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Re: clear blue neon

Posted By: SVP Neon Equipment
Date: Friday, 24 May 2013, at 12:26 p.m.

In Response To: Re: clear blue neon (mick)

> sorry you guys, i'm not the one bending !
> it's "EGL BROMO BLUE CLEAR" Good
> catch tony,
> thank you. let me clearify, trying to bend
> this
> tube? been working on it for 3 weeks and 4
> boxes!
> about the only thing he"s been able to
> get is borders, you put this stuff down to
> cool and its cracked the next morning?
> nuts??? HELP

I think Tony is correct that your bender most likely has little to no experience working with colored glass. After a bend, you CANNOT leave the glass laying on the table. This applies to ANY type of glass, not just colored glass. You must get the glass off the table ASAP. What I use is a cooling "rack", which is no more than a piece of 2x4 or 2x6 with 5/8" holes drilled in it and screwed to the end of the bending table. Unless you are going to immediately make another bend, after the bend is complete, stick the unbent end in one of the holes in the rack so the glass will cool as evenly as possible. And make sure there are no fans or other air movement across the glass that would cool it too fast. I also flame anneal every heat with colored glass. If your bender does not know what flam annealing is, they should learn. It is somewhat explained in the book "Neon Techniques & Handling". In the 3rd edition of the book by Samuel Miller it is on page 130. It is in the 4th edition by Strattman also, but I don't have the page number. It also helps to have a warm shop. In other words, if you walk in and it's 50 degrees inside the shop you are only making things worse.

A couple rules of thumb:

1) Some suspect bad glass in situations like this. But if you get the glass to the softening point it is no longer a bad piece of glass. At that point it is entirely up to the bender to keep it together.

2) If the glass does not break evenly when cut, or a split occurs along the length of the tube when cutting a ribbon heat, then the glass has not cooled properly.

3) If a hot piece of glass is left on the table and it breaks, it is because too much stress was induced into the glass from uneven cooling. Even if the glass doesn't break, it will be next to impossible to make a clean cut due to the amount of uneven stress in the glass.

Mark

SVP Neon Equipment

Messages In This Thread

• clear blue neon -- mick -- Wednesday, 22 May 2013, at 10:59 p.m.
  • Re: clear blue neon -- neontek -- Thursday, 23 May 2013, at 4:16 a.m.
    • Re: clear blue neon -- mick -- Thursday, 23 May 2013, at 2:26 p.m.
      • Re: clear blue neon -- neontek -- Thursday, 23 May 2013, at 3:34 p.m.
      • Re: clear blue neon -- neontek -- Thursday, 23 May 2013, at 5:57 p.m.
      • Re: clear blue neon -- SVP Neon Equipment -- Friday, 24 May 2013, at 12:26 p.m.
        • Re: clear blue neon -- neontek -- Friday, 24 May 2013, at 4:17 p.m.

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