
Enter the size of the rods you will be using (length is automatically transferred from the “tubing” input section). I usually just figure the average diameter of the rods (man, those GA seven mils make this easy) enter it once, and fill it down. If you’re that picky (or if your sticks have a LOT of size variation) you can put the sizes in independently. Make sure you fill down for as many sticks as you’re using.
Now go to the output worksheet. It will not give you meaningful numbers until you enter the desired diameter and wall thickness of your final tube, at which point it will give you the output (how long the final tube should be) in the blue fields. This allows you to change one or both of the numbers (diameter or wall thickness) and see how it will affect the tube.
Feel free to modify, format, add macros, distribute it, or whatever. All I ask is that you leave my name on it and give credit.
I realize that this is just providing information that a lot of you already know intuitively, but it may help those who are just getting the hang of the stick-stack. Feedback is welcome, I hope the calculator is helpful to some of you.
Christopher