Portable glass studio

[Scooch]

I am trying to find someone that is using a glass studio that was made by David Palmer in Australia. His company is called Mobile Hot Glass and he makes a glass blowing rig that has the furnace, glory hole, pipe warmer, hot pick-up box, marver, and annealer all in one setup. The one major limitation that I see is that the diameter of the glory hole is on the smaller side. That being said, it does appear to be an effective and cost efficient way to get into glass blowing.

Here is a link to Dave's website.

Mobile Hot Glass (http://www.mobilehotglass.com/)

[somewhere]

I remember when he started down this path. The reviews have not been good but most of that was coming from people who never used his set up.

I have serious problems with the all frax design for two reasons.

1st health concerns that is a lot of fiber that will be heated to over 1500f. At those temperatures all that fiber starts breaking down and becomes crystobalite. What does that mean well it means the fiber becomes cancer causing. Before it's heated the fibers are amorphous they can not give your cancer after 1500f it can. Yes most of the refractories we use will contain free silica but bricks and castable will hold together and not become airborne like fiber does.

2nd durability. He calls this a mobile setup. Well if you know what happens to that fiber once it's heated you will know it starts to fall apart. Fiber in a glass furnace will start to disintegrate and any glass contact at all and it will melt. Same goes for the glory any drips will eat holes right through it.

All that said. I love the concept and there is a lot of good ideas in his work. I don't think it would be hard to build it better for less.

[Scooch]

Thank you for your reply. I guess there was a thread about this in the past? I was unable to find it.

I am not sure of the construction in the walls. He has changed the floor and front door of the furnace from his original. He no longer uses fiber in the front door. It looks to be almost all castable because of drips. As for the durability, I am looking to be able to move the rig from inside my garage to outside the garage. This should not be a big issue.

[brads]

I won't comment on the particular setup, but after following the link to his site and seeing that he had a patent related to this, I looked up the patent out of curiosity. It never ceases to amaze me what some patents are granted for. It's not like the all-in-one furnace, gloryhole, annealer design hasn't been used in numerous places for a few thousand years.

From the patent (http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/ols/auspat/pdfSource.do?fileQuery=%A5%AF%BF%BC%C4%BB%8A%A1%B5 %B2s%B3%B6%B9%B2%BB%AE%BA%B2%8A%8E%A2%7F%7D%7E%7F% 7E%7D%7D%7E%80%84%8E%81%7F%7D%7E%7F%7D%80%7D%85%7B %BD%B1%B3s%BE%C2%B6%B0%B8%8A%AF%BF%BC%C4%BB):



COMBINATION HOT ART STUDIO

FIELD OF THE INVENTION:

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for substantially heating several heating devices from one or more controllable heat sources for the 'hot arts' (i.e. glass, ceramics or metal working). For example, one preferred embodiment of the invention allows for a glass melting furnace, 'glory hole', pipe and punty warmer, hot box, hot marver and annealing oven for use in glass-blowing to be primarily powered from one heat source.



Here are a couple of screenshots of an "all-in-one" setup in a studio in Damascus, Syria. The shots were grabbed from Norm Faulkner's video "Middle Eastern Glass". (Which is a great video.) Notice anything similar to the patent claims?


83547

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[unfunraygun]

Track down Bob from noble glass in Eugene Oregon. He is reputable from EGS to soft glass studios to boro. A very intelligent person who can set up any type/size studio. This Aussie setup looks fucking lame!

[unfunraygun]

Sorry! Replied too soon. All in one? Good luck being a cheap bastard in glass. Things will be awesome if you cut corners and lowball a studio!

[Scooch]

Are you basing your response on actual knowledge of the setup or are you just being a prick? Seriously, I asked a simple question looking for intelligent responses. Just because something is not expensive, extravagant, or large doesn't mean that it is bad. Constructive input is useful, your comment was not.

