studio is 9/10!!!!

[alacrity024]

all i need to do is mount the exhaust fan and i will be up and running tonight!! i'm pretty stoked. i ordered a starter kit from Sundance and some assorted tube, rod and color. ordering a kit was kind of a mistake because i can already tell that the torch (National 6B) is going to fall WAY short of what i'll eventually need. but that's okay, i'm happy to start small and work my way up slowly.

so here's a stupid question:

let's say that i'm making a simple spoon.. i start with a section of tube with a bubble blown at the end of it. i will ultimately press a bowl down into it and open up a bowl hole and a carb hole. but how do i open two holes??? my limited experience working with tube tells me that the easiest way to open a small hole is to hold the glass in the flame and blow until a hole pops open. but once i do that one time, won't it be pretty difficult to do it again??

[borealisglass]

I don't blow glass but I would think you could do the bowl first and then plug it with a carbon rod and blow the rest....but I should just keep my mouth shut and let the pros tell you how it is done

[NOFO]

after you pop the hole and push the bowl, use a graphite rod to cover or fill that hole while you blow your carb. also if the glass is blown thin enough you can blow your carb hole by just heating and blowing , it should pop just like the first hole.

[NOFO]

also go to artglass1.com ( Sundance ) they use to have a place where you could see how a simple spoon is made.

[borealisglass]

yippee...I was right....
What do I win???????

[Firekist]

most people pop the small bowl hole, push the bowl, then heat for the carb.. and either blow real hard (like liquidcolor said.. if it's thin this works.) or blow with a small carbon reamer (which i don't like cause tips sometimes snap off) brass reamers, or tungsten reamers.

some people... like me =) push the bowl, pop the carb, then poke the bowl hole with tungsten. (small flame, warm glass, orangeish/red hot tungsten and about 2-4 seconds of twisting and heating of the tungsten gives a nice hole. don't fume the tungsten.

if you're pretty accurate, you could blow, or partially blow the carb before popping the bowl hole and pushin the bowl.. but.. if you're off.. it'll be kinda goofy.

nationals will always make good hand torches in the future.

z--seth

[Fire on the mountain]

i would strongly recommend working with just solid rod for a while before moving onto tubing, especially since all your going to have is a national torch. Start learning beads and pendants and youll learn how glass moves. Also, watch some movies and read some books but that will never compare to watching and learning from a real person in my opinion. See if you can get some help from someone in your area....where are you at??...once you learn the basics, youll just need practice and the good on GLDG.

[Cosmo]

Here's a little advice from someone who was in your situation not too long ago...

Watch every video and read every book you can get your hands on. The videos are a little better for learning than books since you can actually see it happening, but there is much to be learned from books as well. Even if it's a book or video on work you don't have an interest in doing, there is still a lot to be seen and I guarantee you will pick up on something new in every one.

I will second the suggestion of working on beads, pendants and smaller solid objects before going on to hollow work. The learning curve for hollow work is steep even for someone with good experience in solid work. Not trying to tell you what to do, but I just don't want to see another case of someone getting in over their head and giving up because it's not working out.

If there are any classes near you, take one. Even if it's a soft glass beadmaking class. For someone just starting out, torch time is torch time - no matter what you're making.

[White Lunar Dog]

peep this
http://www.uwm.edu/People/jrspitz/glass/gfaq.html

[jiminyrootkit]

you can just use your massive lung capacity, and blow the carb, even tho the bowl is already holed.
but damn, it'll make your head spin if the piece is thick.
whee! look at all the pretty stars! :confetti:
-f

[Sol]

i find if you dont leave the hole in the bowl too large blowing the carb is just a matter of force and air pressure, but i guess you could plug the bowl with your bowlpush or a reamer ....

