Short Rod Solutions Tip

[J. Savina]

Like most of my lampwork friends here, I love working with all the silver and reactive glass. They can be a bit expensive though, so, my frugal-ness (is that a word?)takes over. So, I've come up with a solution so that I don't waste a bit of it. Even though I have that great rod holding tool, I don't use it as often anymore. Anyway I've been doing this with my other short rods, but here's a little tip I'd like to share for using up every bit of the premium glass.

First, for my regular rods, I take a short rod and heat a gather at the tip of one end. Then I take my needlenose pliers and with just the tip of the pliers I "slightly" squeeze the molten glass at an angle. The reason I squeeze at an angle is because that is the way I hold the glass in the flame. I flame anneal a bit to cool it slowly, and then I put it in between some thick fiber blanket. You can also drop it in heated vermiculite. If you don't do this, it will cool too quickly and thermal shock and break the glass. Now after it cools, you can hold the short rod in the flame with the needle nose pliers.

Now for the silver and reactive glass, I just heat up the end of the rod and then I add clear glass to make a nice gather of molten glass then slightly squeeze with the pliers. Flame anneal, place in fiber blanket. Now you'll just about be able to use every bit of it.
Here are a couple of pictures of what I'm talking about. They're not that great, but I think you'll get the idea.

I hope this is helpful.
J.

[loco]

You can also heat the tip of another rod along with the short and jamn on with the bead... Personally I toss all shorts into a certain area on my bench when my fingers get hot.

Then I sell those suckers for the price of shipping and paypal fees! I use mostly lower cost glass and personally it's not worth the cost of the tanked O2 I use... Besides I get to thrill someone with my dirty shorts!

[J. Savina]

Loco, you can toss some of those shorts my way!!! Glass shorts that is. LOL

Thanks for the other tip about connecting the rods. I've done it before too, but not that often.
J.

[lunamoonshadow]

I cut the "silver-glass" shorts into 1" or so pieces, tack them alongside onto the ends of a rod of clear, or other transparents, melt on well & pull them into striped cane--it makes for lovely cool designs, or dots, or other neat ways to stretch those cool shorts I've been gifted! Plus that way I can make 1" of silver-laden-reactive-glass into 10, 12, or 30 inches of glass!!!

[FlameFilly]

I've welded rods together but many times when I got near the weld it would pop so I stopped doing it.

Next torch session I'm trying your tip!

Thanks!

[Imzadi]

My teacher taught me to simply wind the shorts onto a mandrel and let go of the rod, so you don't burn your fingers. (Then she gave me her 5 lb. box of shorts! )

What you do is melt a gather at the end of the rod as usual, (before the rod is too short to hold.) Attach it onto the mandrel and start winding away from you. Once it's firmly attached, instead of continuing to hold onto the rod, let go. It will simply drop down, but it's still attached. Keep the bead on the underside of the flame while continuing to heat the rod & winding onto the bead.

It will look like Step 5 of these directions, only done with the rod, not a stringer.
http://www.jaychantell.com/spiralwrap.pdf

The whole rod gets used up this way!

[squid]

Originally Posted by FlameFilly

I've welded rods together but many times when I got near the weld it would pop so I stopped doing it.

Next torch session I'm trying your tip!

Thanks!

To keep that from happening, when you join two rods, pull them back apart slightly so the area you joined is just slightly thinnner than the rods on each side. Since it is thinner, it usually will not thermal shock.

[emtjab]

My dad gave me the most incredible pair of needle nose pliers that I use to hold the shorts now. I think they're older than the hills.

Instead of being just straight, on one side (on the inside) there is a pointed piece....it works GREAT for holding onto shorts. I can usually get within 1/4 of the end of the rod. Then I do the "let it wind on it's own thing".

Julie

[Lisi]

Originally Posted by FlameFilly

I've welded rods together but many times when I got near the weld it would pop so I stopped doing it.

Next torch session I'm trying your tip!

Thanks!

I do that a lot and especially when I'm getting low on a specific color. But the trick is that I only fuse the short to the rod if I plan to use all of the short and past the fused area pretty much right away. Like when I'm making a set of beads and I don't stop until all are done.

If I don't and I lay that puppy down and go back to it later, most of the time it will shock apart. Use it while it's still a little warm and you will see much less trouble.

[Lisi]

Savina, great tip on the expensive shorts! I will try this too!

I'm down to little pieces of Gaia and this will help.

[Humble newbie]

Thanks J. I'm curious about the black marks on some of the sample rods. Another tip there?

[StellaBlue]

I collect my shorts in a jar. When I have a fair collection I go through and cut them into 1" or 1.5" sections and use them to make spacers, as follows:

1. Mandrel in right hand, bent nose tweezers in left hand (the kind that stay closed until you squeeze them work best for this). Place the bend of the tweezers parallel to your work surface and around the far right end of the cut piece of glass.

