How is glass blown? Own business: glassblowing How to blow glass at home

What is currently impossible to do with your own hands? Whether it's an ordinary craft, a wardrobe item, furniture and more. How to make glass at home? - It would seem that glass is melting, it is unrealistic. Nothing is impossible in today's world. The main thing in this business is desire. And in this article you will find a detailed step-by-step algorithm for such an entertaining and interesting activity as glass is made.

What is known about glassmaking?

It is known from history that glassmaking is a very ancient process. How it's done? According to the time frame, it refers approximately to the period before 2500 BC. Previously, such a rare and valuable occupation in our time has been replaced by the widespread production of this material.

Glass products are found everywhere. They are used as containers, household and decorative elements, insulators, reinforcing fiber and other things. Glasses differ only in the constituent material that is used for manufacturing. But the process itself is almost the same.

The main materials you will need:

the main element is quartz sand (silicon dioxide);
sodium carbonate or soda;
calcium oxide, she is lime;
furnace for melting glass;
other salts and oxides that can be used additionally on an individual basis (oxides of aluminum, iron, magnesium, lead and calcium or sodium salts);
protective clothing;
grill;
charcoal;
forms and other elements for shaping;
refractory crucible.

Methods for making glass using a furnace

The first way to solder glass at home is to use an oven.

Acquisition of quartz sand:

This material is the basis for the production of glass. Glass, in which there are no impurities of iron, has its advantages - it is light. What can not be said about the glass in which it is present. It will give off greenery.
It is important to wear a mask before starting work. Quartz sand is fine-grained and easily enters the nasal cavity and further into the lungs. This, in turn, will irritate the throat.
You can easily buy quartz sand in a specialized online store. Its cost is low.

Important! The cost of the approximate amount that will be needed will be around $ 20. e. In the future, you can buy it up to a ton, the approximate cost of which will be 100 c.u. e. This is if you plan to work on an industrial scale.

It happens that finding high-quality sand is not so easy, and it contains more than the amount of impurities. Dont be upset. In this case, manganese dioxide will come to the rescue. It should be added in small amounts. If in your idea it is glass with a greenish tint, then absolutely nothing needs to be done. Leave everything as it is.

Addition of carbonate and calcium oxide:

The carbonate in this case lowers the production temperature of industrial glasses. At the same time, it causes glass corrosion with the participation of water. To avoid this, it is necessary to additionally introduce lime or calcium oxide into the glass.
Magnesium or aluminum oxides are used for glass durability. As a rule, these inclusions occupy a small percentage in the glass composition. The figure is approximately 26-30 percent.

Addition of other chemical elements:

This method of making decorative glass at home requires the use of lead oxide. It gives shine to crystal, its low hardness, makes it accessible to cutting, and gives a low temperature of melt formation.
Lanthanum oxide can be found in eyeglass lenses. It has a refractive property.
With regards to lead crystal, it can contain up to 33 percent lead oxide.

Important! The more lead, the more dexterity is needed to shape the molten glass. Based on this, many glassblowers prefer a smaller amount of it.

Iron impurities in quartz glass give it a green tint. In this case, iron oxide is added to increase the greenish tint. This also applies to copper oxide.
Yellow, amber, and even black can be obtained with a sulfur compound. It all depends on the amount of carbon or iron added to the glass charge.

The main stages of glass production:

Place the mixture in a temperature-resistant crucible. The latter should be as resistant as possible to the temperature that will be in the furnace. It can vary from 1500 to 2500 degrees. It depends on the additives.

Important! There is one more important requirement for the crucible - it must be such that it can be easily fixed with the help of metal tongs.

Melt the mixture to a liquid consistency. For industrial silicate glass, this can be done in a gas-fired furnace.

Important! There are also electric, muffle and pot furnaces. They can be made with special glass. Please note that quartz and sand, which do not contain additional impurities, go into a glassy state when the temperature in the furnace is 2500 degrees Celsius. If sodium carbonate is added to the contents, this is ordinary soda, then the temperature will drop to 1500 degrees.

Carefully monitor the consistency of the glass. It is important to remove all bubbles from it in a timely manner. This can be achieved with regular stirring to a uniform density. It is also necessary to add one of the elements - sodium chloride, sodium sulfate or antimony oxide.
Shape the glass. To do this, use one of the following methods.
The simplest thing is to pour the melted glass into a mold and wait until it cools down. With this method, many optical lenses are created. Previously, this method was used by the Egyptians.
Place the finished molten glass in a bath containing molten tin. The latter acts as a substrate. Next, you need to blow it with compressed nitrogen for shaping or polishing. Another way is to collect the required amount of glass at the end of a hollow pipe and, turning the pipe, blow it out.