[alacrity024]

alright got the vent fan hooked up and spent some quality time in the garage. it's amazing how much you warm up once you start working. it was FREEZING last night but i really didn't mind it at all... for my first real night out in front of a torch i think i did pretty goddamn good. a lot of the heat base/wall thickness stuff from offhand came into play and i feel like i've got a good start on this.

http://photobucket.com/albums/y40/alacrity024/glass/pieces%20011006/

of course pretty much EVERYTHING cracked :notamused but i suppose that's what i get for trying to do this without a kiln. the one piece i tried flame-anneal had only one crack that isn't all the way through, but still... i'm gonna need a kiln :bangHead:

edit: hahahahaha :notamused <-- this guy looks like Meatwad :D

[blazeoffire]

alright got the vent fan hooked up and spent some quality time in the garage. it's amazing how much you warm up once you start working. it was FREEZING last night but i really didn't mind it at all... for my first real night out in front of a torch i think i did pretty goddamn good. a lot of the heat base/wall thickness stuff from offhand came into play and i feel like i've got a good start on this.

http://photobucket.com/albums/y40/alacrity024/glass/pieces%20011006/

of course pretty much EVERYTHING cracked :notamused but i suppose that's what i get for trying to do this without a kiln. the one piece i tried flame-anneal had only one crack that isn't all the way through, but still... i'm gonna need a kiln :bangHead:

edit: hahahahaha :notamused <-- this guy looks like Meatwad :D
Get a kiln and keep at it , your off to a good start, just keep at it do like 50 of those clear spoons in a row until you make one you would buy. then try something new and do that 50 times. practice makes perfect .

[zigs]

i always plug the hole w/ a rod when blowing the carb, primarily because if there is any moisture in there you'll blow it right into your piece and a guaranteed crack will occur especially w/ inside out or in a newbies case uneven wall thickness...even if there is no moisture in the handle just cold air rushing through the piece is enough to thermal shock the piece and again it will crack. Not plugging the hole requires alot more blowing as well which means it takes longer, so you heat a larger area of the piece, really to much, and when you are ready to pop the carb the chances of blowing out half your bowl for newbies is also greatly increased...my recommendation is plug the bowl hole every time because this will get you in good habits as opposed to bad...thanks, zig

[alacrity024]

one thing i started to learn is that certian techniques seem lend themselves to stressing the glass more.. for example pushing the tube into "marias" or little donuts that run around the circumfrence of the tube.. that seems to result in more cracked glass...

[alacrity024]

also is heavy-wall tubing more prone to stress fractures than regular or thin-wall? it seems like it would be.... god i need a kiln..

[blazeoffire]

one thing i started to learn is that certian techniques seem lend themselves to stressing the glass more.. for example pushing the tube into "marias" or little donuts that run around the circumfrence of the tube.. that seems to result in more cracked glass...
The pieces with marias are probably cracking for a few reasons. No Kiln and uneven wall thickness. When i do marias i blow each one out to the same wall thickness as the rst of the piece. By the way i can make a clear spoon with marias with out kiln annealing so you just need practice mostly. Just trying to stear a you a bit i guess :bouncy:

[blazeoffire]

i always plug the hole w/ a rod when blowing the carb, primarily because if there is any moisture in there you'll blow it right into your piece and a guaranteed crack will occur especially w/ inside out or in a newbies case uneven wall thickness...even if there is no moisture in the handle just cold air rushing through the piece is enough to thermal shock the piece and again it will crack. Not plugging the hole requires alot more blowing as well which means it takes longer, so you heat a larger area of the piece, really to much, and when you are ready to pop the carb the chances of blowing out half your bowl for newbies is also greatly increased...my recommendation is plug the bowl hole every time because this will get you in good habits as opposed to bad...thanks, zig

I use a small graphite rod every time i blow my carb always have and always will.
Listen to zig, and do it like 50 times before you move on.

[alacrity024]

thanks jesse, good call on blowing out marias.. and you're right, i need to practice practice practice.. are you flame-annealing stuff or if you get all the wall thickness spot-on can you just let it "air dry?"

[blazeoffire]

thanks jesse, good call on blowing out marias.. and you're right, i need to practice practice practice.. are you flame-annealing stuff or if you get all the wall thickness spot-on can you just let it "air dry?"

I guess what im saying is if someone wants a quick demo/pipe (20min)i don't even turn my kiln on, i just make a fumed clear piece, flame anneal as best i can ,then let it cool under the torch.Never crack this way anymore.
This is not to say nothing ever cracked when i was starting out. 99% of my shit used to crack.
I Have a kiln and i use it to anneal now.
but before i had a kiln i would flame anneal then let it cool near the torch.