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Tips, Techniques, and Questions -- Technical questions or tips

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  #61  
Old 2010-03-08, 4:33am
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Sorry, don't know why my quote didn't work
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  #62  
Old 2010-03-08, 9:24am
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This is for metal workers.

A wood baseball bat makes a great bracelet mandrel.

A broken pool cue makes a good ring mandrel.

The bottom of an old iron makes a good bench block.

Old hammers from a flea market make great textureing tools when designs are carved in the heads, then polished.

...Smithy
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  #63  
Old 2010-03-08, 10:36am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sansan239s View Post
Harbor Freight also has the "Wheeled Nipper's" for $8.99 instead of $24.00 and they work great!!
Oh my gosh, thank you!

I am LOVING this thread!

-Ana
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  #64  
Old 2010-03-12, 10:11am
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Everyone is making me feel guilty....but I don't use my shorts....so I sell them on eBay.

Karen's idea of using clear and other cheaper colors for bead guts is excellent...and a great way to use up glass that is scummy or a color you hate. AND...you can practice encasing, bead shaping....even stringer control, without wasting glass.

(I will never forget my grandson trying to clean a floral bead that simply would not come clean...I realized that I'd started the bead with dark lapis....)
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  #65  
Old 2010-03-12, 10:12am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GoldSmithy View Post
This is for metal workers.

A wood baseball bat makes a great bracelet mandrel.

A broken pool cue makes a good ring mandrel.

The bottom of an old iron makes a good bench block.

Old hammers from a flea market make great textureing tools when designs are carved in the heads, then polished.

...Smithy
Oh, smithy...I've been wanting a quicky cheap bench block...I only use one two or three times a year....thanks!
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  #66  
Old 2010-03-12, 10:43am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GoldSmithy View Post
This is for metal workers.

A wood baseball bat makes a great bracelet mandrel.

A broken pool cue makes a good ring mandrel.

The bottom of an old iron makes a good bench block.

Old hammers from a flea market make great textureing tools when designs are carved in the heads, then polished.

...Smithy
I've used baseball and t-ball bats as bracelet mandrels but I never thought of the pool cue for rings.

Smart!

Lori
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  #67  
Old 2010-03-14, 9:12am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by flyingcorgi View Post
This thread reminds me (in a good way!) of the lady on WetCanvas who tried using spaghetti pasta out of the box to see if it would work as mandrels. I was particularly impressed that she thought to go public with it. (No, it doesn't even come CLOSE to being a good idea ...)


Regards,
- Becky in MN
That was Meitali when she first started lampworking
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  #68  
Old 2010-03-14, 9:52am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LaurieBSmith View Post
Everyone is making me feel guilty....but I don't use my shorts....so I sell them on eBay.
No worries, no guilt, you're still not wasting them. And I love other people's shorts, it's like Christmas to find what's hiding in there, and colors to try...

One of my favorite bead shaping tools was a metal cuticle shaper...
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  #69  
Old 2010-03-14, 10:01am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lunamoonshadow View Post
That was Meitali when she first started lampworking
Seriously??? NO!
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  #70  
Old 2010-03-14, 10:41am
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Originally Posted by FosterFire View Post
Did you know you can write on your glass rods with a sharpie? You can make a small paddle on one end, let it cool and then write on it.
I use the sharpie to write names on the ends of my silver glasses so I don't mix them with other glass rods on my work area and I make marks on my dipped mandrels to match the size of the shape of the brass press that I am using.
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  #71  
Old 2010-03-18, 12:55am
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Originally Posted by GoldSmithy View Post
The bottom of an old iron makes a good bench block.

...Smithy
What a brilliant idea. I just found an old iron; it was a very early electrical iron and the buttom alone weighs 3,2 kilo. Imagine doing you ironing with that!
Makes a great bench block. Thank you.
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  #72  
Old 2010-03-18, 1:34am
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I fuse my shorts together. So far I have only done that with the same color. A tip, which I think I got from Kalera, is to pull the fused parts a bit thinner.
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  #73  
Old 2010-03-18, 2:29am
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I learned this trick over thirty years ago when I first began wax modeling for lost-wax casting (and it's probably been 15 years since I needed to try it) but I bet it's still true:

Got a good relationship w/your dentist? (that question alone seems a bit of an oxymoron but, moving on ;}...

Dentists have to stop using their tools when they are the least bit bent or worn whereas, to an artist, they are perfectly wonderful instruments for detail work.

Both dentists I've seen since then have cheerfully given me their "old" stainless dental tools.. an embarrassment of riches!

I dug mine out again when I started lampworking and found several that make absolutely wonderful rakes/pokers/liners etc. (and they say "packrat" like it's a *bad* thing! )


Rachel Kat
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  #74  
Old 2010-03-18, 6:09am
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I'm with Rachel Kat! Last year, I asked my dentist and he gave me a huge box of old tools! They are awesome! There are so many shapes.

