blowing boro tube limits

[fsankar]

First time trying Boro. Not a pipe maker. Ornaments, yes. Soft glass yes.
So, Up to what size diameter can I blow out a Simax 12x2.2mm heavy wall tube. I had no idea what to buy(never seen Boro before.)The specs said said thick wall so I said that sounds good for blowing out. Now that I am seeing it for the first time, The tuble looks so thin I would be surprised if it can blow out at all.
Can I strip it on the outside with clear and color? then blow out?
Franklin

[menty666]

As is? Maybe an inch and a half or so.

You can't blow out glass that isn't there, so if you add more glass first, then yes, you can go bigger.

[istandalone24/7]

how big can you blow simax 12x2.2mm?
depends on how much you condense/gather it.

for making ornaments, 2.2mm wall thickness should do. if your making pipes and or marbles, heavy wall (4mm) is better.

[sharyl]

I bought thick wall too and was told to get some medium wall and that it will be better to learn on.
also Candice King has a great tutorial on etsy. I will see if I can find the link.

[sharyl]

http://www.etsy.com/listing/11046601...ament-tutorial

[glasspyro]

You can go fairly large even with small tubing the only thing that is really limiting you is your ability to evenly heat a section of tubing and patience.

If your initial bubble isn't large enough you have to condense down some then reheat and blow out again or create multiple bubbles along the tube spread out roughly the same as the the diameter of your bubbles then heat in between the bubbles and blow out.

Ideally if you wanna crank out ornaments you want tubing thats roughly 1/2 the volume of your final design that way you reduce the amount of time you need to blowout/condense to get your final shape

[fsankar]

Thanks for the replies. By condensing you mean heating the end to close it off and heating the tube to cause the glass to thicken.????
Franklin

[glasspyro]

You don't necessarily need to close off the tube in order to condense it. Anytime you heat up a section it'll naturally condense as long as you dont pull on it. If you heat in the middle of the tube what will happen is the tube diameter will get smaller but the tube wall thickness will increase or push the glass together slightly to maintain same diameter. Its easier to condense the end of the tube.

[fsankar]

Thanks for helpig me to fast track the experiments.
Franklin

[patienthand]

I learned on soft glass and standard wall.... so, I learned to gather glass as I heated but putting a very slight inward pressure on the tube as I turned.

It may be a factor of how I learned but I am still very much a standard wall tubing gal, even with boro. I like to blow light and thin, so thats part of it as well. But in my experience the standard wall has a more even wall thickness than the heavier wall tubes, and I get a better bubble by gathering glass.