What is the strenght of clear raw glass tubes?

[gambitglass]

So I searched and couldn't find what I was looking for.

Does raw tubing need to be annealed to be full strength and durable. I would not imagine that it gets annealed in manufacture?

I have a couple of projects that I thought I could assemble with just tube lengths cut to size like xylophones and wind chimes but didn't know if they could hold up over time due to not having a full size annealer to fit the whole length.

Also if I were to try and make a glass didgeridoo if is kosher to anneal the ends I worked one at a time and leave the rest of the tube hanging out of a kiln or would that create stress in the piece?

[Captain Glass]

A glass didgeridoo ?!?!?!? Sounds cool

[gambitglass]

I'm not sure it will function. You can use a stock heavy wall tube with no flares or anything and it sounds pretty good but someone told me the glass ones vibrate almost too much and need to be dampened a little. I figured you could wrap some sections with leather or something where you would place your hands.

[LTD]

If you only anneal the ends it will break. Period

[gambitglass]

Thanks LTD that is what I was assuming to be the case. What about making small tubes that may not fit in the kiln is there a way to anneal them using vermiculite and a SS barrel? I know someone that bench cools minis that are hardly worked with good success so I figured a vermiculite chamber is just a step up from that plan.

Still wondering about stock tubing as well. My windchime design would be cut lenghts of stock tubing secured with a glass cap with a hole in the top center to hold the cord. The caps I was planning to anneal seperately because they fit in a kiln unlike a 3' length of say 38 x 4 tubing. I was thinking to UV epoxy the caps over the tube ends. My dilema is the striker (wood or hard rubber) will be banging into the glass to chime the bell/tube and these things would be outside in the elements (I would advise to store away in storms, high wind, and for winter or freezing conditions) Is the stock tubing strong enough for this application or am I just dreaming of trying to make this work. I'm not going to sub-contact someone to batch anneal these in a large oven because it would be cost prohibitive I'm sure. Maybe for a personal chime for myself but not as a business venture.

Thanks

[Slow]

I made a glass didgeridoo once. I took a 4 foot length of 50mm, flared one end just a touch, and condensed the other for a mouthpiece. It sounded ok, but I think boro just doesn't have the greatest sound quality (I had a similar thought after making boro guitar slides). Maybe soft glass would sound better, but it wouldn't be as tough. I like the leather idea, maybe that has some merit. And speaking of toughness, if you are careful when using and transporting, a glass didg shouldn't break under normal use.

As far as chime go, I think feel like any steps you take to protect the glass will have a detrimental effect on the sound quality (which isn't great in the first place), and they would still probably break. Maybe try a small set that you could fit in your kiln and see how it goes.

[aREa541]

I have a friend that makes glass flutes, that he can actually play songs on, they sound pretty good.

[T-Rex]

I'm pretty sure you can make a didgeridoo just out of a tube, no flares or anything. A friend of mine used to play a PVC pipe didgeridoo.

I say just use a full 1.5m piece of Simax 50x5 and call it a day!

I'd love to see your instruments if you get around to making 'em!

[Slow]

It's true that you don't need a flare, but it can help the sound travel. I highly recommend putting a mouthpiece on, though. A smaller aperture will make it much, much easier to play. Even the bamboo ones have a beeswax mouthpiece fixed to one end.

[Wilbur]

my understanding, as told by a self righteous didj player, is that without interior texture to reverberate the sound waves a certain way, its technically not a didjeridoo or owever its spelled.


a straight tube still produces cool deep tones that sound cool and can be played like a didj, but some crusty granola type tried to clown me for calling a glass tube a didjeridoo, when it technically wasnt. supposedly

anyone have input on the 'classification' or name of a glass instrument like that?

[Slow]

I don't claim to be an expert, but I've played many a didg. The interior nature of the tube can and does affect the sound, but I've found that you can make the same basic sounds (drone, squeal, harmonics, animal noises, etc.) with pretty much any tube. It mostly comes from your mouth. I've played through bamboo, wood, agave, PVC, glass, clay, cardboard, and probably a few other materials, and while the tone definitely varies, I've never run into a situation in which I can't get a particular sound (note the difference between sound and tone) due to the material.

