what is the best way to heat and bend a piece of glass tubing

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Angle a glass pane or bottle to a precise shape is not feasible without professional equipment. However, glass rods and tubing is easy to bend, and often done by artists and people working in laboratories. All you demand is a flame source, safety glasses, and patience. Glass stringers are the easiest form of glass to bend, and tin can exist fired in a kiln to fuse to other drinking glass objects.

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   Follow safety precautions. Clothing safety glasses whenever handling hot glass. Yous should simply try this with long pieces of glass, which you tin can safely hold without putting your hands anywhere near the flame. Hold hot glass using both hands, with each manus on an contrary end of the rod.

   • For curt pieces of glass, clench the glass to a band stand or calorie-free vise, and use a torch instead of a Bunsen burner. Follow these instructions, but instead of rotating the glass, rotate the torch completely around the point you want to bend, as you heat information technology.^[1]
   • Keep a container of h2o or a burn extinguisher nearby, only in case.

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   Find a heat-proof construction with the desired angle. For a 90º (right angle) curve, y'all tin can use the base of a ring stand up, available from laboratory supply stores. For other angles, y'all may demand to create this yourself past clamping and bending a slice of sturdy sheet metal.

   • If you don't mind imprecise angles, you may skip this step and bend the drinking glass past hand once it is hot, grasping only the two cool ends.

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   Turn a Bunsen burner on medium or high. Adhere the burner to a gas source, open up the valve on the source and the base of the burner, and then light the flame using a lighter or torch. Adjust the air flow valve on the side of the burner until the burner produces a tall, blueish flame.

   • Ideally, utilise a "wing top" burner attachment to create a wider flame, for a smoother curve. These are sometimes chosen "fishtail burners."
   • If yous are using drinking glass "stringers," or pocket-size drinking glass rods less than 2mm (0.08 inches) thick, you can use a candle flame instead.

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   Lower the glass slowly into the flame at the desired bend signal. Always begin applying heat slowly, or the drinking glass will have a high take a chance of cracking.

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   Rotate the glass as you heat. Agree the glass so the point where the bend will occur is directly in the tip of the blue flame. Rotate the glass slowly and constantly, and motility it from side to side to heat approximately 5 cm (two in.) of its length. Rut until yous feel or see the glass begin to sag at that point.

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   vi

   Bend the hot glass around the estrus-proof object. If heated sufficiently, the drinking glass should easily curve at that point. Bend information technology around the oestrus-proof structure with the angle y'all require. Make sure to concur the drinking glass apartment and steady during this bend.

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   Reduce airflow to the burner. Tighten the air intake valve on the side of the Bunsen burner, until the outtake cools to a single, thin flame with no hot, inner cone visible.

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   Agree the curve over the flame for two or iii minutes. Property the glass over this cooler flame relieves internal pressures that cause groovy, in a process chosen annealing. Rotate the curve in the flame while counting out 150 seconds, or time yourself with a stopwatch.

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   Let the drinking glass cool. Identify the glass on a heat-proof surface. If you lot are in a shared workspace, write the words "Careful: HOT" on a slice of newspaper side by side to it. Leave it to cool to room temperature before using. This can take several minutes.

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1. 

   1

   Put on safety glasses. Glass stringers are thin, specially prepared rods designed for use in arts and crafts projects. While they are piece of cake to work with, their use still involves farthermost temperatures and brittle drinking glass. Always wear eye protection, and never impact the glass at the heated signal.

   • You will also need a safe place to put the hot drinking glass down, such as a brick. Tweezers are also useful for some of the steps below.

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   ii

   Light a candle. Different thicker rods, stringers tin can be bent using an ordinary candle flame. A Bunsen burner or stationary torch will work as well, merely these are non necessary.

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   Make a simple curve by manus. Hold both ends of the stringer with your hands. Lower the centre into the candle flame and rotate it and then it heats evenly. Once the glass is quite soft at that bespeak, raise information technology up out of the candle flame, pause for a 2d, then curve the drinking glass past moving ane stop of the stringer.

