tearing rods and punties.

[Glass Pyro]

What size rod do you guys use mostly. When I got my first order I got like 20pcs. of 3mm and 20pcs. of 4mm. I can punty up with the 3 and 4 but the 3 is shady and if I make the wrong move, snap. Lost a Phat piece last night cause of this, am I using this rod for the wrong application. What do you guys rake with also?

I was setup with 6mm at first also but blew right through that, felt like that is what I shoulda used for everthing, but he only sold me two pcs of the 6mm.

They did me right over there but I am just wondering if I am using the rod for the wrong apps.

Maybe my hands are to f'ed up from over the years, I can't work with the small rods.

Input is appreciated , thanks

oh yeah and I been using the 3mm for tearing

[HOSS]

I've never found the 3 mil to be useful for anything (too thin for tearing off, imo), 4 and 5 mil are good for encasing but way too thin for punties on most things. 5 or 6m will work for tearing, and temporary bridges. Try 7, 9 or 10 mil for punties.

[Glass Pyro]

yeah the 3mil is a little thin for tearing but I thought I was still in Newbyville and it may have been just me. Anybody else have some input

[SouthernFume]

dude use 7ml for almost everything it's a great rod, then use 3,4,5 for anything else. when u use the 3 or 4 u can rake,punty up to pieces, and anything small. if you go big use some 9,10 or whatever you want. think of it like this when using 25 use 5,or 7, when using 31 or 32 use 7ml. remember when you go bigger your rod needs to be able to accomodate the glass.

[garrick]

i use 7 mil for everything

[K-Dog]

I prefer to use 9 & 12 mm blow tubes, so i use 9 & 12 mm rod for punty's.

I like to use 3 & 5 mm rod for raking.

14mm rod for tube encasements.I also use this for punty's when working big stuff.

5mm rod for bridging

[jiminyrootkit]

3 or 5 for raking, depending on size
5 for punties on small pieces/pendants, and small to mid-size tearing
9 or 10 for heavier punties and tearing off larger amounts of glass
-f

[Glass Pyro]

aight keep it coming this is very helpfull

[jr23]

I like to use 6 mill for rakes and puntys for single section work anything more than one section or a heavy section I switch to 8mill , I also here that a piece of Quartz works great for holding your silver for fume work. Mine is on its way so I will try it soon.

[Glass Pyro]

that is another thing i was trying to fume last night and could not get the silver or gold to stick to the punty for shiat. I ended up losing it all on the work bench. Any tips. I musta got lucky the first night caused I hella silver fumed a piece in the beginning, and was like damn that was easy.

[CitizenNot]

take your rod and apply some cobolt or black and put your gold/silver on the color.

[Glass Pyro]

yeah? why it sticks to the saturated colors better, interesting.

[Swampy]

Use 3mil for coating colour before pulling it out.

[Big Jay]

I use 5mm for raking and opening holes. Use 9 or 10 mill for punties or if I need I need to make a pattern in something by puntying and twisting. 3 mm is ludicros imo and the difference in 4 and 5 is so minimal I'd rather use the 5 and it still breaks all the time.
I occasionally use 5mm as the final punty on a small mib or other things where I want to keep the punty scar as small as possible.

[Big Jay]

when your trying to pick up silver and gold are you doing it off a piece of graphite? It makes it a lot harder cause it sucks the heat off the silver. Keep heating the rod and touching it to the metal and it will eventually stick.
When you go to fume and the metal goes to liquid it can roll off the rod and if you have a hard gassy flame it can blow it off. I assume thats what your saying happened. Turn it down a bit. Cobalt works better cause it takes more heat to make it move but its not gonna help if your blowing it off the rod or if its rolling off actually it can make it happen more often. I started using quartz a little while back and I loose the bead every now and then. I never had that in clear cause the clear goes to liquid so fast the silver actually will sink into it sometimes meaning you have to retrieve it back out by mashing. So its a toss up between a rod that gets molten fast on you and moves around but maybe easier to keep the silver on to a stiffer rod cobalt/quartz that the silver will sit on the surface and fall off.

[nodice]

I've been using 6m for punties. I used to use 8m, but ran out:). It all depends on what you're working on, and how close the flame or hot glass is to the rod though. Thicker rods do better with heat before bending, and thinner rods are easier to spin faster with less effort. I use 2-3m for inside out patterns(4-6m for dots), and 3-4m for picking holes.

With silver and gold falling off your rod, smaller peices of gold and silver don't fall of rods as easily as bigger peices. Different flames can also effect the gold/silver differently. With silver sinking into your glass, that can have something to do with the flame, and also with the angle at which you hold the silver. I try to point it downward on the outside of the flame(small flame) near the candles. This keeps the heat minimal, and gravity helps the silver from going into the glass. I also try to only heat the silver and not the glass. There are times when I drop gold and silver, but I usually go weeks without doint it(and I fume many times a day).

[superstupid]

i know its been said here somewhere, but i use mandrels for tearing glass. no added waste. it never gets short . just dip it in your water can and the trash pops right off. i cant even imagine using rods for tearing anymore. you can use them as punties also but i suck at it.

[Glass Pyro]

Thanks bro's, Printing, baggin and taggin