Important! Glass made using this method is called float glass. It has been produced since the early 1950s.

Leave the glass to cool down. It is important to place it in a place where it will not be damaged, water, dust or, for example, leaves will not spoil it. Keep in mind that when in contact with cold objects, it will crack.
The final step of this method to make glass at home will be glass annealing. This method of heat treatment will give strength to the material. When using it, all point sources of stress that can be encountered during the glass cooling process will be removed.

Important! Upon completion of this work, additional coatings can be applied to the glass to increase durability and strength. Also can be laminated.

Unannealed glass is less durable.
As for the temperature for finishing work, it depends on the exact composition of the glass - from 400 to 550 degrees Celsius.
The cooling rate of the glass depends on the size. Large glass items must be cooled slowly. Smaller things go faster.

Method for making glass using a brazier

The second way to make glass at home is a charcoal roaster. Let's take a look at everything step by step in this case.

Equipment for work

First you need to make an oven. A barbecue grill is perfect for this. It is important that it is heated with charcoal. In this case, in order to melt quartz sand into glass, the heat that coal generates when burned is used. Again, the cost of this material is not too high. They are widely available.

Important! Grill use standard size. Better if it is in the form of a dome. The main qualities that he should have are the presence of thick walls and good strength. If the grill has a ventilation hole, usually located at the bottom, it must be opened.

However, there may be small obstacles in this method. Even if there are very high temperatures, it is not always possible to melt it with ease. To do this, before starting the process, you need to add lime, borax or washing soda to the sand. The amount of additives should not exceed ⅓-¼ of the volume of sand.

Important! Remember that these additives significantly lower the melting point of the sand.

Glass Formatting

For blowing glass, prepare a long hollow metal tube. In order to pour glass, a mold is needed. It should be dense and should not melt from hot glass. Use, for example, graphite.

Important! When using this method, remember that the grill heats up much higher than normal. It is possible that the grill itself may melt. Therefore, in the manufacture of glass in this way, you need to carefully and responsibly perform all actions. Negligence can result in serious injury or even death.

Security measures:

Place a large amount of sand and a fire extinguisher near the work area.
All work must be done outdoors.
The floor must be concrete, for example.
Stay away from the grill when cooking glass to protect yourself and your clothes from high temperatures.
Remember to wear protective clothing. These are fire-resistant clothing, oven gloves, a high-strength apron over clothing, and a mandatory welding mask.
Also in this method you will need a vacuum cleaner. It will act as a coal blower. We arrange it as follows: we attribute the body to a sufficient distance. We fix the hose to the ventilation hole, which is located below. It may need to be bent to give the desired shape. You can fix it to one of the legs of the grill. The hose must be fixed firmly and not move.

Important! If the opposite happened, then in no case do not approach him, because he is very hot. Next, you need to turn off the vacuum cleaner and look at the position of the hose. It must be aimed exactly at the vent hole.

Operating procedure:

Place charcoal on the inside of the grill. It is necessary to put it in two or even three times more than for roasting meat. Well, if it is filled almost to the brim.

Important! Use hardwood charcoal. It burns faster and better than briquetted.

In the middle of the bowl, place a cast-iron container or a crucible with sand.
Carefully study the packaging of the coal used. Fire it up in the right way. There is coal that ignites directly by itself, and there is material for which ignition fluid is used. Wait for the flame to spread evenly.
Wait until the coal is ready for further work. The readiness of coals can be determined by color. They will be orange.
The next step is to turn on the vacuum cleaner. This is necessary so that the coal is blown.

Important! Coal exposed to air flow can be heated to very high temperatures. Up to about 1100 degrees Celsius. This must be taken into account when near the stove. Ascending flashes may appear from it.

Glassblowing is the art of creating glass objects by working molten glass. Glassblowing originated in the Middle East around 300 BC. e. Since then, blown glass products have become indispensable for both everyday life and scientific innovation, and glassblowing has become an important art form. There are two types of glassblowing: lampwork and glassblowing with a hollow tube.

Steps

Glass blowing with a tube

Collect molten glass. With a hollow steel pipe or a glass-blowing tube, collect glass from the furnace in which the glass melt is located. The temperature of the glass melt in the furnace should be between 1380 and 1435° Celsius.

A simple but accurate analogy is wrapping an apple in caramel. Imagine that the steel rod is an apple and the oven is a can of caramel. Just as in the case of slow rotation of an apple in hot caramel, the steel rod in the oven must be constantly rotated to evenly set the glass.

