Boronoob questions

[DAW]

Hey I'm an offhand softglass worker for many years but i've always envied the great clarity and luster of boro. I have a moly furnace, hot shop and full cold shop for many years so i'm not a total noobish.

I was hoping to get a few quick questions answered, and I'll stick around to give my knowledge in return where I can:

What is the biggest/thickest tube you can get? I'm wanting to do large cylinders so i'm trying to decide if I need to roll up borofloat on a collar to make a parison, or would tube be possible. These cylinders will be blown out to maybe be 4" diameter and still fairly thick, maybe 1/8- 3/16.

Does boro devitrify? Like, if you fire it in a kiln?

How does boro color cost compare to like, gaffer, kugler etc? Like for example a kilo of a good silver bearing reducing frit in gaffer is like, 40-50$ (?)

I fume with stannous. What are good effects colors in boro? I like to mix cad/sel colors and gold silver and other metal bearing colors for edge effects.


Thanks, Dave

[Swampy]

Hey Dave with your experience, it sounds like you gonna have a lot fun with boro.

Looking forward to see what you create.

You familiar with Craftweb?

[Ninja fire]

Sounds cool... You probably wont have to worry about what's the largest
size tube you can buy becuase they can come bigger then what you need...
Most Lampworkers use various sizes depending on the project they're working
on... Working with the torch is a total diff ball game then furnance work but
again it depends on what you intend on making... If you want to make
large cylinders boro can be unforgiving... It will set faster and crack... you
have to set your kiln up totally diff...

Boro comes by the case and the price per pound varies a lot... Color ? depends
on the type and brand name... Most of fume with Silver/Gold & Platinum...

I could be wrong but I think that if you intend on changing over to boro you
would probably have to forget every thing you know with soft glass and take
it from scratch... It's like a night and day diff... The last time I did furnace
work was at Urban glass in Brooklyn NY and teaching the soft glass guys
hard glass techniques was a huge change for them....

[somberbear]

you can buy 4 inch tube heavy wall if you want... but you gat get heavy wall super heavy and capalary tube as well ....

check makers web sites for effects...

edging i dont see much of when i try for them i normaly get incompatibity , it will ... but im not a master with color eather.

Boro will devitrify and doesnt like to be fused or slumped.... theres some magic im sure... that can do it

The only person i know with boro in a hot shop enviroment is marcl and if he has another class that might be the best bet....

I pay from 30 -75 buck a pound for color i dont know how they convert in kilos but i get 16oz(volume) jars for around 20 -30 bucks.
peace
rob

[tilman]

maybe you would wanna try big tube and this boro glory hole. mix up both worlds for ya

http://www.nwironworks.com/boro_glory_hole_details.htm

[harpentuan]

a kilo is 2.2 LBS.