they keep cracking as they cool. i'm doing something wrong.
i got just over 1/2 pound for 66 dollars. plus 3 lengths of tubing. i've made 5 pipes (all cracked) and i have only used half of my glass.
you need to cool them gently,if glass goes from hot to suddenly cold it will shatter.
heres a quick simple perspective...have you ever took a hot as incandesent and dipped it in cold water(the bulb is not in the socket when u do this,do it immeadatly after removing from said socket)?it splinters and cracks,i sometimes put a incan in a lamp and wait for it to heat up and give it a heavy mist setting of cold water to watch it crack,the sound is cool when it works.
you could use your oven,set it on broil and put the new pieces in there after creation,with in seconds of life theyll need to go to the oven. the broil is around 500degrees,the glass will set in the right molecular pattern so that way it doesnt crack. u will need to broil for 3hrs,before droppin the oven temps by 50degree intervals to ensure the proper cooling.
if you do have a kiln then use it,just preheat the kiln before putting them in,get tongs for the loading application,set the initial temp to around 500 so that way u only need oven mits to load them in,then crank the temps,then do a slow cooling process.
just a thought for you.
i too want to do glass blowing. imagine tons of bowls that look awesome,there will never be a duplicate,and it was made by you
