First couple I/O pieces

[The Cheese]

Starting to get the hang of doing i/o. These two are my first couple successful tries that didn't crack, collapse or explode on me.

Just some inside fume on the first one and got some lines and a little fume in on the second. Put a little dicro chip in a marble and stuck it on the side for kicks. Must not have heated it up enough as the coating didn't sparkle (???). The last pic is of one I started this afternoon. I got the bowl hole popped and went to do the carb without reheating the whole thing. TING... ERRR... But...

Made two tonight that are still in the kiln. Rasta colors. I'll get those up tomorrow when they cool off. Didn't fuck up like the first one today did, so I can't complain. Actually able to finish them now without busting.

What type of flame do I want to use to get the fume to strike (think that's what you call it)? All golden colored is easy enough, but how do I get the hazy blueish to come out? Burned off 90% of what I put into the lined pipe below so you can barely see it. The first one, I was able to get some of it to cloud, but as you can see, that's about it.

About 30 mins a piece btw. Gets a little easier and quicker each time. Get it down to 15 and I'll be pretty happy with myself.

Thanks for checking in and thanks for all the help on here that I was able to piece together into something.

:chilling:

[newmexicomagma]

i would use a longer point. it looks like you didnt have enough glass to blow a bigger bowl. remember for i/o you want to condense the clear over your color so you have that nice magnification effect. but just keep messing with them it will come in time. oh and for your stem after i have melted down and blown out till its melted in, i melt where i want my stem to be until i start to see the clear build up over my color then i start to slowly pull it out making sure my clear is an even thickness. hope this helps.

[The Cheese]

I was looking down into them today and realizing just how much the color is still standing up. Thanks, I'll give it a go.

Here are the two I made last night.

[VED]

hell ya man. keep working at it. i agree use more glass so you can get a thicker peice with the 3d look. to get your color melted in condense and blow out several times and the color will pull up into the clear you can see it happen. looks like your just laying in your color and shaping it so try more glass and work it a little longer shape looks good though.

[nodice]

Ya get the bluish haze with the right amount of silver. What kinda torch are you using? If I were you, I wouldn't waste color on these pipes until you get the hang of it. Using fuming and puting clear over it will look as good if not better, and the clear sinks in easier then color does(well, most colors). Clear also costs less......

Also, to get a good inside out effect, the glass needs to be at least a certain thickness per diameter....... It looks like you don't have enough glass to make it happen with the size of the pipe you're making. Ya might wanna try either using more glass for your spoons, or making onies/bats out of the glass you're using.

[The Cheese]

So start with a longer point. Shrink it down to thicken it up BEFORE or AFTER putting the color in?

I don't have any issue making the bowl end thicker (usually get's thicker than the rest pretty easily), but it's the rest that I need help with. Should I heat the whole thing at a 45degree angle and get it super hot and let gravity pull it down thicker or just work sections of it to get it to shrink down?

Thanks for the tips all.

BTW - using a bobcat. The wife said I can't spend any money on a new torch until the glass will pay for it. Err, dang women...

[NUBBLET]

A Bobcat ? insane !

Lay your color in then melt down , some times a puff then melt down and puff and melt speeds it up a bit . But I/O work is gonna be tough on a Bobcat I would think , mainly slow . Hey PIMP that Bobcat .

I would do some wrap and rake spoons , get it down and you can make enuf for a Lynx in no time , or save a little bit and get a larger torch , then get deep into the I/O . Not saying dont do it or try , just do surface mainly like quick prodo then sell it and save for a bigger torch .

[nodice]

That's why I asked what kinda torch. Doing inside out work, or anything with a normal amount of glass will not work out so well when you're using a tiny torch. If you want to do bigger stuff, you might wanna sell your torch and get a used major burner or something.

peace

[The Cheese]

haa haa... yeah, I knew that was coming. LOL... It's a little pissant compared to those bigger flame throwers. It's works though, but 30 mins a pc is pretty slow. I'll try some more of the w/r. Got some 3mm clear coming in the mail for just that purpose.

I met an old hippy here in town that is friends with a local shop keep. Until I feel good enough about doing that though, I figured that I'd sell some of my better "learning experiences" at a local Sunday flea market to make up some of the cost.

We'll see how it goes.

Thanks for the encouragement.

[nodice]

Sorry about raining on your parade. The long and short of it is you want a lot more glass for inside out stuff, and even outside pattern stuff would come out better and quicker with a bigger torch. Imagine the size/thickness of a pipe you could make in 30 minutes with a torch that's 10 times the size.

If you want to make more sellable/nice stuff with the torch you have, you might wanna try making smaller things like pendants/marbles/animals/small sculptures. Not that you can't use your torch to make prodo pipes, but it'd be like making a table with a swiss army knife. Yes, you could probably use it to cut the wood, and put screws in, but having the right tools would probably help you make a better table quicker. Course, if you're trying to cut a peice of rope, or file your nails, a swiss army knife works pretty well.

[The Cheese]

No you're alright. Just being honest is all. See what I can do with the w/r and if I can get the time down, works for me. I know what you're saying about having the right tools. I was a contractor for a few years before I had enough of the bullshit and buying bigger tools...

It's all good though, I'll get it done one way or the other, I'm good like that.

[CripSkillz]

30 min a piece isnt that slow i think i still take longer than that , but they do come out thick..

keep at it it will get eaiser..

[jojo101]

keep at it man, and randomly u can find really great deals on torches in the garage sale. i just switched up to a cc tho and honestly i can work soooooooooo much faster, and things that i thought i just wasnt doing right, i realize my glass was just too big for the torch and it just didnt want to move.
your shape on the last one looks nice and clean tho and you can still get decent money for it resale. i visited my college when i was picking up my cc and was selling my mistakes (nothing wrong but i felt like they werent shaped clean etc) and people honestly just dont look at glass the same. they just want to know if its color changing lol.
what helped for me was figuring out how much time i wanted to spend saving for my torch, and divided the cost of the torch by how many days. and that is how much resale value you should be trying to produce each day on top of your normal production.
lol that said, im still broke and trying to break even .. but its what i was told and what im trying to do and it makes sense.

[Dom]

I'll try some more of the w/r. Got some 3mm clear coming in the mail for just that purpose.


Have fun snapping it every 5 seconds and cutting yourself.

I use 5mm for raking and it still snaps pretty often.

[Uscalus Storm]

I use 6mm....And nothings worst then learning on a national 3b ;P

[NUBBLET]

I use 4 mm

[The Cheese]

You know, those little bobcats take a long time to heat up the glass. I was trying to do it with 6mm, but cooking it in was taking far too long and I wasn't able to get it there most of the time without fucking the whole piece up.

So....

I started pulling 10mm rod down to 3-4mm and using 4" sections of that that. I had a couple snap, yes, but I was able to figure out the angle and pressure to push it through with. The last w/r that I did turned out fairly decent considering my previous w/r attempts.

I'm scared to death of broken glass. I used to do replacement windows and have had a few serious cuts and have seen people get their forearms shaved off to the bone. Kinda ironic that I find lampworking so interesting seeing as how much broken glass I've got laying around my bench and in the trash can.

Thank you though for the concern! My fingers send a special thank you as well.

I'll be sure to be careful!