Shape the glass. Once the glass is stable, transfer it to the steel wheel and start shaping it. Glass forming begins with glass rolling on a rolling table. It is important to obtain a symmetrical cylinder. Once you have the cylinder, keep turning the blower tube to prevent the glass from running off.
- The rolling table will take away a lot of heat from the molten glass mass, since when the glass is rolled on the table, both materials are in contact.
- If the walls of the glass melt become too thin, cool them by rolling them out on a rolling table.
- If the bottom of the glass melt has become too thick, then put the glass back through the hole into the glass reheat oven (designed to keep the glass in a viscous state) and focus on heating the bottom of the glass. When heating the glass, turn it all the time.
Make a preparation. Blow into the tube and close it with your thumb. The heat will expand the air trapped in the tube and a bubble will form. This first set and bubble is called a blank.
- As soon as you get a vial with uniform walls, you can again use the gurney table and collect more glass. Remember that you need to constantly rotate the rod, moving it from the rolling table to the furnace and furnace opening.
Pick up glass again. Gather a drop of more glass melt. The required number of glass melting sets depends on the desired product size - the larger the product, the more they are needed.
- If you want to add some color, now is a good time to apply it to the cooler "post" (cylindrical blank).
Shape the bullet. When you have finished collecting the glass mass, moisten the newspaper and use it to form your blank into a bullet. Then heat it again in the oven opening. Don't forget to rotate the rod all the time!

Decide on a form. Shape the product by rolling it on a gurney table while an assistant blows air through a tube into the glass.
- down on glass, roll out the walls, not the bottom. If the sides are colder, then when air is blown in, the bubble will push the bottom out.
- If you want the bubble to move from glass, that is, to expand the walls, roll out the bottom. If the bottom is colder, then when air is blown in, the bubble will push out the walls.
Make cuts. Having formed the product, use special tongs to make cut lines on the neck. The diameter of the neck must be equal to or less than the diameter of the blower tube. Keep spinning the tube!

Open the product and complete its manufacture. This requires transferring your piece to another rod called a pont. This is one of the most difficult operations in glassblowing. However, knowing a little professional secret makes it much easier. Find a small tool (a file is best) and dip it into the water. Carefully draw a line around the neck. This will reduce the strength of the glass and make it more brittle. After that, it will be easy to separate it from the first tube.

Align the edges. Heat the glass in the oven opening and smooth the edges with tongs.

Refrigerate the item. Use your thumb to close the hole through which you were blowing air, then gently lower the product into a bucket of water, keeping your finger on the blow hole all the time to prevent water from entering the tube and destroying the product.

Discard the product from the tube. Using a wooden board, tap the tube with force - your product will fall off from its end.

Anneal the product. Carefully transfer the piece to an annealing oven (an oven that cools the glass at a controlled rate) and let it cool overnight.

Lampwork
1. Use the lampwork method to produce small glassware. Lampwork is the process of processing molten glass over a small burner. Lampwork is used to create, for example, beads or other small items such as paperweights. This section covers how to make a small bead using a lampwork.
  
  Turn on the burner. If you have an oxygen/propane burner, you can use that as well.
  
  Heat the holder in a slow burner flame. Try to get a ceramic-coated stainless steel holder. The ceramic coating will prevent molten glass from sticking to the holder when you want to remove it.
  
  Fire the glass with the tip of the flame to prepare it. If you do not fire the glass, it may crack due to thermal shock instead of melting. Fire for about 30 seconds.
2. Start bringing the glass closer to the base of the flame. Keep it in the flame until a nice orange ball forms.
  - Keep rotating the glass to keep it round.
3. Attach the melted tip of the glass to the holder.
  - Place the glass on the holder and start wrapping it around the holder away from you. Wrap until you have a solid cover on the holder.
  - Using a torch flame, separate the glass rod from the holder. The easiest way to separate the glass from the base is when both the glass and the holder are in the flame.
- Do not forget while working on the product to fire it all the time in the furnace or furnace hole; this prevents cracking.
- Wet your hands before handling glass. This will reduce discomfort and prevent burns.
- You can get colored glass by rolling your set of glass into colored powder. You can also heat up small pieces of colored glass and attach them to the blower tube.
- Have a partner help you move the glass from the blower tube to the pontium (rod) to avoid cracks and breaks.
- Glassblowing is an interactive process and the steps will vary greatly depending on the shape of the piece. The steps above are general glass blowing techniques. Search the internet for videos showing different glassblowing techniques and the many shapes and styles you can create. Check out these online demos for a great example of glassblowing art.
- Try to get as symmetrical a set of glass as possible.
Warnings
- Glassblowing is a hot process, because the temperatures here exceed 1350 degrees! Be extremely careful. Don't try to work from home. Find an instructor, especially if you're just starting out.
- After dialing, never lift the handset above eye level; molten glass can get on your hands, face and eyes.

