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Author: Subject: Soda lime glass workability?
Refinery
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[*] posted on 22-5-2020 at 04:58
Soda lime glass workability?


Is soda lime glass how workable? I was ordering some tubing for my apparatus and discovered it was SLG instead of borosilicate. Should I be able to heat and bend and work the tube with normal propane torch?

I have made this numerous times with other glass I have so I have basic skill to do it, but I don't know what glass it is.

I know for a fact that "ordinary glass" that bottles etc. are made, will just simply crack and fall apart the moment you apply heat to them.
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RedDwarf
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[*] posted on 22-5-2020 at 05:01


In my experience Soda Lime glass tubing is much easier to work than borosilicate, I'm pretty sure when I was a kid that I was even using an alchohol burner to bend tubing.
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yobbo II
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[*] posted on 22-5-2020 at 05:20



If the wall is fairly thin and you anneal the bends after you make them. It melts easier that borosilicate but expands more so will be more likely to crack when it cools down if not annealed.

Lead glass is more is the most 'workable' glass because it melts lower again and has a broader range of temperature were it remains plastic (workable).

Yob
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Refinery
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[*] posted on 22-5-2020 at 08:31


If I make for example ampoules from soda glass, should they anneal by just letting them cool slowly?
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Chemetix
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[*] posted on 22-5-2020 at 16:37


Soda glass needs a wider heating range than a small sharp flame, making ampoules from soda glass tubing could be done without any oxy-fuel system. But it will need a little more than a Bunsen. If you have a small butane jet torch it will have the heat needed to melt and seal the glass. However, the jet torch will not have a the soft heat needed to anneal or at least spread the heat and cool the work slowly. One alternative is to have a Bunsen flame and the jet torch flame being directed into the upper part of the Bunsen flame.

You can use the concentrated heat and have a soft outer flame that will prevent the problems of soda glass cracking while being worked.

Lead glass, btw, melts at a low temperature but it needs the right flame chemistry, a Bunsen flame will have too much unburnt fuel in the flame and this reduces the lead oxide to black grey metallic lead.
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yobbo II
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[*] posted on 23-5-2020 at 14:13




Just as you are finished if you adjust the flame so that it is very sooty and coat the glass with soot. This helps to make it cool more slowley.


Some links.

http://www.ilpi.com/glassblowing/tutorial_terms.html


Yob
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[*] posted on 25-5-2020 at 14:33


The lime soda glass is more sensitive to thermal stress if i remember correctly.
If you heat it and cool it too fast it can crack.
I think this is especially true if you mix parts of soda glass and borosilicate glass as they expand differently when heated/cooled and thus it breaks at the point where the 2 are fused together.
But every type of glass has its good and bad properties depending on what you should use it for.
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Chemetix
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[*] posted on 25-5-2020 at 14:51
Glass blowing with a bunsen


I've made a you tube vid of how to make an ampoule with soda glass using a Bunsen burner. It's a beginners guide to working glass with no special equipment or torches.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjX5JwOvKGM

[Edited on 25-5-2020 by Chemetix]
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Refinery
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[*] posted on 28-5-2020 at 11:37


I have some tubes, probably made from boro according to sales description, but I easily managed to ampoulize a couple when I tested out. Gonna test out the soda glass when it arrives.
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[*] posted on 9-6-2020 at 10:38


I made tests and soda glass softens easily and is workable. Air cooling does not appear to cause cracking.
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[*] posted on 9-6-2020 at 11:32


Quote: Originally posted by Refinery  
I made tests and soda glass softens easily and is workable. Air cooling does not appear to cause cracking.


if you have a polarizing filter, you can make a makeshift glass stress visualizer by placing it over you phone camera, and placing the piece of glass between the filter and your computer screen (rotate the filter until a white image on your monitor looks black, or very dark), white areas indicate stress in the glass



IMG-20200115-WA0019-1.jpg - 2.2MB





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