I wanna know about glass rods

[meadowesky]

Some things that I am curious about are how is it made at the factory? How are the basics made (not handpulled) and etc. Pics would be amazing!

When did glass rods come about?

There are so many questions..

Can anyone send me in the right direction?

[LavenderCreek]

I use to know where there was a video clip of the guys at Moretti (I think) pulling rods out of a huge gather of glass. I think one held the metal rod with the gather on it and the other had another rod attached and then he ran with it, pulling the gather into rod thickness. I can't remember where I saw that clip! Maybe someone else will remember! It's really neat how they do it.

Bandhu Dunham has a great section on the history of glass in his book "Contemporary Lampworking" Great book btw.

[FordGirlGoneBad]

I'm just guessing on where I saw the pics, but I think it was the Luascha Color of the Month club post -- if it wasn't on that thread then maybe a link somewhere on that thread? Or the website of the member who is heading up the COTM Club -- I think her user name is FireFly. After I post this I'll go check and make sure, lol!:doubt:

[JanMD]

There is a pic on this web page -- http://www.salusaglassworks.com/events/european_notebook.html -- but it absolutely has to be far more mechanized than that for the "regular" colors.

JanMD

[Toni Lutman]

This is from Kim Osibin's (http://www.createbeads.com/VirtualEffetre.html) site from a trip to Murano a few years ago. It doesn't show the equipment, but shows the looooooong finished pulls.

[meadowesky]

OMG!!! how awesome!! Ya know those flutters you get occasionally? Yep got mine!

[Chuckie]

The automated method involves the use of industrial sized vitrigraph (also spelled vitrograph) kilns. The molten glass is poured into a vat. The bottom of the funnel-shaped vat has a hole that is about equal to the diameter of the rod or stringer. That's how BE gets those consistent sized rods.

Below the aperature (hole) is a conveyor belt. The belt has to move away from the opening at the same speed which the glass flows out of the opening (That's the tricky part). The glass is still molten enough to make the turn from dripping downward, and to make a gentle 90 degree turn onto the conveyer. As it moves away from the warmer glass, it cools in a nice, long rod. I don't know if they machine cut or hand cut the rods as the get to the end of the conveyer, but they cut the stuff up as it comes out.

BE users may notice a slight curve to their rods. Now you know the how and why...

Here's some vitrigraph info:
http://www.glassfacts.info/glass/index.asp?fid=45

It's kind of like a pot melt without the conveyor thing going on. Here's a good photo of a pot melt in action (bottom left photo)
http://www.kaleidoglass.com/webpages/potmelt.pdf