I have been to various workshops and various factories, I have seen how jam and metal are made, I have seen how fish are caught on an industrial scale, and how hemp is tested, and yesterday I visited an amazing place - an art glass workshop. Egor - master glassblower arranged for community bloggers in Petrograd spbblog an excursion to his workshop, where he creates wonderful and beautiful things from scratch that anyone can do under his guidance.

1. Complete swindle!

Our acquaintance with Yegor began with a small introductory word from the master. He told us that he is self-taught, he studied on video from the Internet, there is no domestic literature on glass as such, so he had to study Western. With Russian masters from the Stieglitz Academy, for example, communication also did not work out, because. those old farts believe that if they take him to work or study with them, then he will find out all the secrets of the craft from them and run away to create his own company, thereby creating competition for them. As a result, Egor did not fold his hands and did not leave for the West, as many could do, but having received several lessons in practice from a teacher at an art university, then he began to create with his own hands, creating 3 furnaces and preparing all the necessary base.

2. The base is glass, of course. Egor buys American There are a lot of flowers, it is of high quality, but in Russia everything with this raw material is bad, it is not enough to get it. Glass is purchased either in the form of similar sheets-plates, or in the form of cubes, which, in principle, is all the same, because everything is melted in the furnace.

3. Furnaces are perhaps the most important part of the process. There should be at least three of them: glass-melting, which maintains a temperature of ~ 1100 degrees Celsius, a furnace for preheating blanks, as well as ovens for cooling finished products.

4. All 3 ovens are electric, adjustable with this simple shield. By the way, the workshop is located in the building of the Union of Artists, which is cool. In addition to this glass workshop, there are others.

5. The cuckoo stove got its name for the sliding doors that resemble a birdhouse))

6. The temperature there is decent, the oven is used to heat the product during operation. You can’t climb inside, it’s hot, but Egor said that he and his friends put an action camera in there, wrapping it in cooling rags, and took some cool photos. Fire!

7. Actually, a long blowing tube, with the help of which the whole miracle happens.

8. Liquid glass is taken by a tube from a glass-melting furnace and the process of creating a blank for the product begins. In our case, it's a vase!

9. Very little glass is taken, because. in large quantities it is simply not necessary.

10. Then, along the metal surface, you need to bring the blank to the desired shape.

11. Glass is hot, which means you can do anything with it, including inflating it!

12. Once again we dip the workpiece into the furnace and grab an additional amount of liquid glass, it is necessary in order to move further to the next furnace, in which all the action will take place.

13. Egor moves on to "Cuckoo", in which glass is blown and maintained in the desired shape.

14. So far, this is just a blank for a vase, that is, transparent glass, on which a layer of colored glass will be applied in the future.

15. Blowing continues until it becomes clear that the blank is ready.

16. Then, when the blank is completely ready, you get any colored glass of your own taste, in our case it is a 4-color blank from which the vase will be created. As you can see, our blank is literally stuck to a multi-colored blank and is already being sent to the oven.

17. In order for the blank and blank to take the desired shape, they must be combined, as it were, by bending the molten glass around the blank.

18. Bent, now you need to use dental tweezers or any other suitable tool to connect the edges of the workpiece to each other.

19. This is done several times by sending the product to the oven, then again bending and connecting the edges, until it becomes clear that the blank and the colored blank are one!

20. Yegor creates the bottom of the vase with antique scissors, as if squeezing the glass.

21. And then what? Then long and hard you need to blow, melt, until you understand that the wall thickness is already necessary. By the way, as you can see, the stove is on gas. One such cylinder is enough for 1.5 days on average. Due to the fact that the room is small, it is not possible to store gas here, so every couple of days you have to refuel at the nearest gas station.

22. Molding is when a product is given the desired shape with a wet newspaper. The hardening glass spins on the newspaper, cools down, and at the same time acquires the necessary shape.

23. With some other dental tool, Egor applies a pattern to a vase, which we will see soon)

24. Again, we need to dip our product in a glass melting furnace to apply a layer of glass to give it gloss and also for strength.

25. And again molding. In general, the process is clear and simple - blow, twist, shape, cool. But at the same time, all this is very difficult, and requires attentiveness and experience, which you get by making mistakes and achieving results. As in everything, by the way. Creative and interesting work, it’s not for nothing that Egor stopped being an office plankton and began to work with his hands, it’s cool.

