Sciencemadness Discussion Board - Glass blowing - expertise needed

Glass blowing - expertise needed

Yttrium2 - 9-9-2021 at 11:29

What’s the largest size of glass I can blow with this?

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Bernzomatic-Basic-Torch-Kit-With-...

This isn’t a propane oxygen torch is it?

- not looking to upgrade my torch.

Texium - 9-9-2021 at 11:32

You can't do much with that beyond melting and bending glass pasteur pipettes or tubing... definitely not suitable for glassblowing.

Yttrium2 - 9-9-2021 at 11:38

Also on eBay there is borosilicate tubing saying it’s
12mm OD 10mm ID and only 1 MM thick, how can this be?
12-10 = 2.

Looking for the best deal on borosilicate glass

Yttrium2 - 9-9-2021 at 11:39

Quote: Originally posted by Texium

You can't do much with that beyond melting and bending glass pasteur pipettes or tubing... definitely not suitable for glassblowing.

What is the thickest glass tube I can blow?

Diameter and Thickness of glass — There are two variables

[Edited on 9/9/2021 by Yttrium2]

[Edited on 9/9/2021 by Yttrium2]

macckone - 9-9-2021 at 11:42

That is propane air, it is suitable for small soft glass.
For borosilicate you need propane oxygen at minimum and hydrogen/oxygen for anything large or fused silica.
Some of the big borosilicate shops use natural gas and oxygen but with multiple torches for big work.
We have a few glass workers around, you might want to ask them about custom work.

Yttrium2 - 9-9-2021 at 11:44

I’ve blown glass before with this propane torch, borosilicate glass so I know it will work

But someone do tell me how thick of glass I can blow?

[Edited on 9/9/2021 by Yttrium2]

Yttrium2 - 9-9-2021 at 11:49

This is what I want to make, but with a lot longer of a spout.

[Edited on 9/9/2021 by Yttrium2]

Chemgineer - 9-9-2021 at 12:06

Quote: Originally posted by Yttrium2

Also on eBay there is borosilicate tubing saying it’s
12mm OD 10mm ID and only 1 MM thick, how can this be?
12-10 = 2.

Looking for the best deal on borosilicate glass

You are confusing diameter with radius. If you take the above you have 6mm outside radius - 5mm inside radius = 1mm.

Yttrium2 - 9-9-2021 at 12:11

macckone - 9-9-2021 at 12:30

For borosilicate that torch may work but it isn't really suitable.
And you need to anneal anything of substantial size afterwards.

Save yourself the headache and buy one:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008AJT8EW

Tsjerk - 9-9-2021 at 13:59

In China there are really cheap glassblowers, the sell their stuff on Aliexpress.

Chemetix - 9-9-2021 at 14:39

Making crack pipes with 10mm 2mm wall tubing on a benzomatic MAPP torch is the way they all do it. It's slow and expensive but achievable. The heat is so diffuse that annealing isn't really needed with something this small.

PM if you need real glass blowing tips.

karlos³ - 9-9-2021 at 18:45

Quote: Originally posted by Chemetix

Making crack pipes with 10mm 2mm wall tubing on a benzomatic MAPP torch is the way they all do it. It's slow and expensive but achievable. The heat is so diffuse that annealing isn't really needed with something this small.

PM if you need real glass blowing tips.

People make their meth pipes really like this?

Is that not a dollar item, and anyway, back when I vaped stimulants(no thanks sir, I'll rather snort a line instead now!), I was under the impression, that the best vaping devices are made from test tubes with a nice stopper or ideally two holes, and glass tubing, one going down and sticking out, 90° bent and that goes into the mouth, and for the other a short piece of glass tubing pushed down a few cm's, suffices.

And I mean it reallys suffices, you can vape anything in such a device with a bit of experience, like DMT or other tryptamines, it is that versatile.
Also, you get all the spare parts readily from a lab glass dealer, can even pick them up in person(though its probably expensive) and he will think you're going to build a coolfinger.
Because thats actually all the stuff needed for it.
Also why I drew this picture, for tryptamines or DMT, not for stimulant drugs.

I would post a picture I drew last year(in paint

) for a friend who had issues to get this to work... but then again, this is SM and not another more drug chemistry oriented site or something like this.
I think this would be a bit too much...?

Ah well I post it anyway, its an yttrium2 thread, the worst that could happen is that it is actually helpful for him.
But this thread is ending up in vacuous anyway at some point, so I guess this does not make it that much worse,,,,

If it does, my apologies to our staff.

macckone - 10-9-2021 at 07:27

It is a retort not a bong or crack pipe.

Fyndium - 11-9-2021 at 00:21

I suppose a small retort could be used for a very bad case of a crackhead.

Not regarding what is to be made, I have had success with a similar sized handheld piezo gas torch for manipulating glass tubing up to 20mm. Boro is definitely much more difficult to work with than soda lime, it gets merely workable with same flame that soda lime just melts.

Junk_Enginerd - 18-9-2021 at 11:09

I have extensive experience trying to blow glass with inappropriate equipment...

A typical air/fuel gas torch(what fuel it is doesn't make a significant difference with air as oxidizer) will let you soften tubes <8 mm or so, for bending and such. You might be able to do some lighter blowing operations on soda glass in those sizes as well, but it'll be a frustrating exercise and you'll struggle to get good and even results because while you'll get it hot enough to be workable, it won't be easily workable. You can forget about trying to melt together separate parts. An air/fuel torch cannot reach high enough "power density"(not the same as temperature) to get a small enough flame that also delivers enough heat to get the needed precision.

What I did was buy a cheap $200 oxygen concentrator from ebay. 1L oxygen per minute. They are sold as 1-6 L per minute, but the higher volumes are just diluted with air. 1L O2 per minute makes for a flame with about the same, maybe slightly higher, total heat in output as a normal torch of the type you linked, except the flame is probably about 1/20th of the volume. Using this heating a glass tube 6-8 mm enough to manipulate takes 2 seconds instead of 15 seconds with an air/fuel torch. After 6-7 seconds it'll be so hot it starts dripping. Blowing operations are easy, and so is welding different parts together(well I mean, it's not the torch that's limiting me any more lol). As the total heat isn't much higher it's not sufficient to work larger parts. I have done some stuff out of 20 mm boro silicate test tubes, a distilling adapter for example, but that was pushing it a little.

Basically, don't even bother trying to do anything but the simplest bending and such with an air torch. It's horribly frustrating. If you decide to get an oxygen concentrator, consider getting one bigger than 1 L per minute.