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Tips, Techniques, and Questions -- Technical questions or tips

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  #1  
Old 2014-10-18, 9:59am
Elinor Elinor is offline
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Default Devardi's Melting Pot

I ordered one of these recently because I had a lot of Devardi glass sitting around that is too bubbly/big/irregular/full of inclusions/all of the above for me to use: http://www.devardiglass.com/meltingpot.htm

I hoped to melt some of that glass down and re-pull it into smaller and cleaner rods.

The melting pot arrived the other day, and I immediately tried it out. I'm not hugely impressed, unfortunately. It worked, but took a long time to get up to heat and never heated the crucible evenly - the glass at the bottom was yellow-hot liquid while the top would be stiff. I eventually took a second torch and pointed it down the crucible in desperation, which evened the heat up enough to try pulling some rods but wouldn't work well for my main goal of letting bubbles and impurities settle out. The glass I pulled was still bubbly and very uneven due to heat irregularity within the crucible. The welds aren't great and I think it needs more insulation to work better - I will try adding more plate or firebrick.

I'm going to email the company and see if my experience is unusual, or if this is the norm for these things.



The crucible is supposed to be up to temp within 5 minutes. This was about 30 minutes in and you can see the crucible glowing unevenly inside.


You can see flame escaping around the front side, around the edges of the crucible, and between the back seam and heat shield to the left. (The tongues of flame on far left appear to be normal venting.) The welds are very poor quality.


The only glass I kept from that session. Two wonky, lumpy, bubbly ribbons. I'm sure part of that is my inexperience with pulling rods, but it was definitely not made easier by the fact half the crucible was a completely different temperature from the other.

I'm not completely disheartened, though. It's a neat idea and was cheap. My spouse is a professional hot-arts person (welder/metal fabricator/blacksmith) so I think between the two of us we can tweak it into shape, but I am wondering if anyone else on this forum has used one and what their experiences have been like?
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  #2  
Old 2014-10-18, 7:02pm
dusty dusty is offline
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I watched Devardi's youtube videos about the device a couple of times, because I was really hoping it would be a nice micro-crucible like you were wanting. What's shown on the videos is what you describe - uneven heat and never a molten vat of liquid glass, but just lumpy, semi-molten rods. If you get anything figured out, please share.

Last edited by dusty; 2014-10-18 at 7:05pm.
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  #3  
Old 2014-10-30, 3:06pm
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Khaleesi Dane Khaleesi Dane is offline
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Hi, I am hoping other people with this pot will chime it, also. I have used mine three times. First time, I reduced a couple blue bud light bottles to a crucible full of glass, and had a great time pulling blue rods that made lovely consistent upcycled beads, I was ecstatic!
I had great difficulty getting the unpulled glass out of the crucible at the end of the session however, and finally had to reheat and pull, till almost nothing remained... It doesn't turn to frit if there is much in there, gotta pull it ALL. This got easier in future sessions.

Today, I got bold and packed the crucible with devardi glass shorts in pretty color combos, thinking I would pull multi-color rods, which I simply love working with... Didn't have much success. I don't mind that one side heats more than the other, that is to be expected, and I can pull from the middle. Problem is that I have to make twisties each pull, or I get these microfine slivers and hairs popping all over the place, and I tend to overheat, and get them too thin!! I got a few amazingly colored rods, and I look forward to using them, but I also got a lot of useless scrap.

I know this is due to my inexperience, and I am hoping others with the pot will chime in with their tips and techniques, cause I simply love using the thing, but getting 2-3 usable rods from 10 isn't effective, no matter how much fun it was!!!!
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  #4  
Old 2014-10-30, 4:51pm
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Three Muses Glass Three Muses Glass is offline
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Is there any way to get some fiber blanket in there? Like Inswool or something? If you look up a Murphy's Fire Bucket...wait, here- http://www.fusionheadquarters.com/Mu.../firbucpac.htm it looks to be about the same principal but without the refractory that would help it heat evenly. I don't have a Melting Pot so I don't know if it would help...but I don't think it would hurt either.
If anyone does try it, some of the fiber blankets stink and smoke while the binders burn off, turn brown back to white, but some don't.
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  #5  
Old 2014-10-31, 8:06pm
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menty666 menty666 is offline
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I've never used one, but have you tried mixing the glass slightly while it's in the pot? if the flame's only coming from one side, it makes sense that it's unevenly heated, but mixing it a little might help.

Just a suggestion, but you might consider trying a vitrograph setup instead. It's a little more expensive, but you'll likely get better results and a more even heat.
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  #6  
Old 2014-11-07, 10:19am
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istandalone24/7 istandalone24/7 is offline
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there is no way that "crucible" will ever get hot enough to "fine out" the glass (meaning any bubbles rise to the top).
while that melting pot is good in theory, it would take some modifications in order for it to reach and maintain enough heat.
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  #7  
Old 2014-11-07, 1:37pm
LarryC LarryC is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by istandalone24/7 View Post
there is no way that "crucible" will ever get hot enough to "fine out" the glass (meaning any bubbles rise to the top).
while that melting pot is good in theory, it would take some modifications in order for it to reach and maintain enough heat.
True. I would be shocked if this thing heated evenly and got up to a high enough temp.
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  #8  
Old 2014-11-07, 1:37pm
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Khaleesi Dane Khaleesi Dane is offline
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Well, I did another batch of recycled glass this week with mine, and it did great! I just received a secret Santa bundle of thick rods I am going to cut up and use next. I don't imagine you would ever get a perfect rod, but the multi color twisties I get, and can then pleat with are fun!!

If someone could teach me how to post pictures here, I would be happy to!
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  #9  
Old 2014-11-07, 7:03pm
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houptdavid houptdavid is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Khaleesi Dane View Post

If someone could teach me how to post pictures here, I would be happy to!
Under the post window click "GO ADVANCED" Then look to the right click "image uploader"
Maximum image resolution: 640x640
Maximum image file size: 80 kilobytes
Choose file and upload
then click on code far left of picture
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  #10  
Old 2014-11-07, 7:46pm
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Khaleesi Dane Khaleesi Dane is offline
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Thank you, I will try that next time!
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  #11  
Old 2014-11-10, 9:18pm
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bubblebabeuk bubblebabeuk is offline
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I am really tempted by this, has anyone else bought it?
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  #12  
Old 2014-11-10, 9:47pm
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houptdavid houptdavid is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by menty666 View Post

Just a suggestion, but you might consider trying a vitrograph setup instead. It's a little more expensive, but you'll likely get better results and a more even heat.
Save your $45, just drill a hole in the bottom of your kiln and make a vitrograph setup
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  #13  
Old 2014-11-16, 12:07am
Ravenesque Ravenesque is offline
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I really wanted to buy this, I thought it would be awesome to use up shorts. Thing was, I didn't feel like setting up my HH just to do this. I asked if I could use my cricket, I was told it would get to hot too fast, isn't that a good thing then?

That said, I don't have the place nor means to set up a vitrograph...I really wanted this to work
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  #14  
Old 2014-11-17, 7:27pm
kenboydart kenboydart is offline
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Default Davardi copper question

Hello all
I have purchased some Davardi Copper cane and
have seen the vids on how to bring out the copper .
And yes, nothing works . I've been doing beads
for 11 years now using some really dif. glass [ striking ]
but this stuff has me baffled .......... nothing at all just black
not even a hint of copper ...... I'm using only propane or
Mapp gas .
Any help would be appreciated .
Ken
Napa Valley
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