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Old 2013-12-30, 1:26pm
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Cosmo Cosmo is offline
ManBearPig
 
Join Date: Jun 28, 2005
Location: Roanoke, VA
Posts: 8,540
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This is the best piece of advice I can give to anyone learning to work with tubing:

Remember, while the tube you are holding may be 26mm in diameter, you are really only heating 4mm of glass at most. You are only heating the walls. It takes a lot less heat than you think. When I first started I was getting my glass really hot and when I pulled points they were incredibly thin and either shattered or closed up or some other random failure. You don't really need the glass to glow much. Just a dull orange glow is all you need. Get the glass warm, pull your point, and just as the glass is cooling off enough to set up, give it one quick pull apart to straighten the point. Keep rotating the glass evenly the entire time.

I never use blow tubes. I always pull points. Some will say that blow tubes are better, and some say points are better. I learned by using points, so that's what I do. Try them both and see what you like better.
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