2. Pick up the glass and let it pivot in your tweezer so that it is now at a 90 degree angle to your tweezer. Is should be hanging vertically from the tip of your tweezer.

3. (The goofy fun part) Flash it up and down into your flame about half a dozen times - imagine the glass is the head of one of those silly little dunking drinking birds. This is important so that your glass segment won't pop when you introduce it to the flame. While you are doing this, bring your mandrel into the flame to heat a spot to land your bead.


4. Heat the end of the glass segment until it just starts to melt, and attach it to the heated spot on the mandrel so that it stands absolutely straight up out of the flame. It is important to get this part precisely right - it has to be melted enought to adhere firmly, but not so much as to drip off the mandrel.

5. Pull the mandrel above the flame and quickly flip it OVER so that the glass is hanging down toward (but not in) the flame. Pointing the glass slightly AWAY from you (if you don't do this right it can pop - ask me how I know!) do the "dunk" for another half dozen times to warm the entire segment.

6. Bath the whole segment in the flame until it just starts to glow. Then move the flame point to the point just UNDER where the glass hits the mandrel and begin to melt it. Slowly turn your mandrel to wind on as it melts. Be careful to keep everything straight and even as you wind so that you will have nice ends.

7. At this point you will have a coil that looks a bit like a snail shell - this would probably make a cute bead by itself, but since we want to make a round bead, keep melting and turning. You will need to melt the glass sufficiently to "plop" over the mandrel, then round out as usual.

This makes nice, evenly-sized spacers in the colors I've been working with. I generally only do this for regular glass - silver glass and expensive colors get pulled into stringer or used in cane, and reactive glass often gets rolled in foil and pulled into silvered stringer.

[firegrl]

Good Morning

My trick for using as much of the glass rod as possible is to heat the end of a mandral (without beadrelease ) while I heat the end of the rod. I then attach the two together. This way I use all but a tich at the end.

Cathy

[J. Savina]

Great tip Rita!!!
Thanks for sharing!
J.

[neagle]

Great tips everyone!

[lunamoonshadow]

Originally Posted by Imzadi

My teacher taught me to simply wind the shorts onto a mandrel and let go of the rod, so you don't burn your fingers. (Then she gave me her 5 lb. box of shorts! )

What you do is melt a gather at the end of the rod as usual, (before the rod is too short to hold.) Attach it onto the mandrel and start winding away from you. Once it's firmly attached, instead of continuing to hold onto the rod, let go. It will simply drop down, but it's still attached. Keep the bead on the underside of the flame while continuing to heat the rod & winding onto the bead.

It will look like Step 5 of these directions, only done with the rod, not a stringer.
http://www.jaychantell.com/spiralwrap.pdf

The whole rod gets used up this way!

Yep--I "spin on" my shorts of regular colors too--unfortunately I do it a little weird as I sorta taught myself ...a few burnt fingers & I figured out how to use 'em all up!

[busy_beads]

I " spin on my shorts" to use them up, but also keep the shorts of some of the other colors to make my frit with. either way.. none wasted

[effemess]

Originally Posted by lunamoonshadow

I cut the "silver-glass" shorts into 1" or so pieces, tack them alongside onto the ends of a rod of clear, or other transparents, melt on well & pull them into striped cane--it makes for lovely cool designs, or dots, or other neat ways to stretch those cool shorts I've been gifted! Plus that way I can make 1" of silver-laden-reactive-glass into 10, 12, or 30 inches of glass!!!

That is an excellent idea...I have bits of silver shorts, and Im talking really short, on my work top, I never throw anything away.. its too expensive. Im going to go and try that tip straight away... Thank you so much.. Now I will just have to remember which are 'silver' stringers...

[Beadanna]

I read somewhere here, I think, that if you attach a short piece onto a rod you leave the attachment point thinner than the rod itself. That way it doesn't shock. I haven't tried this but have it filed in my head for future reference.

Beadanna

[mtnglass]

Originally Posted by effemess

That is an excellent idea...I have bits of silver shorts, and Im talking really short, on my work top, I never throw anything away.. its too expensive. Im going to go and try that tip straight away... Thank you so much.. Now I will just have to remember which are 'silver' stringers...

I've got at least 2 pounds of these. It never occured to me. Thanks for the tip!

Julie

[beadworkstudio]

Originally Posted by squid

To keep that from happening, when you join two rods, pull them back apart slightly so the area you joined is just slightly thinnner than the rods on each side. Since it is thinner, it usually will not thermal shock.

That's what I do. I put my fused rods back in with all the other rods when they are cool, so I use them days, weeks, or maybe months later. I only have problems with shocking when the glass is normally shocky.

[squid]

Originally Posted by Beadanna

I read somewhere here, I think, that if you attach a short piece onto a rod you leave the attachment point thinner than the rod itself. That way it doesn't shock. I haven't tried this but have it filed in my head for future reference.

Beadanna

yup - this works!