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

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  #1  
Old 2014-06-30, 11:11am
Trik'stari Trik'stari is offline
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Question Total noob, needs help.

Hello everyone. I'm new here and I am having a problem with some glass tubing I am trying to bend.

Let me start off by describing what it is I am trying to do here. I am attempting to make a water cooling loop for a computer, using glass tubing instead of acrylic. The reason being that glass does not stain as easily as plastics, and also it looks much better. I am using plain clear soda lime glass tubing, 12.7mm OD. I'm not sure how thick the wall is, but it's not heavy wall.

The issue I am having is that the glass melts just fine under my torch, but no matter what I've tried, I cannot get it to bend without kinking. I have tried blowing into the tube whilst bending, letting gravity do the work, pulling towards me, etc. I'm starting to think the problem is that my torch isn't big enough to heat a large enough area to bend without kinking. I am using a standard propane torch bought at lowe's. The only "success" I can think of is that I haven't manage to explode any glass, and haven't had any cooling fractures. In fact the bends themselves seem sturdy enough, dropped from eye level on my wooden bench they give a nice clang and don't break.

I've watched just about every single youtube video, I've done some reading, I just CANNOT figure this out lol. It's driving me nuts. I got into this expecting to need alot of practice, but I'm not seeing any improvement in my bends thus far. I'm getting a little better at spinning, and I even managed to close a few tubes. But the bends just always give me the same exact result, a kinked tube.

The kinks themselves are not closing the tube off, just making it an inefficient bend to have liquid flowing through, which would be a problem for my purposes. not to mention it looks ugly.

what should I do? I really would appreciate some help on this
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  #2  
Old 2014-06-30, 12:26pm
RyanTheNumberImp RyanTheNumberImp is offline
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Working tubing is fairly challenging. I'd expect a novice to need at least a few dozen feet of tubing to become reasonably proficient.

Kinks in a bend are a result of the heat being too localized. There are guides available online, but glass is a lot about feel:
http://crescentok.com/staff/jaskew/I...try/tubing.htm

Making good looking bends without a flame spreader is extremely difficult. Incorporating several bends into a single piece will be even harder.

Putting aside matters of difficulty, I'm not entirely convinced you want glass in your water cooling loop, especially since it sounds like you won't be annealing your work.

Unlike plastic, glass cannot be coerced match the fittings. Your bends need to be dead nuts or they won't fit. Furthermore, if your case has any flex and you lift it, the glass could shatter. I have a suspicion temperature cycling in unannealed glass could cause spontaneous shattering as well.
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  #3  
Old 2014-06-30, 12:37pm
Trik'stari Trik'stari is offline
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Hrmm that does complicate things a bit. Could a professional glass blower do all of this? There is a glass blower at one of the local headshops, I've seen his work and all I can say is....damn (one of his larger water pipes went for 3 grand so yeah) and I was considering taking the computer to him, leaving it with him with the fittings, and getting him to get it all matched up?

The temperatures in an average computer don't really get that high, especially with water cooling, I mean like, 80c, 90 max.

About flex, there is a video on youtube of a master glass blower from the 50's, in it one of the coils he made is demonstrated and it flexes and moves like a spring, how is that possible? and could something similar be incorporated here? (I wouldn't mind small coils in the loop, since it just looks more awesome.)

Also, with glass being brittle, would it be simpler and more possible, if I simply used straight sections of tubing and the fittings and connections I plan on using?

these are the connections : http://www.frozencpu.com/products/22...l=g30c703s2231

they use a small ring of clear acrylic glued to the end of the tubing to "pull" the tube slightly into an O-ring.

Last edited by Trik'stari; 2014-06-30 at 12:44pm. Reason: adding sentence
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Old 2014-06-30, 1:03pm
RyanTheNumberImp RyanTheNumberImp is offline
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A professional could definitely do it, but I don't know if it would be cost effective.

Glass is slightly flexible, but it is only noticeable in long lengths or thin strands (like optical fiber). Half inch tube is fairly rigid. Coils would make it slightly flexible, but they are also a PITA to make.

Straight sections with fittings is probably your best bet here since you can do it all yourself fairly easily. Each fitting should add a bit of flex, since there will be an o-ring in the way.

Just make sure you get a good glue joint - glass to acrylic probably needs a roughened surface and epoxy.
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  #5  
Old 2014-06-30, 3:17pm
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steiconi steiconi is offline
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if you decide to seek professional help, check for "lab glass" producers. They would probably have more experience with tubing than bead makers.
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  #6  
Old 2014-07-01, 1:34am
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Would not take a chance with glass. The conventional practice is to use plastic for this application. A liquid combined with electricity and in the event of a leak will not produce a good outcome.
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  #7  
Old 2014-07-01, 3:33am
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Sure I can do it. So can any Neon shop around where you live . It's what they do all day long ok. It's not so hard when you have the right tools such as cross fires, ribbon burners, corks and blow hoses. Go to a Neon shop and save yourself some grief.
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  #8  
Old 2014-07-03, 5:25am
Trik'stari Trik'stari is offline
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Thanks for the advice guys. Big help in saving me a bunch of money and headache's. I'll probably go to a scientific glass blower because I want something similar to a glass condenser as part of the loop, wasn't going to try that the first time around or anything btw; but if I'm gonna have a pro do it why not go all out.

I am just assuming that having a glass blower do anything like this is hideously expensive, yes?
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  #9  
Old 2014-07-03, 8:37am
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AmorphousDesigns AmorphousDesigns is offline
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please post a picture when you're done, I'm dying of curiosity to see the final set up and good luck
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  #10  
Old 2014-07-03, 9:07am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Trik'stari View Post
Thanks for the advice guys. Big help in saving me a bunch of money and headache's. I'll probably go to a scientific glass blower because I want something similar to a glass condenser as part of the loop, wasn't going to try that the first time around or anything btw; but if I'm gonna have a pro do it why not go all out.

I am just assuming that having a glass blower do anything like this is hideously expensive, yes?
Do you really need something wound on a glass lathe to perfection? Yes its gonna cost to have it made. Neon shops can do it by hand for a lot less.
Or you can buy a premade Distillation Column for about 30 bucks on Amazon.
If you can use it.
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