Transcript
Hi, my name is Ed Donovan I’m here at DC GlassWorks. You can find us at dcglassworks.com. We are a public access glass blowing facility, we also do metal and metal-casting and welding. We are primarily a teaching facility. We want to share with people the magic of glass blowing. It is an amazing substance and today I’m gonna be talking to you about glass-blowing. The glory hole or the re-heating furnace is your working heat source. After you have gathered from the furnace, the glass is continually cooling, and in order to shape it the way you want to, it needs to be hot; it needs to be at least 1500 to 1800 degrees. Uh, so in order to keep that temperature, we’re using the re-heating furnace or the glory hole. Uh, in front of the glory hole is a yoke and you’re using that, uh, to support the weight of the pipe, and it’s also helping you keep your hands back away from the heat. Uh, so you’re gonna set the pipe down on the yoke; slide your glass into the furnace; and turn nice and slow inside the furnace. Uh, when you’re turning, if, if your glass is really hot, your centrifugal force can expand or change the shape of your glass. So you want to make sure that in the heat, you’re turning nice and slow – very consistent slow turns. Once you’ve, uh, reached a temperature of the glass that you’re comfortable with, uh, that’s hot enough to maneuver the glass in the way that you want to at the bench, slowly bring the yoke back toward you, slide your left hand forward to support the weight of the pipe and then pick it up continuing to turn with your fingertips while you move back to the bench. Uh, that’s how we use the glory hole effectively.