26. Here, the product, already with an additional layer of glass that we recently applied, is sent back to the furnace.

27. It seems that the master realized that it was time to stretch the product. This is done in a rather tricky way - the tube, with the product at the end, quickly rotates around its axis, making several turns, thereby stretching to the desired size.

28. Then, to make the neck of the vase, you need to attach such a thing to the bottom (on the left) so that there is something to hold the product for.

29. In the meantime, on the other hand, the future neck of the vase is already being created with tongs, as if simply expanding it, while the glass is liquid.

30. Going into the oven a few more times, then expanding again, and voila, the elegant neck of the vase is ready!

31. Master and his product. In fact, red is yellow, and pale blue is a color closer to blue. When the product cools down, it will take on the proper colors.

32. It's time to cut off that thing from the bottom of the product, we don't need it anymore.

33. After all, the product is sent to the furnace, in which the temperature of +517 degrees is maintained for a long time, and then lower, lower, lower, it is necessary that the glass gradually cools down, otherwise it will simply crack and the product will cease to exist. The vase, created with us, will reach room temperature in 8-9 hours, but we will not see this anymore)

34. Here, like our vase, they already lie on the lid of the stove. Diverse, beautiful, one might say - each is unique in its own way. Pay attention to the round gizmos on the bottoms of the vases - these are the remains of those things that were cut off in photo No. 32, in order to remove them, Yegor later goes to another workshop, where everything is removed and cleaned by grinding. The vase is ready!

35. Broken pots that were in electric furnaces, which became unusable due to the fact that the electricity was turned off in the building, and everything was broken.

36. Various figurines and products that were created here are displayed on the shelves.

37. Cars, for example =)

A very cool workshop and Egor is an excellent craftsman who loves his job, educates others and is always happy to help. Contact him, every week he leads excursions to his workshop on Okhta, and together with you he will create something interesting as a keepsake that you will take home with you.

Taken from nau_spb in How glass is blown

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I always thought that glass blowing is a complex industrial production. But it turns out that it is possible to organize it in a large city apartment or, for sure, in a country house. There would be enough electricity. It was from the apartment that he began at the time your art with glass Egor Komarovsky. Egor is an enthusiast, self-taught, a very enterprising and creative person. I recently had the opportunity to visit glass-blowing workshop "Steklou" and see how a vase is blown out of a drop of glass.

In general, according to his initial education, Egor Komarovsky is an international logistician, but he did not stay at office work for a long time, preferring it to creative work. He started with a blacksmith, and then turned his attention to glass. In a rented apartment, he and his wife began to heat the village, wrap it in foil and study it in every possible way, trying to figure it out. Then they began to engage in glass fusing - this is the fusion of glasses with each other and then the finished product is sintered through the mold (For example). They also did stained glass. Both productions are now more or less widespread and competitive on the market.
2

But glass blowing, on the contrary, few people do. There were many glass-blowing factories in the Union, but almost all of them were closed, there are almost no private workshops. There is one institution in Moscow, in St. Petersburg, the Mukhinskoye School, but none of them took Yegor either as a student or as a worker, fearing imaginary competition. In all of them, mostly "old cadres" 60+ work, there are almost no young specialists.
3

I only managed to work a little on personal agreements with individual craftsmen. This, plus a theoretical study of the issue, is a boon on the Internet(but not in Runet) Now there is a lot of information, as well as my own practice, which allowed me to master the technique. The chosen strategy also inspires respect - to take in the order for manufacturing work a little more complicated than it did before. Prepayment taken, motivation rises - like it or not, you need to do it. Sometimes it was necessary to redo the product 15 times before a satisfactory result was achieved.
4

Whereas abroad this direction is very common and even popularized. They make home glass melting furnaces, teach everyone who wants it - you can easily organize a home mini-production. Komarovsky had to make his own stoves on his own (buying foreign ones is very expensive).
5

In total, three ovens with different temperatures are needed for production. All of them are electric, 6 kilowatts each. There is another gas furnace "cuckoo" for heating the material in the process of its molding.
6

There are a lot of all sorts of colored and shiny beauties in the workshop. And the vases here are literally in bulk.
7

This is approximately the same vase that will now be blown out of a drop of glass.
8

The glass itself is also of American origin - special for blowing. We do not produce such things, and large-scale productions brew glass for themselves. Colored glass is ordered in the form of plates, and transparent glass in the form of such drops. Drops are easier to work with.
9