So, unless you wanna get all high-and-mighty, if you're making fart sounds with your mouth into a tube, go ahead and call it a didg. Hell, I've seen Dr. Didg play through tubes that I know are smooth on the inside, and he's a friggin' doctor...

[gambitglass]

LOL ^ Nice input slow. I've played a little bit of didj and have a pvc one. My buddy crafts some killer wooden ones and has been making them for years now. He also has a really cool travel didj he bought.

Here is one here: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.sangitamiya.is/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Travel-Didgeridoo.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.sangitamiya.is/en/2010/04/didgeridoo/&h=800&w=557&sz=40&tbnid=91dza1Y76sw5yM:&tbnh=101&tbnw=70&zoom=1&usg=__LKoTjn7sVmZ70hSbiEgt_UfrcjU=&docid=5jcGBv7x41v8mM&sa=X&ei=EcQSUaeeCISK0QHRkoGIBw&ved=0CEMQ9QEwAA&dur=466

sounds killer and plays easy.

Anyways different wood and different textures definitely give a didj its character but I do not think they are necessary for it to be labeled as a didj. I wanted to try the glass ones just based on how it would look and you could easily draw some tribal patterns on the flare and mouthpiece sides and maybe throw in a couple marbles and festival patrons would probably dig them. It would need to sound good enough though if I were planning to try and sell them.

My buddy wants me to make creations out of glass that he can use for inlays in his wooden ones. Maybe I'll just do that instead. I can just picture whole cases of 44 heavy wall easily transformed into cool looking didges though.

[mer]

i would hazard an educated guess that the manufacture process is designed to minimize stress in the tubing ($ lost). ask somebody that has a polariscope to double check?

[hashmasta-kut]

flare the ends or whatever you want to do to them. flame anneal them and didg yer heart out. its not a structural beam, and tubing is a pretty strong shape.

[menty666]

I know about the vibrations bit, but in regards to annealing...

If you have a front loader and some frax, you could remove the door, make an extension out front with the frax and some cementboard where you've got space to pass the tube through and into it (think about a lehr that moves instead of the pieces within it.). Anneal a width at a time.

[ITIS]

To properly anneal glass all of the glass has to reach and soak at the annealing temperature. Stress from heating is produced when one area is hot and one area is cold. The hot area - particles are excited and moving very rapidly. The cold area - particles are less excited and moving slowly. The area between is where there will be a ton of stress. To remove this stress it is necessary to heat the entire piece to annealing temp (or above, but below the temp that the glass will start to slump at). You must then cool the glass such that the surfaces and the middle stay close to the same temperature. For hollow work this easily achieved as the glass cools relatively uniformly. For large solid works, if you crash the kiln the outside will cool yet heat transfers slowly in glass (note how you can hold a rod close to the flame and not get burned try that with a steel rod ;)), consequently there is a difference in expansions from the center and the outside this difference introduces stress. To reduce this stress you have to cool the glass at a rate similar to the rate that heat is released from the core to the surface so that there is not ever a large difference in temperature form the core and the surface. For large solid pieces this can take days to achieve proper annealing. Good luck I hope that made sense. :)

[somewhere]

To properly anneal glass all of the glass has to reach and soak at the annealing temperature. Stress from heating is produced when one area is hot and one area is cold. The hot area - particles are excited and moving very rapidly. The cold area - particles are less excited and moving slowly. The area between is where there will be a ton of stress. To remove this stress it is necessary to heat the entire piece to annealing temp (or above, but below the temp that the glass will start to slump at). You must then cool the glass such that the surfaces and the middle stay close to the same temperature. For hollow work this easily achieved as the glass cools relatively uniformly. For large solid works, if you crash the kiln the outside will cool yet heat transfers slowly in glass (note how you can hold a rod close to the flame and not get burned try that with a steel rod ;)), consequently there is a difference in expansions from the center and the outside this difference introduces stress. To reduce this stress you have to cool the glass at a rate similar to the rate that heat is released from the core to the surface so that there is not ever a large difference in temperature form the core and the surface. For large solid pieces this can take days to achieve proper annealing. Good luck I hope that made sense. :)

Excellent summary.

[Slow]

My buddy wants me to make creations out of glass that he can use for inlays in his wooden ones. Maybe I'll just do that instead.

If you decide to go that route, I may be interested in picking one up. I quite like didges.

Also, that travel didg is crazy. I'd like to hear one played.