Using soft, furnace-pulled tube on the torch

currently I'm enrolled at the tyler school of art in philly, and for the first time I have access to free glass and gas on the torch. They dont have any boro tubes, but I wanted to experiment with soft glass tubing on the torch to see what I could do with it, as it is free. All I have to do it pull the tubing from the furnace and it is mine.

Does anyone short of Shane Fero know how to work with soft glass tubing? I would like to figure out some methods, but want to know if anyone has any tips before I try to reinvent the wheel.

Thanks guys,
Drew

I would think itd be just the same as boro...just cooler temp and it stays molten alot longer. oh and usually when they pull tube the dip a clear tube in the color, so your going to need a clear tube of soft glass to start with

Sure! Fred Birkhill does.

Anyway, it's not that different than working with boro tubing. It's shocky, obviously so gradual heating is mandatory. The clear that's like 30-32mm, medium wall and leaded is pretty easy to deal with. Pulling points is no problem. Compared to boro, you'll have more problems with tubes cracking at the heat line if you set them down after taking off a section and stuff like that. Definitely need to adjust your habits a bit, but that's all.

The furnace tubing I've seen tends to be much thicker though, like 22mm and 5mm wall. That stuff is a bit more inconvenient, mainly due to the thickness. I'd cut it into sections and preheat in a kiln at 850-900, then take it out and attach a blowtube, punty, etc. Fred had some orange furnace tubing with yellow stripes he was using in class... worked well as line tubing for squig wigs and similar.

What type of glass are they using, Spruce Pine? I enjoyed that on the torch because it's a bit stiffer than the leaded stuff, and a bit easier to control. The leaded glass is compatible with a broader range of colors, apparently, but it can reduce, um.. has lead in it and boils relatively easily. The soda lime stays more clear.

Most of same basic techniques done in boro work well in this glass... Powder, frit, honeycombing, tube implosions, trailing, raking, inside out... you have different limitations as far as how the clear works, but the palette of colors and how well they work is colossal. It's pretty easy to get layered tubing, too!

So, to sum up it's about the same as shocky boro with lousy clear and awesome colors.

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Originally Posted by Moltenman442

I would think itd be just the same as boro...just cooler temp and it stays molten alot longer. oh and usually when they pull tube the dip a clear tube in the color, so your going to need a clear tube of soft glass to start with

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Furnace work is actually done on metal blowpipes, not glass tubes. It's the boro furnace work where they use glass tubes. A tube of soft glass would just melt, I imagine. A tube of boro might work for soft glass, but there would be no advantage over steel and a few disadvantages.

Oh, and I'd suggest taking Fred and Shane's class if you can... it's great!

use an oxidizing flame or mostly it will turn to black gnar gnar

Doesn't sound like the OP has any experience with glass, the way the terms are thrown around.

Is there a glass class offered there? Take it, they'll lead you in the right direction.

I can't imagine it being just like that,..

"here you go, you can use ALL this stuff, but be careful that glory-thingie is hot"

umm it definately sounds like he has some experience. for the first time he has free glass and gas... and i dont think he thinks pulling the tubing out of the furnace is like grabbing a cold one from the fridge. and he knows shane fero uses soft glass tubing......

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Originally Posted by OVglass

use an oxidizing flame or mostly it will turn to black gnar gnar

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^ this is good advice, you gotta make that torch hiss. All that oxygen will also make your flame cooler and more suitable for soda glass. I know soft glass refers to the hot, working state of it, but I hate calling it soft glass, because in its cold state, boro is actually the softer glass. It causes a lot of misconceptions about the resilience of the two glasses, but I won't get into it here.

Your question is the most logical step anyone going from lampworking to furnace working takes, hehe.
The o/d and thickness you can make variable, obviously. Just be careful and don't go too gung ho on your gathers.
If you're going to make thick tubing, I also recommend annealing if possible, just make shorter sections which will fit in the kiln. Thinner tubing is a little more interesting to handle in the flame, but with a bit of finesse you should have no problems. Making tubing can be a bit of trial and error, but if you're working with a gaffer who knows what he/she's doing, it'll make it a lot easier and quicker.
I've got a box of soda colour tubing which was handmade in Lauscha, it's beautiful stuff. Some of it has nice white stripes in it so it's easy to make reticello and latticino vessels.
Also, you can produce some interesting cane and make it into zanfirico coilpots or coreforms.
Have fun :)

I have worked tubing that was hand-pulled from the furnace before. It is not that difficult if you know your material well. You have to sneak up on it. You have to manage the heat carefully. You can count on much longer working times and much cooler working temps.

If you are in charge of the tube-pulling, blow the walls as thin as you can manage. If the walls are thick (15% of the diameter of the tube or more) it will be much more difficult to heat from room temp. If you need thicker walls to make what you want, consider working off the pipe with a gathered bubble in the traditional way instead. It is much easier. It is also possible to simply take a gather and pull out a bubble and then take it to the flame without letting it cool.

Most people who lampwork soft glass work with manufactured lead or barium tubing. This type of glass is relatively tolerant of the kind of heating flameworkers require and can be mixed with all the common types of soft colored glass the furnace glassblowers use. This is what Shane and Fred do. The tubing is much less expensive than boro tubing, but can still add up. You can buy it from Tecnolux.

- RAM

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Originally Posted by julian

A tube of boro might work for soft glass,!

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absolutely, just keep it hot, i know paul stankard wraps some boro around his metal pipe and then seals it to soft glass when he makes anything, he keeps it ripping hot in a glory hole and a delta elite that only goes on full blast and then when he's done he uts some water on it and gets a really clean break