Glassblowing

[Hemlock_Mike]

Glass blowing is an art like blacksmithing. You have to
practice OFTEN. So many of these arts are dying because
there isn't an "app" for it.
HM

 

[hakzaw1]

Kudos to 10F --art glass blowing is God-awful HOT work-risky-sweaty-dangerous--- and one day of trying was all I needed to see it was not for me..




and some of the stuff you do make breaks while cooling down in a kiln--bummer..

 

[Laserbuilder]

My further exerсise in glasswork. A new neck is welded to a flask instead of a broken one, a big dephlegmator made of blank glass tube. the T-joint is not as perfect as I'd like it to be but it is pressure-tight and it didn't break after cooling down.

 

[ev23]

My further exerсise in glasswork. A new neck is welded to a flask instead of a broken one, a big dephlegmator made of blank glass tube. the T-joint is not as perfect as I'd like it to be but it is pressure-tight and it didn't break after cooling down.

Nice! Scientific glass work is not easy! I've been working with glass for about 12 years now and its mostly what I do as a profession. I work with soft glass a majority of the time both at the furnace and on the torch but have a lot of experience with borosilicate and some with quartz as well and tons of cold-working (grinding/cutting/polishing for those who don't know) experience as well. Lately though I've been experimenting with making my own batch and trying a lot of different dopants, mostly rare earths to explore the range of effects on the finished glass. I've gotten some interesting results from color changing glasses to various types of fluorescence and a few batches that I might be able to use as laser rods if everything went right in the melt! Would love to be able to build a laser literally from scratch some day. Glad I came across this thread and keep at the glass work! its a steep learning curve but it does get easier with time and experience