fusing with boro?

[jeleven]

anyone? for some reason it doen't seem like it would work.... then again i have no clue.......


jess

[bzglass]

stack a bunch of pieces in the kiln and then slump those pieces at high heat. When you pull it out the next day, you tell me if they are fused together or not.

[HiAltitude]

I think if you use the search engine, you'll find some threads already discussing this topic. Good luck.

[Icarus]

I was jsut reading an article by Henry Grimmett in an old issue of glassline about it. It was a project they were working on at EGS. As of the time they wrote the article, it didn't seem very promising, but they may have made advances since then. Try calling EGS and see if you can speak to anyone there about it.

[jeleven]

Thank you!!!!

[Greymatter Glass]

Borofusing basics:

Ruins kilns
devits like crazy
takes a lot of trial and error
can be done


Andrew Brown fuses boro. If you're in Tucson stop by the Best Bead Show at the Kino Veterans Memorial Center and check his work out.

As far as I know he's the only artist with a serious fused boro product line. Several others do it, but not on a large scale.

[jeleven]

he's in abq?

[Grape]

How does it ruin kilns?

[Greymatter Glass]

Yep.

[Greymatter Glass]

How does it ruin kilns?

Bricks degrade faster at fusing temps of boro, elements wear out WAY faster, as you're pushing Kanthal A-1 near it's maximum temp...

If your kiln isn't made to fuse boro plan to rebuild it after less than a dozen firings. You might get away with more, but even the kiln Andrew had made for it wears out pretty quick.

[NUBBLET]

I made my kiln with K-26 bricks , I have done some fucked up shit to boro . Most on safety breaks gone awry , I should mention its manual . Some looked fine nice and shiny , this gives false hope that it happens like this all the time , but most I have seen is fucked with devits . My kiln is fine but I kinda built it for 2300 + not wanting it to break down and its in my nature to go overboard .
I have slumped ,fused ,flattened most with not good results , however most was accidental . I also should say the hottest I can think of was about 1800+ change , maybe these were the ones that gave hope , I really should try it sometime .


Oh sittin here thinkin for min , I had got some shit on a few color glass rods (smoke) and had it in the kiln to burn off . I took a safety break which turned into cat nap or something . The kiln was hot enuf to melt them together and stretch out , kinda a weird sculpture , it got drippy hot dripped off the shelf , stuck to shelf and a lil on floor , took some crumbs off both and was still frosty from devits .

[davidwillisglass]

devit has been the most problematic issue when i've tried it. i talked to a friend who is a big fuser (soft glass) and she said that fusing without top heat is not the way to go. i imagine heat from the top would help in boro as well. also we would crash the kiln from full fuse to annealing as quickly as possible (hold open the lid) as that is the time when the devit sets up.

[HiAltitude]

Yeah, I used to fuse soft glass before I discovered the torch. Fusing kilns have top and side elements, the books make a big deal not to buy a kiln that doesn't have both. And you've got to crash the kiln to avoid devit. Wear your torching glasses while you've got the kiln open. Also, there are anti-devit sprays that you can buy or make. The recipe I have uses Borax. For general fusing info, you could check out the warm glass site (warmglass.com).

Also, most fusers paint kiln wash on the floor of the kiln, in case the glass runs off the shelf. Better to vacuum out any dust each time than risk destroying your kiln bricks.

[HiAltitude]

Yeah, I used to fuse soft glass before I discovered the torch. Fusing kilns have top and side elements, the books make a big deal not to buy a kiln that doesn't have both. And you've got to crash the kiln to avoid devit. Wear your torching glasses while you've got the kiln open. Also, there are anti-devit sprays that you can buy or make. The recipe I have uses Borax. For general fusing info, you could check out the warm glass site (warmglass.com).

[Abe Fleishman]

Check out David Ruth he is doing very large boro casting and fusing.
Abe

[jeleven]

wow! thanks for all of your input, i'm pretty new and don't always see (or more accurately care) how difficult something may be, at this point it could all be damn near impossible, but I am still trying. Thanks for all of your help!

jess

[Swampy]

HiAltitude beat me to it, all I can add is try fusing with dams or some kind of barrier between the glass and the kiln atmosphere, maybe casting in a box with a ceramic shelf as a lid.

=longer firings

[NUBBLET]

also we would crash the kiln from full fuse to annealing as quickly as possible (hold open the lid) as that is the time when the devit sets up.

I have done the open gig , I wonder if these are the clean ones .

[Swampy]

useful discussion (http://www.talkglass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13749&highlight=melt+temperature)

[FredLight]

I had a quick fire or muffle kiln at my old employer and I used to have two bases.

I would place the fusing project on one kiln shelf on it's own base and ramp up the muffle or top part on the other base.

Once the muffle was up to 1800F (on the pyrometer), I'd lift the muffle up and slide it over and put it down on the base that had the shelf and project.

I'd let it melt the shit outta the boro until it fused (10 minutes) and then lift it off and put it back on the other base. I would dim the lights and wait until it stopped glowing and then put the muffle back on it and turn it off.

Just like that. Heat it up fast and crash it down to annealing temps fast.

Times and pyrometer temps WILL VARY. A short wave UV light also helps to determine Tin side. Tin side will almost always devit no matter what you do. Turn the Tin side down for avoiding devit.

I feel like I've typed this all before.....Oughta be worth something to someone, and if it is PM me for my Paypal info.

Thanks.

[boxfan willy]

Nitrogen to flush the oxidation and flux for the surface. Experimented but not perfected. Seemed more economical to go to 82 or 96 COE.

Andrew Brown is the only one I know making this real...

Holla

[Bro-crispy]

David Ruth, as Abe mentioned, does incredible, huge cast boro pieces. I'm sure the driving force is that they can go outside without cracking, but maybe there are other reasons why he does them out of boro too . . .

http://www.davidruth.com/index.html
http://www.davidruth.com/pyrex.html pyrex
http://www.davidruth.com/processpageAlt.html process
http://www.davidruth.com/alchemy.html cool article

I don't think everything on that site is boro, just fyi.




An artist/ designer who I greatly admire is Nikolas Weinstein.

http://www.nikolas.net/home2.php

A few of my friends work/have worked for him, and I've been to his shop a few times. Simply incredible and fearless. He has really paved his own way, doing things that've have never been done before.

Many years ago for this project http://www.nikolas.net/commission_1.html he built a kiln, something like 18x8x5 feet, to first fuse together custom length schott tubes, then warp them with a segmented, computer controlled hydraulic kiln floor. Now he has even bigger kilns for doing some out there stuff, all with boro.

Click on the "download abridged commission folio" to see some interesting work and process shots.

He doesn't do full fuses I guess, but still . . . What he does didn't seem possible from what I knew about boro. Talk about acute angles, especially under serious pressure when suspended. When some of the tubes fuse they are connected to each other by a seam just milimeters in width running the length of the tube. I don't really get it but it seems to work.

A lot can be done in the world of glass. I'm both quite grateful and excited to be fortunate enough to work with it.

[Skye Perry]

Just get an aim kiln and wait untill the relay goes out and walla fused boro at 2000 degrees for 9 hours .Defanitly ruined my kiln .

[Bro-crispy]

http://www.us.schott.com/magazine/english/sol207/sol207_12_glassartworks.html

Do you think those huge cast pieces are boro? They are made by Schott, but I'm not sure if that definitely means boro . . . ?

[Greymatter Glass]

the huge telescope lenses on Mauna Kea are made by Schott and Corning and are 33coe boro. Some of the smaller ones are fused silica.

Has to be low expansion so it doesn't distort and break.

[Bro-crispy]

fused silica means quartz?