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Re: Hot Glass Q's
>Everything I seem to put in the cannon fire appears to turn to pure lead very
>quickly, and I've got the flames dialed _way_ down. I moved the heads back
>per John's suggestion, so now there's at least 3" between the inner blue
>flames; I also have the 3rd helper fire turned off. The time between putting
>glass in the fire and having it soften seems comparable to what I see in the
>videos, but by the time "gravity starts to take effect" [ yo Jacob! ] I can
>already see lead reduction big time. If I have the flames any higher, the
>glass gets hot and workable _very_ fast, but it's still Leadsville.
>
I suggest starting with the gas first. Your flame should be around 6-8"
high.
Then slowly crank in the air. If you can't blow out the flame, you don't
have enough air pressure. A too rich flame will be blueish and not sharp,
and will have an orange halo quickly when you put the glass in. Adjust either
the gas down or the air up to tweek it in. Too lean, and it will take
forever to heat up the glass. It should take several seconds for the glass
to turn orange and the flame shouldn't. Like Kenny was saying, even a
properly adjusted flame can reduce the glass if you don't move it
a bit once the bending temperature has been reached.
These are beginner suggestions as sometimes you want to run slightly rich
to heat the glass faster, but you have to work on your technique to
keep from getting that reduction.
--- Frank Varnell
--- XLNT Designs Inc. (XDI)
--- 15050 Avenue of Science
--- San Diego, CA 92128 USA
--- Voice: (619)487-9320 Fax: (619)487-9768 email: frank@xlnt.com
--- Company Home Page www.xlnt.com
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