First, the glass is melted in a ceramic pot at a temperature of 1600 degrees.
10

They lower the glass blowing tube and take everything that has stuck to the end of the tube from the furnace. They blow out a little. A glass blowing pipe, or blown pipe, is a hollow pipe about 1.5 meters long with a brass mouthpiece.
11

And they roll forming the required shape. Forming stage.
12

Glass is periodically heated in the "cuckoo" so that it retains its elasticity. Glass begins to soften at 650 degrees and above.
13

Next, we lower the tube into the glass again, stick new glass on it, blow it out, and mold it. This is the so-called free blowing technique. In addition to it, there are other methods
14

At a certain point, we stick strips of colored glass on the workpiece. They were pre-prepared - they took strips of colored glass and sintered them together into one plate. Primarily stuck platinum on the workpiece.
15

Additionally, parts were sintered in the "cuckoo".
16

And now we carefully form by bending the sides.
17

18

19

And then all the same stages - blowing, molding, heating, etc. Sometimes, however, it is necessary to slightly cool the workpiece with a moistened newspaper. It is necessary to strictly observe the temperature balance, as well as constantly monitor the dimensions, wall thickness, quality. A tricky business that requires good skills.
20

When the lights are off, the workshop appears in a beautiful fairy-tale form. .
21

Molding is also done using the force of gravity. They tilted it to one side - the workpiece began to deform downwards, the glass flows down.
22

23

24

When the vase has "grown" almost to the required size, the workpiece is once again dipped in liquid glass to form a transparent protective layer under loading.
25

After about 1.5 hours, the vase is almost ready. Now they take another glass-blowing tube, dip it into the glass and solder it to the vase from the opposite end. The old tube is removed, and in its place, the neck of the phase begins to form. The glass is soft, so we expand the hole with tweezers, bend the edges and give the desired shape.
26

This is how it turned out, only after cooling the colors will be different. White will remain white, blue will become azure, and red will become yellow.
27

And the last stage is cooling, or annealing - also a very important process. The thicker the glass, the longer it takes to cool. Centimeter products are cooled for days and even months. Approximately 12 hours are sufficient for these vases. Below 517 degrees, tensions begin to appear in the glass, and up to 370 degrees it is necessary to cool very slowly and carefully, then the cooling rate increases slightly. After annealing, the vase will need to be sanded and everything will be ready.

The good news for everyone is that Egor Komarovsky faced with all the difficulties of learning the craft, he decided to change the situation and already conducts courses and master classes for everyone who wants to learn glassblowing. There are also excursions for schoolchildren. 2 hours of classes cost 4000 rubles and during this time you will be able to understand whether it is interesting for you or not. If yes, then you can continue your studies, and then come and make some products for yourself (if you think that you don’t need your own workshop). In general, there are big plans for education - soon the production will move to a new site, where it will be possible to conduct larger excursions and master classes. Yegor also advises many glassblowers at other industries, preferring not to make the required product himself, but to show how it is done, train, and then they can do it on their own. That is, Komarovsky took on a very large and grateful mission of enlightenment and education, which, given the shortage of masters and information now in Russia, cannot but arouse great respect.

Thank you traditionally spbblog in the face Zhenya for invitation.
Other stories and photographs can be read and viewed at Zhenya Katerina ,

Today we will talk about how to make glass with your own hands at home. We will also consider methods and technologies for self-manufacturing of glass and glass products, namely furnaces, devices and tools for melting glass.

At factories and in chemical laboratories, glasses are obtained from a mixture - a thoroughly mixed dry mixture of powdered salts, oxides and other compounds. When heated in furnaces to very high temperatures, often above 1500°C, salts decompose to oxides, which, interacting with each other, form silicates, borates, phosphates, and other compounds that are stable at high temperatures. Together they make glass.

We will prepare the so-called fusible glasses, for which a laboratory electric furnace with a heating temperature of up to 1000°C is sufficient. You will also need crucibles, crucible tongs (so as not to burn yourself) and a small flat plate, steel or cast iron. First we will weld the glass, and then we will find a use for it.

Mix with a spatula on a sheet of paper 10 g of sodium tetraborate (borax), 20 g of lead oxide and 1.5 g of cobalt oxide, sifted through a sieve. This is our burden. Pour it into a small crucible and compact with a spatula so that you get a cone with a top in the center of the crucible. The compacted mixture should occupy no more than three-quarters of the volume in the crucible, then the glass will not spill.

Place the crucible with tongs in an electric furnace (crucible or muffle), heated to 800–900 °C, and wait until the mixture has melted. This is judged by the release of bubbles: as soon as it has stopped, the glass is ready. Remove the crucible from the oven with tongs and immediately pour the melted glass onto a clean steel or cast iron plate. Cooling on the stove, the glass forms a blue-violet ingot.