I've taken apart a paper punch and used it as an optical mold when I thought I'd try murrini. It worked great! My murrini pulling skills suck however (and I'm not patient enough to want to keep practicing.

Speaking of murrini... a friend of mine bundles her shorts together and them melts and pulls them into a kaleidoscope cane. They are usually really beautiful!
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  #75  
Old 2010-03-18, 2:18pm
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My dentist gave me some old tools too. Just be careful if you have the ones that have the rubber grippers and they get too close to the flame.
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  #76  
Old 2010-04-04, 8:48pm
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Great tips, all!

Expanding on using clear or unwanted glass as the core of your beads when using silver glass.... I started out doing this just to stretch my silver glass & then realized that if I use clear as the core w/ ALL of my beads, it makes ALL of my colors last longer so I don't have to order my most used glasses so often... only have to keep lots of clear in stock! PLUS it give me a firmer base to work with.
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  #77  
Old 2010-04-11, 2:41pm
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I keep homemade frit in the various prescription bottles that we have, a bit of glue on the top & sprinkle a little on to see the color/size, and voila!

I also made my own frit crusher using a short (@ 4-6") length of larger iron pipe (maybe an inch & a quarter or half?) with a metal cap on it, dump the glass inside, take a smaller (3/4"?) but longer (6-8") pipe, put a metal cap on one end, and I stick a PVC one on the other, pound the crap out of it with the metal-capped end of the smaller, longer pipe. Screen with 10x10 (@ 10 spaces per inch in each direction) metal screening for a first screen and with window screen (preferably metal) for the second.

I make my own bead release by doing a 50/50 mix of alumina hydrate and kiln wash from my local pottery supply house - costs $4.40 plus tax, and mixes up into at least a couple-three quarts (I'm still on the first batch I mixed!)

And I'm sure it makes me a horrible person but I get my 1/8"-1/4" mandrels by buying steel rod at the hardware store and cutting them down to length. They're not stainless steel, but since I usually dip them right before use, I don't think it really matters that much - after all, the bead release is gonna be cleaned out of the hole anyways, so no one will know if it's a little rust colored.

If you want to put different textures on the surfaces of your beads, there are all KINDS of interestingly shaped/stamped/engraved metals out there - silverware handles/ends, candleholders, oil lamp parts (for obvious reasons, without fuel!), etc.

On a more householdy note, we re-use our lemonade/koolaid/tang/iced tea mix containers, put in a capful of rice/lentils/oatmeal/etc. and then add other ingredients to make our own Rice-a-roni, oatmeal mixes, etc. With rice, especially, if you've put one capful in the container, you just add 2 capfuls of water, cook & eat.

We're on a farm, so we use cattle panels, food-grade plastic barrels, and bungie cords for just about everything.

If you do knitting/crocheting/etc., you can hit the second-hand stores for sweaters that you can take apart & re-do into something you'd like. Very nice way to get a good pound or two of quality wool/silk/angora/whatever yarn for under $5. You can also felt them down to a smaller size for your kids to make a warm, thick, beautiful sweater-coat (DD is insisting that I need to needle-felt or embroider ladybugs & butterflies on hers ) Or you can cut them up to make mittens, hats, scarves, slippers, etc.
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  #78  
Old 2010-04-11, 4:08pm
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  #79  
Old 2010-04-11, 4:17pm
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Wow, talk about recycling and do-it yourself-ing......impressive!
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  #80  
Old 2010-04-11, 4:31pm
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I love using my shorts but they were collecting so much dust on my table, so I am now using the plastic containers you get the disposable mopping pads (for the life of me cannot remember what the name is!). They have a plastic lid and the container is long enough to hold longer shorts!
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  #81  
Old 2010-04-12, 8:42am
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Red face Aw, shucks, guys, tain't nothin . . . . . .

We also reuse our paperish egg cartons for seed starting flats and our gallon oil jugs for feed scoops - we're definitely on the frugal side of things here
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  #82  
Old 2010-04-19, 9:46pm
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Thumbs up Create two new bead shapes

I bought a chef wavy slicer for $6 and made two really cool beads. One was rolling the bead perpendicular to the wavy lines. It made a bead that is like two doughnuts side to side. The next I did while using the save slicer. I just ran the beads on a diagonal to the the wavy lines. I got a nice almost pinched corners pattern. Very nice cheapy tool....for those of us who can't get bead presses just yet.

If you want to buy one just search the web for Wavy Soap Slicer.

Sparkle
P.s. I will try to post pictures of the beads tomorrow...Crossing fingers they survive the crockpot. Should have make more than one of each but I was kinda tired. Can''t fall asleep when you have a torch running.
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  #83  
Old 2010-11-04, 7:00pm
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Ditto on the dentist tools, never know what you'll find in that bin! I've gotten spatulas, tweezers, pokey things - all great.

