Working with borosilicate

Hi,

I recently read info on a few websites about glass blowing for producing scientific apparatus such as tubes and flasks ect. One site showed that an amateur can work easily enough with soda lime glass using a regular blow torch from a DIY store that burns propane/butane. I'm wondering if I work with borosilicate glass which has slightly higher melting and workable temperatures whether such a torch will be hot/effect enough... ?

Thanks :)

Reply to
Samantha BeanHead
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It is possible to do very simple work, like bending of thin rods, for example, but you can't do serious work with such torches. You have to use special burners with a mix of oxygen and natural gas or oxygen and propane/butane.

The working temperature of boro may seem to be "slightly" higher, but it is impossible to do such things like sealing tubes together, etc. The flame temperature of simple torches (e.g torches used for soldering, or "weed burners") is much too low for working with borosilicate.

The other thing with such torches is, that it is impossible to control the size of the flame in a reasonable way. If you want to work with tubes or flasks and do sealings or joints, one is usually working with very different sizes/temperatures of the flame. A torch (like these "weed burners", for example) usually has two sizes: "big" and "very big". No chance to control flame temperature or flame size in a reasonable way. "Reasonable" in this context means "useful for a boro-glassblower".

Andy (worked many years as a scientific glassblower)

Reply to
Andreas Haimberger

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