To obtain glasses of other colors, replace the cobalt oxide with other coloring oxides. Iron(III) oxide (1-1.5 g) will color the glass brown, copper(II) oxide (0.5-1 g) green, a mixture of 0.3 g of copper oxide with 1 g of cobalt oxide and 1 g iron oxide (III) - black. If you take only boric acid and lead oxide, then the glass will remain colorless and transparent. Experiment yourself with other oxides, such as chromium, manganese, nickel, tin.

Crush the glass with a pestle in a porcelain mortar. In order not to injure yourself with fragments, be sure to wrap your hand with a towel, and cover the mortar with a pestle with a clean rag.

Pour fine glass powder onto thick glass, add a little water and grind to a creamy state with a chime - a glass or porcelain disc with a handle. Instead of a chime, you can take a small flat-bottomed mortar or a polished piece of granite - this is what the old masters did when they rubbed paint. The resulting mass is called slip. We will apply it to the aluminum surface in much the same way as they do when making jewelry.

Clean the aluminum surface with sandpaper and degrease by boiling in a soda solution. On a clean surface, trace the outline of the pattern with a scalpel or needle. Cover the surface with a slip with an ordinary brush, dry it over a flame, and then heat it in the same flame until the glass melts onto the metal. You will get enamel.

If the badge is small, it can be covered with a layer of glass and heated in a flame in its entirety. If the product is larger (say, a plate with an inscription), then it is necessary to break it into sections and apply glass to them one by one. To make the color of the enamel more intense, apply the glass again. In this way, it is possible to obtain not only decorations, but also reliable enamel coatings to protect aluminum parts in various devices and models. Since in this case the enamel carries an additional load, it is desirable to cover the metal surface after degreasing and washing with a dense oxide film; to do this, it is enough to hold the part for 5-10 minutes in an oven with a temperature slightly below 600 ° C.

Of course, it is more convenient to apply slip on a large part not with a brush, but from a spray gun or simply by watering (but the layer should be thin). Dry the part in an oven at 50–60°C, and then transfer it to an electric furnace heated to 700–800°C.

And from low-melting glass, you can prepare painted plates for mosaic work. Pieces of broken porcelain dishes (they will always be given to you in a china shop) pour a thin layer of slip over them, dry them at room temperature or in an oven and melt the glass onto the plates, keeping them in an electric furnace at a temperature of at least 700 ° C.

Having mastered the work with glass, you can help your colleagues from the biological circle: they often make stuffed animals there, and stuffed animals need multi-colored eyes ...

In a steel plate about 1.5 cm thick, drill several recesses of different sizes with a conical or spherical bottom. In the same way as before, fuse the multi-colored glasses. Gamma, perhaps, is enough, and to change the intensity, slightly increase or decrease the content of the coloring additive.

Place a small drop of bright molten glass into the recess of the steel plate, then pour in the iris-colored glass. The drop will enter the main mass, but will not mix with it - this is how both the pupil and the iris will be reproduced. Cool products slowly, avoiding sudden temperature changes. To do this, remove the hardened, but still hot “eyes” from the mold with heated tweezers, put them in loose asbestos and cool it to room temperature already in it. .

Of course, fusible glasses can be found in other applications. But wouldn't it be better if you look for them yourself?

And at the end of the experiments with glass, using the same electric furnace, we will try to turn ordinary glass into colored glass. The natural question is: is it possible to make sunglasses in this way? It is possible, but it is unlikely that you will succeed the first time, because the process is capricious and requires some skills. Therefore, take the glasses only after you have practiced on the pieces of glass and make sure that the result is as expected.

The basis of paint for glass will be rosin. From resinates, acid salts that make up rosin, you previously prepared driers for oil paints. Let us turn again to resinates, because they are able to form a thin, even film on glass and serve as carriers of the coloring matter,

In a solution of caustic soda with a concentration of about 20%, dissolve with stirring and remembering, of course, caution, pieces of rosin until the liquid becomes dark yellow. After filtering, add a little solution of ferric chloride FeCl3 or other ferric salt. Keep in mind that the concentration of the solution should be small, salt should not be taken in excess - the precipitate of iron hydroxide, which in this case forms, will interfere with us. If the salt concentration is low, then a red precipitate of iron resinate is formed - it is there that is needed.

Filter off the red precipitate and dry it in air, and then dissolve to saturation in pure gasoline (not automobile, but solvent gasoline), it would be even better to use hexane or petroleum ether. Paint the glass surface with a thin layer with a brush or spray gun, let it dry and place it in an oven heated to about 600 ° C for 5-10 minutes.

