We had our third Coldworking class with the first demonstration being the use of a tile saw. When working with glass and machines, always wear safety glass and closed toed shoes.
A diamond coated saw blade is used with a tile saw. It grinds the glass rather than cutting it. There are several accessories for making perfect angles, and you gently press the glass into the blade rather than forcing it. The blade does the work. I was glad to see that a toothed blade is not used. I had visions of making a mistake that would result in a serious injury. The diamond blade will leave a skinned spot but at least you have all your fingers if your hand slips on the wet glass.
This is a cast iron flat lap. Grit is placed in a funnel, upper right, water drips into the funnel to slowly wash the grit onto the flat lap.
When using the big flat lap, you want to come in at an angle so the piece is not caught and thrown against the wall. I understand when a piece slips and ends up being thrown against a wall, you hear a gnashing of teeth, expletives then sobs. :D
A diamond coated saw blade is used with a tile saw. It grinds the glass rather than cutting it. There are several accessories for making perfect angles, and you gently press the glass into the blade rather than forcing it. The blade does the work. I was glad to see that a toothed blade is not used. I had visions of making a mistake that would result in a serious injury. The diamond blade will leave a skinned spot but at least you have all your fingers if your hand slips on the wet glass.
This is a cast iron flat lap. Grit is placed in a funnel, upper right, water drips into the funnel to slowly wash the grit onto the flat lap.When using the big flat lap, you want to come in at an angle so the piece is not caught and thrown against the wall. I understand when a piece slips and ends up being thrown against a wall, you hear a gnashing of teeth, expletives then sobs. :D
Paul is loading the edge with pumice to polish on the small flat lap.This 12" lap machine uses magnetic, diamond coated disks in grits ranging from 60 up to 1200. The finish is a lens polish.
The fourth class is devoted entirely to finishing our pieces, and I am taking advantage of Helios' open studio to get caught up so I can finish at least one piece. As you can see, getting the perfect edge takes a lot of work.
Until next time, God bless.
3 comments:
Wow - that does take some work huh. I'd be really sad if my piece I was so lovingly working on hit the wall and can definitely see the progression of feelings at that point!! :-)
Thanks for showing us the process, it looks like a lot of fun. It would be really bad and sad to have a piece hit the wall.
SQ
Paul was telling us of a piece he had worked long and hard on using all kinds of glass techiniques to create this beautiful bowl....finishing the edge was one of the last steps. It hit the wall. He has only started talking about it....and I think it happened at least a year ago. :D
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