From: "Stan Kohut" 
To: "Frank Q" 
Cc: "aaatm" 
Reply-To: "Stan Kohut" 


Hi Frank:
That would probably work if I could find a glass rod large enough and it
did not tip over
 or melt in the center :-)
I have considered using some type of pot that would drip the glass into the mold.
The bubbles always raise to the top of the blank so I am also considering
making a convex bottom mold that would make the pre-curved blank face down.
I also was thinking about casting a pregenerated curve glass or ceramic
base and fusing a sheet of glass to the top of it for a bubble free
surface. I will keep you all posted on my failures - successes :-) Thanks
everyone  for your help and ideas, I really appreciate it ! Have a great
day.
Stan

----- Original Message -----
From: "Frank Q" 


| Hi Stan/All
|
| Is the following technique worth considering ..... ? |
| Instead of melting a number of glass chunks, stand a glass | rod
vertically in the centre of the mold. As it melts, it will | (hopefully)
flow radially outwards in the mold and fill it. |
| The intention is that it won't trap air bubbles as it spreads | out.
|
| Problems / comments:
|
| * You need to start with a rod that has enough volume of | glass to fill
the mold - It may not fit in the kiln. |
| * You could feed it in through the peep-hole !!! |
| * It may start to melt a long way above the mold and | drop into it like
honey off a spoon. |
| * Bubbles should not be a problem if they are far away | from the
surface. Perhaps you could use a combination | of your technique and that
described above to obtain | a blank that has a bubble free top layer. |
| As I mentioned in a post a long time ago, myself | and a few friends
investigated making our own | blanks. We had access to a kiln and all the
right | equipment but when we did our sums, it was much | less expensive to
buy a blank.
|
| However, I am still VERY interested in your endeavours..... |
| please keep us posted
|
| Cheers
|
| Frank Q

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