But rosin belongs to organic substances, and they cannot withstand such a temperature! That's right, but that's exactly what you need - let the organic base burn out. Then the thinnest film of iron oxide will remain on the glass, well adhered to the surface. And although the oxide is generally opaque, in such a thin layer it transmits part of the light rays, that is, it can serve as a light filter.
Perhaps the light protection layer will seem too dark or, on the contrary, too light. In this case, vary the conditions of the experiment - slightly increase or decrease the concentration of the rosin solution, change the firing time and temperature. If you are not satisfied with the color in which the glass is painted, replace the iron chloride with another metal chloride, but certainly one whose oxide is brightly colored, such as copper or cobalt chloride.

And when the technology is carefully worked out on pieces of glass, it is possible to make the transformation of ordinary glasses into sunglasses without much risk. Just remember to remove the glass from the frame - the plastic frame will not withstand the heat in the oven in the same way as the rosin base ...
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To get glass, sand must be melted. You must have walked on hot sand on a sunny day, so you can guess that for this it needs to be heated to very high temperatures. An ice cube melts at a temperature of about 0 C. Sand begins to melt at a temperature of at least 1710 C, which is almost seven times the maximum temperature of our usual oven.
Heating any substance to such a temperature requires a lot of energy and, consequently, money. For this reason, in the production of glass for everyday use, glassmakers add a substance to the sand that helps the sand melt at lower temperatures - about 815 C. Usually this substance is soda ash.
However, if only a mixture of sand and soda ash is used in the melt, an amazing type of glass can be obtained - glass that dissolves in water (frankly, not the best choice for glasses).

To prevent the glass from dissolving, a third substance must be added. Glass makers add crushed limestone to sand and soda (you must have seen this beautiful white stone).

The glass commonly used to make windows, mirrors, glasses, bottles, and light bulbs is called soda-lime silicate. Such glass is very durable, and in molten form it is easy to give it the desired shape. In addition to sand, soda ash and limestone, this mixture (experts say "mixture") includes a little magnesium oxide, aluminum oxide, boric acid, as well as substances that prevent the formation of air bubbles in this mixture.

All these ingredients are combined and the mixture (the mixture is placed in a giant furnace (the largest of these furnaces can hold almost 1,110,000 kg of liquid glass). .

The strong fire of the furnace heats the mixture until it begins to melt and turns from a solid to a viscous liquid. Liquid glass continues to be heated at high temperatures until all bubbles and veins disappear from it, since the thing made from it must be absolutely transparent. When the mass of glass becomes homogeneous and clean, the fire is reduced and the glass is waited until the glass turns into a viscous viscous mass - like a hot toffee. The glass is then poured from the furnace into a casting machine where it is poured into molds and shaped.
However, in the production of hollow things, such as bottles, the glass has to be blown like a balloon. Previously, glass blowing could be seen during fairs and carnivals, now this process is often shown on TV. You've probably seen glassblowers blowing a piece of hot glass hanging from the end of a tube to create amazing figurines. But you can also blow glass with the help of machines. The basic principle of glassblowers is to blow into a glass drop until an air bubble forms in the middle, which becomes a cavity in the finished thing.

After the glass has been given the necessary shape, a new danger lies in wait for it - it can crack when cooled to room temperature. To avoid this, craftsmen try to control the cooling process by subjecting the hardening glass to heat treatment. The last stage of processing is removing excess glass droplets from the handles of cups or polishing plates with special chemicals that make them perfectly smooth.

Scientists are still arguing whether glass should be considered a solid or a very viscous (syrup-like) liquid. Since the windows of old houses are thicker at the bottom and thinner at the top, some claim that the glass runs down over time. However, one can object to this that earlier window panes were not made perfectly even and people simply inserted them into the frames with a thicker edge down. Even glassware from ancient Roman times shows no signs of "fluidity". Thus, the old window glass example does not help resolve the question of whether glass is in fact a highly viscous liquid.

Composition (raw materials) for glass production at home:
Quartz sand;
soda ash;
Talamit;
Limestone;
Nepheline syenite;
Sodium sulfate.

How glass is made at home (production process)

Usually scrap glass (broken glass) plus the above components are used as ingredients.

1) The constituent elements of the future glass enter the furnace, where it all melts at a temperature of 1500 degrees, forming a homogeneous liquid mass.

2) Liquid glass enters the homogenizer (an apparatus for creating stable mixtures), where it is mixed to a mass with a uniform temperature.

3) The hot mass is allowed to settle for several hours.

This is how glass is made!

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