[Moth]

I bought a Stump Sucker from the garage sale forum. It came with the black rubber hose assembly with the filter.

I've searched online and here but can't figure out how much heat the rubber hose can withstand before melting or degrading.

I went over to Lewis Wilson's site because I remember seeing a long time ago a paperweight video clip.

In the clip, he has what looks like a stump sucker inside a kiln with the hose and all feeding off it.

I can't tell though if it is the same hose, or what.

I was going to leave the graphite part of the stump sucker sitting on my hot plate, with the paperweight assembly inside it while I stripped and preheated the clear encasement glass. When I was close to getting the encasement clear ready, I was going to heat the assembly with the small torch I have. Then I was going to do the encasement and proceed working at the torch then garage the finished piece in the kiln.

I'm hoping that Lewis Wilson really does have in that kiln what I think he has in there, which would mean that the rubber hose on the stump sucker will easily tolerate the lesser temp of my hotplate.

Alternatively, maybe I don't have to heat the stump sucker at all and can just do the torch heating right before I encase it. I just don't want the assembly to crack and thought I could keep it hot on the hotplate and save myself some stress.

Any input on the hose situation is greatly appreciated. Otherwise, I'm going to have to cut off a small portion of the hose and set it on the hot plate to see if it melts of smokes or whatever.

Thanks in advance.
~~Mary