quartz sublimation

[god_eater]

i know that there is a chemical for removing the sublimation on quartz. in this case we are making quartz nails. does any one know what the chemical is and what concentration is necessary? i've been searching all day and i can't find this information. thanks ya'll

[windupdevl]

Do you mean the white residue that builds up as you work the quartz? if so you need HF....Hydrofluoric acid....nasty nasty stuff....be careful with it...

[BlueBeard]

yeah hydrofluoric acid. the bottle at work says its 61% strength. be super careful. This means a lot more than gloves and safety goggles. Full lab safety gear should be worn, crazy ventilation plus a respirator. you also need a way to dispose of it properly. they used hydrofluoric acid on an episode of "breaking bad" to dissolve bodies.

[Simian]

Jesus. That is some caustic shit.

[somewhere]

ammonium bifluoride.

stay away from full strength hf it isn't necessary and it doesn't give you a second chance. Ammonium bifluoride can be bought in a dry crystal flake and mixed with water or you can buy it ready made. Either way it's still just a diluted hf but more stable without all the fumes. Apron gloves face shield and respirator if not your just asking for it.

Quartz bloom can be avoided. I'm going to guess these must be a little more then just a nail to be getting bloom. I would think you need to be making some type of seal. Either way you should be able to avoid it by the angle of the torch. For complex seals preheating a larger area really helps.

[glassmax]

Hi,

As said before,stay away.

I once worked free lance for a company that produced cuvettes.(scientific glass for laboratories)
These contained quarz glass parts.
This was the most fucked job I ever did.(good money though)
But anyway.I did this in a high tech company and all these quarz glass parts had to be very clean.
This has been done partly with this nasty stuff but under VERY,very strict conditions !

If you get some drops onto your skin,it will go into your body system and this is very hard if not
impossible be to stop.
So let me ask why or for what purpose you need to make these nails ?

Axel

[JBob]

quartz nails for erl i presume



So let me ask why or for what purpose you need to make these nails ?

Axel

[sasch74]

Fom my quartz-experience (worked 3 months in a high-tech shop) the HF is used to clean the glass before you work it in the flame. The bloom was flamepolished away, no need for any acids!

[BORO]

I have had luck flame polishing my Q-nails , but some "bloom" will not go away all together. Does anyone know if bloom is cosmetic only ,or is it bad to heat and .............? also what are peeps running for eye protection? I have run aura 5.5 and shade 6 flip downs over that and its still silly bright. ( so bright I will only make them for friends/special request.)

[windupdevl]

The bloom is cosmetic. I spent 5 years behind a lathe making large metal halide lamps. I used a shade 8 face shield when I worked quartz, but I was working 100mmx4mm tubing so the heat got quite intense. Quartz has a COE of 5.8...so it is pretty tough stuff when it comes to imperfections and thermal shock. We used the HF to clean up the bulbs after they were dosed and the tubulations were closed off. Reheating the bulb to clean off the bloom was not an option as the lamps could no longer go back into the oven to re-anneal. As others have said, you can use your torch to sort of "brush" the bloom away and annealing a nail isn't really necessary. Are you burning hydrogen or trying to do it with propane?

[god_eater]

thank you all for the knowledge. im slow to respond so ill try and get reply to all that was said. i have used both hydrogen and propane. right now im using propane. i have to travel to get my hydrogen filled. i have been polishing the "bloom" off and i would rather find another solution. hydroflouric acid seems out of the question (i dont have space to deal with it). i will read up on ammonium bifluoride (msds and such) and figure out if its reasonable to use. as for flame polishing, this does work well but it takes to long when i make nails day, after day, after day. thanks again all.