Welders vs glass blowing glasses
 

Hey.
Wondering if there is a difference when people say shade 3 glasses for hard glass, and a welders shade 3 lens?
I am just starting out, and I live in a slightly more remote location. welders glasses would be a lot easier for me to acquire, but obviously I want to ensure it offers the correct protection from rays

Couple of things here;

Yes , welders shade 3 will be safe enough for "blowing glass" but "blowing glass" has to do with molten glass in a -crucible- inside a kiln and blow pipes with gobs glass on the end of the pipes. Mostly you are dealing with infrared radiation.

Lampwork or flame work has to do with melting glass in a torch flame and the temperatures can be quite a bit hotter giving off other types of radiation such as the sodium flare of the "softer glasses" ( the yellow flare that makes it hard to see what you are doing in the flame) and even the brighter ultraviolet light as well as light our eyes can not register from the "harder glasses" like boro and quartz.

Soft glass needs didymium or A.C.E. lens eyewear and harder glass needs that kind of protection as well as welders shade number 5.

I see that this is your first post and I applaud your asking questions.


I would point you to researching all of the safety threads and using the search functions both the over all search at the top right of the page as well as the sub forum search just below that for each sub forum.


It is really important that you get a good understanding of why "more available" forms of eye protection wont keep you safe.

There are less expensive versions of 'adequate eyewear' from some lampworking retail places like Whale Apparatus and Devardi and they are worth looking into. But it will almost always be a case of you get what you pay for.

But there really are not any good short cuts for eye protection in the long run.

The damage to your eyes from getting it wrong is not repairable and it accumulates slowly over time so work arounds that seem like they are working can be deceptive.

I recently changed from the least expensive glasses I could fine ( $60 some ten years ago ) to a bench shield with a 5 by 6 inch didymium sheet in it. Since I wear glasses anyway the old fit overs were a hassle and working with a bench shield lets me my color choices before it goes into the flame behind the shield as well.

I got my shield from a craigs list add form across the country for $75 3 years ago but I lucked out on that find and I had been searching for a few years when I found that.

Take your time and do this part right.
You only get to do it wrong once before you regret it for a very long time.


Edited to Add: And Welcome to the Addiction.

I'm new to glass work as well and I was wondering what type of glass you would recommend for practicing. I have been using Pyrex tubes and rods with a torch tip bought from Harbour Freight. I use just plain old propane, the kind you get in the blue tanks. Any suggestions?

Gipsywolf, I didn't buy any 'real' glass for a year after I learned how to melt glass and make a bead. I used wine/beer/soda bottles and window pane glass, obviously not together, to just get a feel for how glass moved, what it looked like at what stage, how far you could push it, etc. I figured there was no sense in throwing away glass that had to be bought.

You may find an adapter to use the larger refillable 20# tanks helpful.
Locally the small 1# disposable run around $3 each where refilling the 20# tank is about $16.
The savings helps strech the budget a bit.

You might try playing with stained glass pieces.

The Pyrex works out to be Boro or Boro like (coe 33) in its stiffness and needing more heat than the "softer" glasses.

I think stained glass is either coe 90 or 96 and should work a lot faster with less heat and a less intense flare in the flame.

Bottle glass I think runs a little stiffer than stained glass somewhere around coe 82 or 86 but remember that bottle glass won't be consistent from one bottle to the next because it is only made to hold it shape to contain liquid and not made to remelted again.

did you read the question?