Glass musical instrument
 

I want to make a musical instrument consisting of a set of glass tubes, 50mm OD, 2mm walls, 2 to 4 feet in length. I'm not quite a complete newbie to glass working, but close. I'm thinking I use boro because I can safely flame polish the ends with a Mapp gas torch? Suggestions about how to proceed? THANKS!

Not a clue. What are you trying to make? Xylophone? Chimes? Bells? Pastoral flute? Glass harmonica? Small church organ?

Verrophone
 

Verrophone

Apparently I can't post links or images, sorry.

You 'might' be able to Polish the cuts with a map gas torch, but it looks like you'd want them to be very smooth and level for best sound and that's going to be hard without an oxy/gas torch I'd think. Hand (going through many grits) or machine polishing (like with a flat lap, going through many grits) will take waaaaay more time. How much time for any way you do it is going to depend on the tube cuts and how smooth they come out.

Thanks! What rig would you suggest?

William -

Speedslug did a how-to post pics:

http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=305604

It will interesting to see how you progress.

dj

The hardware stores do have two gas setups with one or two pound oxygen and fuel tanks as well as a pretty small hand torch that could work for what I think you are talking about but you would probably want to use a hot head ( or two ) to pre-heat the the area you are going to work on with the 2 gas torch as it might take some time to get it up to temp and those small tanks might well run dry before you get to the temp to begin work.

The posting of pictures and links might have to wait until you have made a particular number of posts before the system will allow it.

It is a pretty old software that this site runs on and there was a great deal of 'run-a-muck' fools back in the day that would jump into a forum and just cause all kinds of havoc by posting links to porn sites or advertiser click bait sites not to mention the bots and viruses that self-replicate and spread like fire on the internet.

We still get one or two that slip through and post links to some sports event or other now and then.

There is always the old fashioned way of telling people a web site address by putting a space between each letter ( i.e. w w w dot y o u r w e b s i t e h e r e dot c o m ).

When I googled the word Verrophone I found three videos, of which two were distinct enough for me to see and hear the instrument in action.

Of those 2, the first looks like you would not have to 'prefect' the the art of polishing the glass because it is played on the side of the tube instead of on the ends.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pygnOhyIOws
The second looks like you would indeed have to get good at shaping the ends of the glass tubes to get a usable lip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15HtDk116To

In either case you are going to want spend hours practicing the polishing because the vibrations involved will find the weakest spot in the tube over time and the glass will eventually develop cracks and break if you are lucky or shatter if you are not.

And then there is the problem of finding the proper length to cut them at before the polishing which will change the pitch I would think.

Lots of experimenting -after- you learn the polishing skill in itself.

Good luck with this and please let us know what you learn as you go about this.

As my mentor, Mr. Spock, would say; Fascinating.

Rig as in a torch set up? I couldn't begin to tell you. It's a LOT of money and you would need to decide if you want to continue on with glass to make the investment worth while. Perhaps it would be more economical to pay someone to polish the ends. There are FB groups you could ask in, as well as here.

I helped my son make a glass harmonica years ago, but had all the equipment, wetsaw, flat lap and torch. Didn't even use the torch, it was all coldworking.