Fusing large pipes

[Ness]

Hey all i wanna start my first thread by say all the artists who post here are kick ass for offering ppl help. my question is this:
I'm having trouble making large, multiple piece, pipes. usually while im working the fuse together my mouthpiece or other part of the pipe will crack when i go to reheat the piece. I have been told to just reheat the whole pipe every 30 sec. or so, but i must be doing it wrong. I have also seen pics on glasspipes.org of ppl making sherlock and actually holding the piece(no blowtube) in order to finish something on bowl or fuse. how is this done?

i guess im just asking to hear how ppl on the boeard go about making their massive, beautiful, INTRICATE glass. ANY HELP IS GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!!!
~J

[happyharold]

Production, production, production. Make what you can and make a shit ton of it and all of thease questions will answer them selfves. Good luck.

[rumplephorskin]

do a search in here for the word "bridge" and i think you will be pleasantly rewarded the search bar is located at the top of the page, have fun

[Sol]

ha

[Merlin]

what HappyHarold said. Its all about production for learning.

Make THIN CLEAR stuff (fume it if you want) while practicing your seals. This will allow you to concentrate on the seal without your piece cracking. You can also produce more of this type of work in a short amount of time so you get more attempts at perfection. Plus if somthing does crack, its no big loss.

[homer]

I always "flash" the peice every 20-30 seconds when I am making a big hollow form with multiple sections. just bathe it in the outer portions of the flame. Big, bushy and oxidizing. I can work on something for 5 or so minutes out of the flame this way, and rarely have any cracks. I only use this method for the hollow form though. No marbles or attachments. Thick attachments and marbles make the heat base irregular, which can cause cracks.
I throw it in the kiln often when I am adding my attachments because of this. Often, I do attachments in the kiln using a hand torch though.

And yes, PRODUCTION with just clear sections will help. Make 100 clear tripple bubs out of clear, and you will be on your way.

Homer

[Ness]

thank you all for ur help and suggestions.
~J

[Firekist]

on lots of pieces, if you work from one end to the other, you don't have to reheat your piece at all. the part you're working on will be hot, and the part on the other end will cool down. if the piece takes long enough to make, the part near the blowtube will actualy get cool enough to touch.
i personally run into more problems when trying to flash reheat a piece. just work a section, and don't hit it with flame again. if you have to go back to take it off the blowtube, you can kiln it until it's warm, or if you flame cut it about an inch away from the piece you can normally melt off a blowtube this way without problems of cracking.
some colors don't cool down without adding tons of stress, like exotics and blacks.. so be careful =)
tons of production will get you a sense of how long you have before things get too cold, or where stress is in glass... but normally people run into problems on things that aren't production. in those cases.. be quick, kiln often, and do other pieces while kilning so your piece really is kilned enough.
z---seth

[Greymatter Glass]

I got good at doing seals by scrounging for scrap ends of tubs and making full tubes out of them. The clear glass lets you see when the seal is good, and eventually you'll just know what kind of heat it takes to pull of a seal in one move. There are many ways to go about it, a bridge, either decorative or temporary will make things much easier for more complicated seals, but a straight butt seal, even size tube to tube, can be pulled off without anything more than a torch and 2 hands.

On bigger things, 3 or more seals, I'll re kiln the piece between each seal. 10-15 minutes at 1000F should stablize the glass and get you read for the nect section to go on.

Also, don't be afraid to pull out a little 1mm stringer of clear (or color, as appropriate) to fill in gaps and holes - just make sure it's all melted in and properly healed up before you finish.

The toughest thing for me sometimes is getting enough pressure on the piece to puff out the seal. If you already have a bowl and carb that can be difficult. For bowls I just seal it up as best I can with a reamer, or just blow harder... with a carp on the piece already I'll either seal the carb and re-pop it later. If it's a really tricky piece I've been known to cold-sealed a small marble over the carb and then pop it off later.

Anyways, I like the reforming tube from scrap approach, but just plowing into a week of production gets ya there too.

-Doug

[FredLight]

I've lost a few of my first multi sectioned pieces just to next day handling due to bad seals. I work with a top-loader, so sticking something in the kiln means coming off the tube.I DO put things back in the kiln between seals, but it could definitely be done better without cutting of the tube EVERY stinkin' time.
I should be saving up for a kiln with a door on the front. <obviously>

Good thing I don't sell ANY of my pipes. :lol

Now back to pendants.

[brettodie]

just make a little glass plug to prop your door open enough for your blowtube to fit in.works great when using a top loader :) peace brett

[GGB]

Yeh what Brett said...Talk to Adam (cupcake) he has a top loader on his bench that he hacked a hole in and uses a plug with a knob on it to close at the end of the day.. He can tell ya how to cut that bad boy up and make it work for ya.. Cutting off blowtubes every time the peice needs to be kilned kinda sound like lots of extra work. ;)

[LTD]

Is your shop too cold? I work in wisconsin, BRRRRRRRR!!! I keep a space heater under the bench, right next to my heavy wall storage slot. not only does this keep my legs warm but my thicker tubing is already slightly warm. Average temp in my shop is low 40s before i turn on my kiln, and my vents suck most of the heat out. If not for my heater I would lose alot of stuff, as it is I don't lose much. I guess what I'm sayin is stay warm.

[FredLight]

I wish that was my problem, It was 80 degrees in my shop by Noon. February in California.
Go figure.

[Royal]

i will do my welds the touch them up and finish them, then put the piece back in the kiln to get back up to temp. with bigger pieces ill put it in the kiln almost after every step and just work on something else inbetween time.

[Sol]

ya carrige your shizzle and it wont turn to drizzle

[burnoutboy]

just..be the glass. think like it would.