[BlairArtGlass]

I love the idea of the self contained unit, and how it works makes alot of sense I think. What somewhere said about the fiber breaking down also seems logical, I worked in a foundry for a while and the frax doesn't last long under high heat conditions. However it seems that the design could be used to build the unit with different materials which might allow it to have better longevity. I don't know I've never seen one in person. My shop is expanding into soft glass and we had looked at this idea when we first started because we wanted to be able to do mobile demos. It just didn't seem practical for the goals we have though, so we went with a larger stationary set up.

[jusbag]

I saw one at a street show in Olympia once. It was a glory hole/furnace in one at least. Can't remember how they were annealing. It definitely wasn't "ideal" :-)

[Super Phunk]

Is this the same David that use to live in the states?

[Scooch]

I don't know if he used to live in the US.

[menty666]

Seems like the core problem of the portable studio is "what to do with the 2200 degree crucible at the end of the day?" I guess you could keep it hot like the tar guys do when they're driving along, but you've still got to deal with it when you get home.

Having said that, Corning Museum had a mobile studio in a truck setup, that for the life of me I can't find the videos on youtube anymore. They may have pulled them, but I think it was part of their Glass Lab series.

There are a couple of other videos that pop up if you search for "mobile glassblowing". Seems like you could create something like a modified pizza oven design on the back of a bike trailer that would be big enough to do some small demos at shows.

[brads]

Seems like the core problem of the portable studio is "what to do with the 2200 degree crucible at the end of the day?" I guess you could keep it hot like the tar guys do when they're driving along, but you've still got to deal with it when you get home.


You simply let it cool down, just like a weekend warrior would with a furnace that's not portable. And yes, if it's portable you drive with it hot. Or cold. No big deal either way. It was done hot with the portable furnace on a trailer that Wheaton Village in NJ had when I worked there 25 years ago.

[Nomad]

I saw this kit. It costs $5,000 us. I wonder what the shipping is from AU?
I was thinking about getting one for a one car garage space studio. I could make paperweights and vases and perfume bottles and ornaments part time.


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[Scooch]

I saw this kit. It costs $5,000 us. I wonder what the shipping is from AU?
I was thinking about getting one for a one car garage space studio. I could make paperweights and vases and perfume bottles and ornaments part time.


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I have been looking into this setup. I have found a couple of other alternatives but none seem to be as complete, have as much room, or as cost effective. I am considering buying the plans to see how difficult the build is. David Palmer uses the original setup frequently and produces very nice pieces. He also uses it to teach. I think the biggest drawback to this setup is the size of the glory hole. David Palmer has indicated that the size is limited by the burner capacity. Any bigger and the heat loss would be to much when the glory hole is open. Some of the additional features that this rig has are a built-in hot box for colored glass allowing for the heating of flat glass and rods for pickup. Shipping is definitely a problem. Once he ships it to a port then you have to pay the taxes, import duties, and arrange for shipping to the final destination.

[menty666]

Jeez, be cheaper to buy the plans and sign an NDA.

Or...just study that Syrian setup, watch a few videos on building pizza ovens and bicycle carts (or pizza ovens on bicycle carts [might be more profitable in the long run]), and have at it.

[brads]

Jeez, be cheaper to buy the plans and sign an NDA.

Or...just study that Syrian setup, watch a few videos on building pizza ovens and bicycle carts (or pizza ovens on bicycle carts [might be more profitable in the long run]), and have at it.

Or walk into virtually any hotshop and see what their stuff looks like. Building this stuff isn't rocket science. It's been done for a few thousand years. Unless you're a total knob, the hardest part is usually finding a local place to buy refractories.

[brads]

I saw this kit. It costs $5,000 us. I wonder what the shipping is from AU?
I was thinking about getting one for a one car garage space studio. I could make paperweights and vases and perfume bottles and ornaments part time.


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If you're actually serious, you might be better off checking out one of these (http://www.mobileglassblowingstudios.com). The shipping cost may be a little more reasonable.