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acquiring start-up equipment

Bruce,

I'm right where you are in the thinking process, i.e. learn to work the glass
first and handle bombarding & stuff later.  I'm a little farther along in that
I have bought some fire equipment, although getting it set up and operating is
a somewhat longer process.

There are classifieds in the back of _Signs of the Times_, and in fact I got
several items (cannon fire, ribbon burner, blower, lots of odds and ends,
50 lbs glass, etc.) from one of those advertisers.  It so happened that I
needed to travel to his city anyway, so I (a) got to pick out all the stuff
piece by piece, (b) saved a bundle on shipping costs, and (c) got instant
delivery.  And at the moment I must say the cannon fire assembly on its stand
looks quite majestic in the living room.....!

I also have been to a neon (and other sign materials) supplier in St Louis;
they gave me tons of helpful information, brochures, spec sheets, catalogs,
etc.  They also happened to have _Neon Techniques and Handling_ (highly
recommended by me as a beginner and by everyone else I've asked) and Mr.
Fishman's video (also highly recommended by me).  They don't carry fires
and plant equipment, but they did say that they often hear about used equipment
or are asked by customers to help find a buyer.  If you have a supplier
anywhere within a reasonable distance, you might check them out.

Also, it seems a lot of neon stuff _has_ to be purchased from "authorized
distributors" anyway, so it's probably not too early to start lining up
sources.  The place I went to actually makes deliveries way out here in
the middle of the state, and of course they can ship stuff UPS as well.

I will say at this point I can understand why neon isn't delved into by the
average hobbyist; not so much the expense, but more like the ..er..mass of
it all.  I feel fortunate in that I have a large shop-type area in my base-
ment I can use, and it's about as close to anywhere else to the sources of
gas and electricty.  Even so, just building a suitable bending table and
accommodations for the fires, getting all the new gas plumbing in, engineering
an air piping system, running circuits for the blower and stuff, and
all the other smaller tasks all adds up to a large project that takes a lot of
planning and work, makes major physical alterations to my house (not sure
if anyone's discussed the spousal consent factor yet), but turns out to be
not terribly expensive.  I figure working on some of the small stuff here and
there on weekends will just about get me to where I can have a bending plant
in operation AFTER taking a whole week of vacation to put it all together.

I also figure that if I can do all that, go through a few tons of glass
learning to bend and assemble it properly, and actually get to where I
can produce saleable materials, buying a bombarder and pump and the rest
of the stuff won't look terribly difficult by then.

Cheers,

JD

--
J.D. Schueler
     medjds@mizzou1.missouri.edu
                               .
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