Making flat glass

[Planet Glass]

I am renting the hot shop for a couple of days at the end of May and I want to make flat glass from cane.

I am going to experiment with a clever student, and he suggested that we melt the cane in a kiln to produce 6 mm flat glass. That might be a little thick for some applications.

Since experimentation is the name of the game, we'll try that, and we'll also try blowing cylinders, cutting them once cold, and melting them flat later. The old fashioned way.

If anyone out there has ever done this, and you have tips to share, I'd be most grateful.

[iaff84]

Keep me in mind if glass is too thick to lead. might make some interesting one off beveling.
Dennis Swan

[bert weiss]

I once made rolled sheets of clear by ladling hot glass on to an inch thick marver. We clamped steel bars on the edges of the marver, and used some iron waste pipe for the roller. The marver started out flat. Ended up warped. Very warped. We made lovely giant cow tongues in clear glass.

Fusing canes sounds like a workable strategy. If you use thin canes, you might not get the same outside shape you start out with, but if you start out large enough, you can trim down to the size you want.

[Planet Glass]

A one inch marver WARPED??? Thanks for the warning, I'll cross that off my "to try" list.

My canes are going to be pretty uneven, I want an organic, rather than mechanically precise feel.

Dennis - I'll think of you don't worry.

[bert weiss]

At Bullseye they have elaborate water cooling systems to keep the rollers and the table from warping. I was at Haystack school with Paul Marioni. We just did it.

LOL, I've been told by blowers that a warped marver is more useful than a flat one.

[Jraynard]

I would think that making flat glass from cylinders would be the easiest way to go about this. I have done this a number of times, and it requires less effort than one would think. cut off the bottom, and then cut a half inch section out from top to bottom. you then just need to make sure that you can access that cut to fit paddles in to urge the glass out before the it slumps and touches back on itself. to this end the cut should be on the "up" side if you are using a standard hexagonal kiln, but the clamshell kilns are probably best to make flat glass from cylinders. the coils will be firiing when you open the kiln and be heating the glass from above. this means there is less cold air coming in from above, which makes it easier to urge the glass out with paddles. if you are using a standard kiln, i would highly recommend you simply cut the cylinder in half and slump it from there. less trouble, no fussing with paddles, but depends on how big you are planning to work.

[Planet Glass]

Thanks for the tip!

I intend to make flat glass with caneworked patterns but we're probably going to experiment with clear glass at first (or maybe a bit of color, just clear isn't exciting enough even for practice!).

If you say it's easier than it looks, well, we WILL try with cylinders, I'm sold on it.

I'll post pictures when it's done. I can't rent the hot shop until the end of May, I'm very much looking forward to this. In mid-May I'm taking a course in pâte de verre so that should help calm my addiction.

[Planet Glass]

Alrighty.

We will use the clamshell kiln and we will cut the cylinders in half.

We are prepared, except we're wondering if there are any tips to putting a big post on a lip...

[bert weiss]

http://lambertsglass.com/elambhom.htm

There are great pictures of the process here. Click on genuine antique