Can someone send me photos please?

Glass Working
#1

My name is Eric, and am a member of Calgary Protospace, so while I’d love to drop in and see your glass fusing facilities for myself, that ain’t in the cards.

We do not have any current glass facility, and being a tool junky, I have a glass fusing oven at home (as yet unused) that might be fun t for myself and others to actually use.Hence I’d like to see how you folks implemented it in your space.

Hence the request for photos (or short video), pointers, problems or any other comments.

take a video tour of our space here…

My email is [email protected]

Thanks for considering the request.

Eric

3 Likes
#2

Have you looked through show n tell? Some cool stuff in there. Might find what you are looking for.

#3

Could not have been said better!

#4

We have a few very old space tours

1 Like
#5

I’m not knowledgeable enough to tell you about the capabilities (having used the stuff only a couple times) but I can point you to some photos.

We have a fleet of microwave ovens that we use for fusing smaller items. We also have four kilns and a furnace, as shown on our Tools page.

1 Like
#6

Cool, thanks for sending, love seeing other maker spaces. Here are some pics. of the glass setup, it’s a fairly new department. There is a sink with a trap and kiln vents in the warehouse part.

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8 Likes
#7

Is your kiln one of the home-sized kilns, like Kilns 1, 3, or 4? Those usually run on household current - 120V. Probably best that they have their own breaker. Kiln 2 runs on… on… well, it ran on 240V when we got it, because they’re normally set for home power, and it was a donation. We’re in an industrial area, so most of what our transformers are set for is 208V, and I think we had it rewired so it’d work on that. The program kept failing with a “Failure to heat” code. Because if it doesn’t come up to temp like the program says it should be doing, it’ll just shut off.

Oh, and there’s a special “kiln” that sits in the microwave that will generate glass-melting temps. They’re not pictured because they stay in the cabinets. But – just google “microwave kilns”, and you’ll see many choices. Don’t get a kit with glass. From the complaints I see in my FB group, the people assembling those kits don’t really have a grasp of COE (Coefficient of Expansion).

1 Like
#8

Thank you one and all for illuminating responses. Methinks you got alot more space than we have(6k sq ft), but the equipment I saw in the videos was truly inspiring.

I shall check out microwave kilns to be sure.

Eric in Calgary

3 Likes
#9

quick questions…

How often are you having to replace ring saw blades? in onus on person whom broke it or does the space pick up the tab, or does that happen?

do folks use the microwave kilns, or opt for or maybe graduate to the larger ones??

#10

not often on the ringsaws, keep them filled with water and dont JAM the glass into it and they stay running. just like any abrasive saw

both styles of kilns get used frequently and they both have very different use cases

1 Like
#11

36K, with rent, utilities, maintenance, and insurance to match! Just to name a few.

#12

If I’m making small things, like pendants or earrings, I’ll use the microwave kiln. We have several, because you anneal the glass for usually 2-3 hours in the MW kilns themselves… Bigger pieces get fired in the bigger kilns.

1 Like
#13

Oh man. It’s been a hot minute since then. I should do it again.

2 Likes
#14

The Glassworks area is 550 sq ft plus or minus in addition to the kiln area another ~300 sq ft.

1 Like