Trying My Hand At Glass Pipe Making

Originally Posted by researchkitty

Thanks, thanks, thanks.



Thanks! I'd think so yes! Made a really neat cherry colored spoon (The size of a bbq serving spoon ) and a few black pieces yesterday. Really happy with the progress that comes with not having to worry all the time about oxygen. fdd, $1350 DELIVERED, but the flame on the red max photo is as big as it gets. A 4th oxycon would help, but its just too much heat for my sized work right now.



Very soon I hope! Bongs can be a tricky one. While sure, you can melt any glass you like with my torch, holding a huge bong by hand and hand rotating that is very difficult and very heavy. Generally if its bigger than 30" long its made on a glass lathe, which spins glass on each side and you have a moving torch thats mounted to the lathe as it rotates the glass for you. The order in which I want to make things goes like this:

Bats (Working), Spoons (Almost done), Bubblers (Todo), Bongs (Todo)

The bat and spoons are actually pretty easy, but mine arent being colored or have any fancy options. They are just clear with some color or clear with a goofy shape. The steps to achieve the 4 goals above are multi-faceted too -- in order to make my bats and spoons better, I need to learn coloring more and more structural that way they are all more pretty and more "on center" and "straight". They are really close now, but not quite perfectly symmetrical yet. Of course, fun ones arent symmetrical too, you can get crazy. Anyways, to get to the bong point, I need to learn how to color as said, marbles, more shaping techniques, more gravity and heat reading, dichroic glass, murrini/frit applications, forming donuts and perks inside glass, jointing and fusing, etc., etc., etc.......

To make the short story long, a bongs really just a lot of little work fused together, just gotta learn it =)

Thanks for all the compliments, you'll see more updates now =)

Thanks for explaining that to the people who aren't into glass blowing!

I'd rep ya but I cant again.

Can somebody get this guy a rep?

Happy I *can* explain it!! A few weeks ago no chance. My reputation is "beyond repute" now, so please add some negative feedback or infractions instead. Dont want my head getting too big.

Originally Posted by fdd2blk

my gas people started me at 35 a bottle. after a few months i talked to the billing dude and he dropped me down to 21 a bottle. after a year i talked to my buddy who works within and he got me down even lower. they usually fill their own bottles so if you talk to them they can work with you. the more you use the cheaper it should become. it's hard at first because you aren't getting much back from your bottle. i would go thru a whole bottle and be lucky to sell one thing to pay for it. so you kinda are "investing" in oxygen your first few months.

i want a new torch. ====>> http://www.mountainglassarts.com/s.nl/it.A/id.2018/.f

i work at a gass and cryo company, a k size costs $8 to fill. dewars go up to 40,000 cubic feet but are sold by liquid liter. i deliver to glass shops they mostly use 180L one or two use 230-265L and they last like a month in a shop that teaches glass for oaksterdam

Nice prices there for sure stupidclown! I'm told the big liquid oxygen dewars (not compressed o2, but liquid o2) in that size range usually last about 3 weeks before they bleed off naturally. Not terrible, but the tank cost was the same as the generators, and I dont have to refill those! I might get a liquid oxy tank if I start to blow REALLY big pieces, aka 60mm x 5mm on up for borosilicate (pyrex). That'd be in addition to the concentrators, which would be used for part of the flame, liquid for the rest when I need super flame.

003: Last nights work. Pink lighter shown for size reference.


005: Black with some sparkle blue color lines. Hard to see with the camera, but neater in person.


006: Bat with a hint of candy caned color that was pre-mixed and strung before the pipe was made. A two part process I suppose.


007: First attempt at a gandalf pipe. It's neat, its big, but kinda fugly shape-wise =)


008: Same color as the pipe above, its a dark red that glows nice and turns clear in some areas as its worked.


009: I like this one a lot. Just a nice shaped and sized spoon, and the design I thought was pretty when it finished out of the kiln.

That's it for now! Time to make some more...........

I'm really impressed, you've improved quite rapidly and even your first few weren't that bad and basically the perfect first time pipe, that has that little sentimental value, anyways Great Job!!! I can't wait t see what's next!!!

looking really good. hopefully this thread will be full of new pics everyday.

your studio looks awesome and you are really getting into it!

also your skills are getting better with every piece, you will be making great stuff in no time

good luck! and keep us updated