   • If wax gets on the drinking glass, fire it off to preclude imperfections.^[2]
   • The stringer will become blackness with soot, but this will fire off during firing. If you do not plan to fire your stringer in a kiln, wait for the glass to cool to room temperature, and so rinse off the soot.

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   4

   Try more than advanced designs. To create curlicues, curved bends, or zig-zags, estrus the finish of the stringer. Use a pair of tweezers to push the hot terminate gently into position. Slowly move the stringer into the candle flame to heat the next section, pushing it with the tweezers as y'all become.^[three]

   • Stop well before your fingers reach the candle flame.

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   v

   Command the thickness and length of the stringer. Pull the stringer apart after the heart has been heated to stretch information technology into a longer, thinner shape. Create a classy terminate point by snipping this thin piece autonomously with wire cutters or specialized glass cutters.

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   vi

   Fire the glass (optional). Stringers are designed to be fired in a kiln, fusing to other fusible drinking glass objects. If you are using a customs kiln at an art studio, all you need to do is drop off the fine art and pay a fee. If yous are handling the kiln yourself, and your stringers did not come up with specific firing instructions, follow these steps instead:

   • Apply glue or hairspray if necessary to conform the stringers onto the fusible drinking glass object. Yous can glue them to "thin fire paper," which volition burn off in the kiln. Place the object in the cold kiln.
   • Heat the kiln rapidly until it reaches 675ºC (1250ºF). Top-fired kilns tin be heated every bit much as +550ºC (+1000ºF) per hour, while side-fired kilns should not exist heated faster than +330ºC (+600ºF) per hr.^[iv]
   • Rut more slowly and watch closely. Drinking glass and kilns vary, so pay close attention as the kiln reaches 700ºC to 780ºC (1300ºF to 1450ºF).^[5]
   • Start cooling the kiln, but go out information technology at 500ºC (950ºF) for 30 minutes to "anneal" the glass, relieving stress and preventing dandy.^[half-dozen]

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Add together New Question

• Question

  Does lightning create drinking glass when striking sand?

  

  When at that place is enough silica or quartz in the sand, a lightning strike can fuse the particles to form glass. Pieces formed are more like rocky tubes called fulgurites rather than actual lumps of solid glass.

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Things Y'all'll Need

Larger glass rods:

• Glass tubing or rod
• A Bunsen burner
• Wing top burner attachment (recommended)
• A ring stand
• Heat-proof surface (e.g. brick)
• Safety glasses
• Container of water, or a fire extinguisher

Glass stringers:

• Drinking glass stringers
• Candle
• Tweezers
• Heat-proof surface
• Safety glasses

• Yous can apply heat to a glass bottle, pane, or other large object to cause it to slump and sag, but an ordinary torch makes for a very imprecise bend. Precise curving or angle in large pieces of glass requires professional equipment and expertise, including steel molds and anti-dust treatments.

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• During this procedure, the drinking glass reaches temperatures above 900ºC (1650ºF). Even the uncomplicated glass stringer bending techniques are not safe for immature children, or for whatsoever children without competent supervision.

• Glass rods with significant weight attached to one end are more than difficult to curve evenly.^[7]

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Article Summary Ten

To bend glass, start past putting on safety goggles, then heating a Bunsen burner until information technology produces a tall, blueish flame. Adjacent, lower the glass into the flame slowly, so the spot where y'all want the bend touches the flame. So, brainstorm rotating the glass and moving it from side-to-side, near an inch to either side of the bend point. When the glass begins to sag, bend information technology effectually a estrus-proof object. Once yous have the shape you want, reduce airflow to the burner to cool the flame, rotate the bend over information technology for 2-3 minutes, and let it cool to room temperature. To learn how to bend glass stringers, keep reading!

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