chopper guns?

[Glassroots]

Who has used one of these? I was inspired by this piece I saw at corning that I think they did with a chopper gun.....or cut a bunch of stringers made of soft glass and slumped them in a mold . Any thoughts?

[Shatner]

Could you explain what a "chopper gun" is. I've never heard that term. Thanks.

[Glassroots]

its what they use to apply fiberglass

[Shatner]

Oh. Ok, thanks. I thought you were talking about some tool I'd never heard of. http://images.nasioc.com/forums/images/smilies/lol.gif

[yinzer]

not to change the subject, but what guy are you in that band?

[Glassroots]

I am the drummer. Would you like an autograph? you know, cause............ I play in a band and stuff.

[yinzer]

heh. no thanks. you guys sound pretty good though. well, you can autograph my husbands bra if you really want too.

[Glassroots]

wow, so nobody has a thought on This. I thought it was a cool idea, anyone????

[somberbear]

i have....

but fiber glass binders scare the bajesus outta me. nasty nasty very very bad chems used to do fiber glass work...

i thought about a chopper gun for a while... if you could torch it at the same time you could probably do boro and just chopper that way.... but you might need to be inside a furnace for it to work out...

other thent hat most chopper guns need very very figne fibers.... depending on model and how its done.

it seams like a pain to me... and alot of production cost.. but would be nice to see just to do it.

[Glassroots]

so how do you think they did the basket, cut up rods slumped?

[FredLight]

cut stringers slumped.

It looks as if the material is drawn from a vitrograph kiln. You spend an hour guiding stringer around on the floor, then you snip it into manageable sections and lay them in a pie tin shaped mold. Use a tack-fuse program and you're all set. If you use one fast fuse firing and one short slump program, you can get better control of what the stringer does.

I'm guessing soft glass. Bullseye 90.

[somberbear]

in theroy you could use a 2 part mold to get a smoother interior?

[Glassroots]

sounds cool, I can't wait to try it. my buddy has the knowledge on slumping and this looks like a cool design to start with. thanks for the insight

[FredLight]

Rob,
If you wanted a smoother interior surface you would slump over a mold like a stainless steel dish turned upside-down. Like an umbrella. That would definitely require the two firing method though. Two part mold would block the heat and create uneven "slumpage".