Anything welding

Ive always appreciated glass work. It’s very impressive, I didn’t even know glass welding was a thing. Have anymore pics of cool glass?

 

Thanks! I do have some more, though often its hard to get clear photos because its clear. We do a lot more than welding, but welding is my favorite part of my job.



I'll toss some photos in here periodically as I dig them out of the dark reaches of my phone, but here's a Quartz rod rack I made. Its used to support welded containers that I also make, and the whole setup goes into a furnace where someone makes semiconductor components.

 

Here's a double jacketed reaction vessel

 

Can you fix my bong?

 

My truck will rip in half before this winch plate fails.










and my little cherry on top. This is my favorite piece.

 

Are you gonna make any hoops over the grille or headlights?

 

As of now, no.

 

I like it! Not sure if you’re already planning this but a lot of tube bumpers I’ve seen on older rigs have some sort of support bar going to the end of the tube near the wheel wells.

 

Kinda like this:

 

Yep! Just had to stop for the day. Already have them bent, just need to notch them out.

 

Don’t forget to add an ABS plastic skirt for style points!

 

You know, I’ve always wondered what purpose that part served. Is it purely aesthetic?

 

Very common question actually lol. Unfortunately probably not, because bongs are usually made of borosilicate glass and i work almost exclusively with pure Quartz glass. They behave very differently, enough so that my 10,000 hours would likely not help me fix your bong.

 

Dayum I wanted to see the bong welding. Guess those fumes you would want to breath.

 

Well this must be embarrassing for you, my bong is 100% quartz.

Haha. Jk man , havent smoked weed in quite some time.

Your work is crazy impressive.

 

Thanks a lot man. No judgement here lol. I'm glad to show some stuff, its hard to explain to people that I'm a glassblower that doesn't make unicorn figurines or vases. Scientific glass is definitely a specialty market. I only wish my glass welds looked as impressive as some of the welds in this thread!

 

I’ll be honest, I didn’t know glass welding was a thing! Thanks for showing us your work, keep it coming.

 

I'm not surprised it isn't well known, its a very specialized segment of glass work, especially when the material is Quartz. Fun fact, it stays solid at more than twice the temperature of borosilicate glass and has a higher melting point than most metals. This is actually a stirrer we make that is used to mix molten metals when making alloys.

 

Yes it’s really just for aesthetics... it’s cleans up the front end nicely when doing a tube bumper

 

Wow. That's very cool.
Zim

So.....my brother who is 69 years old is a glass blower, of the 1970's hippy generation. He did invent the unspillable bong in the mid 70's. The last time I told anyone this was two years ago on another forum (yellowbullet.com). A week later I got a PM and some guy knew my brother from Washington, DC area where we grew up. He said, "is your brother still dealing?"...ahahahahahhahahahaha. True story. I said, "no, the two years in federal prison in Hagerstown, Md cured that, but he's now in Ohio still blowing glass.
Zim