Make your own mandrels. I get 1lb of SS for about 16$, which makes a lot of mandrels - easily 4x what you'd get for the same price at a glass shop, i'd say. I don't bother deburring them, but you can quickly on a bench grinder. Temper your mandrels occasionally, especially the skinny ones - just heat in your kiln and dunk while hot in cold water. You'll bend less. Also, cut the bent bits of your mandrels off & keep using them - easier if you start with longer ones to begin with. When they get too short to be useful as mandrels, they can be used to pull stringers or repurposed for other crafts ( armatures for clay, etc).

The dollar store here is a great source for cheapie stainless products, I've found small dishes suitable for frit trays there, paring knives, some textured kitchen things, spice bottles for storage, sifters, magnets, some packaging things ( baggies, bags, ribbon, thankyou stamps). Garage sales can be great for similar things, and for left over junk tile to put your kiln on, use as a work surface or whatever.

Pvc tubing is great for glass storage, either stacked or held upright to make 'vases'. Magnets do a good job of holding tools to keep them out of the way but accessible.

If you've got any glass blowers around, they often will sell frit and mica to you pretty cheap, or have scrap they are willing to share. If you have potters nearby, they often have bits of kiln shelves that have broken that they can't use. Potters, mosaic artists and aquarium people are often interested in broken/ugly beads and twistie shorts.

You can resharpen your tungsten with your torch, just hold it close to the torch face and burn it.

Harbour freight has a dapping block that's pretty cheap, and would make a good marble mold - 25$ and you get a ton of different sizes unlike the graphite versions that cost 2x that.

An easy way to keep consistent sizes is to nick an edge of a marver with your most common sizes, I mark 3/4 - 2" every quarter, with long nicks at the inches, med one at the half, and little nicks at the 1/4s so i can read it fast.

Save stuck beads by 1) whacking the mandrel - sometimes the vibration will loosen them; 2) soak in vinegar overnight; 3) put in freezer and try again. Rinse and repeat.

Scrap leather or a beat up leather jacket can be used for holding hot metal things ( like mandrels that have been in the kiln) and as a grippy thing to get small beads off the mandrel. also good for beanbags to keep your elbows comfy at the torch.

hmm, that's all i can think of for now - hope this gave someone some ideas!
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  #84  
Old 2010-11-05, 7:52am
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I tag all glass with date/vendor/#/price using light blue or green painters tape.

And the best part - when a rod get to about 2", I pull the tape off and punty up that piece to another full rod.

Take the tape and fold it over itself with the markings showing and drop it into a jar.

At the end of the year, I know how many and which rods I've used. Inventory done!
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  #85  
Old 2010-11-05, 8:46am
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I tag all glass with date/vendor/#/price using light blue or green painters tape.

And the best part - when a rod get to about 2", I pull the tape off and punty up that piece to another full rod.

Take the tape and fold it over itself with the markings showing and drop it into a jar.

At the end of the year, I know how many and which rods I've used. Inventory done!

Thanks Barb.. that's a slick trick!!!

~Rachel
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  #86  
Old 2010-11-05, 8:55am
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For my packing material, I bought a paper shredder and use all of the neighbors old newspapers. That is my main packing material with the occasional scrap bubble wrap for sculptural beads.
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  #87  
Old 2010-11-05, 9:43am
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I like to use the ends of the frozen concentrated juice containers, the two metal ends make great frit or enamel trays.
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  #88  
Old 2010-11-05, 10:39am
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Garden shears from the local Japannese Garden Store make great glass shears and cost 1/4 of those in the glass supply places.

Home made bead release... 4 times as much for cost of one commercial jar. Materials purchased at local ceramics supply.

Old SS pot with handle removed for water shock bucket by the torch.

Retrun address labels; 80 per sheet x 25 sheets for about $7. I never take new glass to the studio before I print out labels for all the rods.

2 1/2" or 3" cheap paint brush makes a great bench broom.

CostCo (local bulk food/wharehouse chain) sells aluminum baking pans in whole, half, and quarter sheet sizes w/ 3/4" rims at rediculous prices, very cheap. They make great catch-alls in front of the torch and on the bench.

A mirror mounted on the wall in front of you lets you see the backside of your project with just a glance up over your flame.

PJH
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  #89  
Old 2010-11-05, 11:44am
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I've been playing around using my shorts and cracked beadies in mosaics. I've made some rings and pendants.

And just a note since a couple people mentioned using monitor glass and computer parts... please be aware that most electronics (esp old CRT monitors) have mercury in them. I'm just saying probably not a good idea to take them apart unless you really know what you are doing.
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  #90  
Old 2010-11-10, 6:48pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by playswithfire104 View Post
For the very new newbie - one way to practice with no pressure of messing up 'good' glass is to break up a glass bottle from your recycle bin and use the pieces. If your bead is fugly that's OK cause you were gonna throw the glass out anyway. If the bead comes out nice you can sell it as recycled!
hiya playswithfire

how would u do this? i would have thougt this was not advisable. would u somehow turn this into cane ? sorry for the silly questons. based on the above advice i was thinking of making some small beads and chuking them in the recycle after. jsut want others opinons on this

thanks
zac
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