Glass Anvils!

[ausfire]

Yes, an old thread but interesting. I reckon the ice anvil idea would be  a hit. How hard would it be to 3D print some plastic moulds in the shape of an anvil? Now there's a challenge for my work colleague Brasso and his 3D machine. Watch this space!

[Frosty]

5 hours ago, George N. M. said:

I have always wanted an anvil shaped helium balloon to fly over my booth at fairs.

I recall seeing an anvil shaped hot air balloon in the background of a News report of some out of control hot air balloon crash.

A silicone clamp together mold would make for ice, jello, candy, etc. anvils. Deb has a doxy shaped ice mold.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Rick Brower]

11 hours ago, jeremy k said:

You realize this thread is from 2014 and the original poster has not been on the site since then.

Always good to check the last first and last posts dates.

Just shootin in the dark, who knows, someone else or the original publisher may read this and have bunches of mini Glass anvils???

i knew this from the beginning but seams everyone just had to put their two ¢ in.

now, I have sense learned that a 3D printer can make a mold, no, not for glass, I am considering clear casting resin.

SCHAZAM

now all I need is a 3D printer and suddenly my (possibly) $20,00 glass Anvil has shot up to an (inexpensive) $820.00 project.

 As W. E. Coyote would think, back to the drawing board.

all in fun.

Rick

[ThomasPowers]

Ahhh the term "doxy" has more than one meaning I guess....

[Rick Brower]

12 hours ago, Daswulf said:

Am I the only one who thinks of hard rock candy when I see these? 

Aw, someone who thinks outside the box, good for you!

[ADHD-forge]

looks cool

[Latticino]

On 12/26/2018 at 12:37 AM, Rick Brower said:

I plan on making my own as I have a programmable temp controll Kiln good to 2,000° but don’t know or have never done glass casting let alone making a mold, I have made the model out of wax and I think I need to order a specific type of Clay??

Kiln casting glass is something that needs experimentation to get right.  Typically the final female mold is made out of some form of plaster, often with the interior layers done in a higher grade of dental plaster to get good definition and the outer done with more conventional plaster.  If you want to make multiples, you will typically make an initial female mold in silicon, or the like, so you can make multiple male wax positives to burn out from your plaster female molds.

I've only done a couple, and it was quite some time ago, so don't remember the details all that clearly.  I believe that your 2,000 degree kiln will work, provided you go with soda lime silica glass rather than borosilicate.  I would investigate the pate-de-verre process using relatively large glass chunks (colloquially called "chunk de verre") to try to maintain transparency and limit devitrification if you insist on going this route.  You will most likely need to zero in your annealing cycle to make something that will survive, and have tooling and experience to do the required final cleanup.

Cast resin will be much, much easier IMHO.  Check out the Smooth-on tutorials here for good information: https://www.smooth-on.com/tutorials/.  My wife has experience using their product line and has gotten some very good results.

[Rick Brower]

Thank you for that great response, I do read verioud online articles on the subject but it’s nice to get input from folks like yourself.  He is busy just now but there is a gentleman/artist/what have you locally who said he could show me the basics.

i have a formula for melting the glass and had some success, due to my impatience, but as soon as I get a practice mold I will obide by the time it takes to go through each step.

i am going to try Arizona White Clay first, Well after the Holidays kaos.

honest, I can spell.

rick

[Rick Brower]

BYW, All except for the actual Kiln, not that large, I added on a high tech temp/thermostat and thermocouple my self, for under $40.00 new.

I did my first three test on accuracy with pyro cones, got my $ worth!

[JHCC]

 

On 12/26/2018 at 12:51 PM, George N. M. said:

I have always wanted an anvil shaped helium balloon to fly over my booth at fairs.

That would go over like a lead balloon.

[Rick Brower]

It is hard to make something, even out of coated super thin Ripstop nylon, the weight of the material, the stitching & seam seal are to heavy to float with Helium, I made a box shape a couple of years ago with the idea of having it float over Area 51,  bounced at first and as the solar heat made it more boiant it only got to about 6 feet up.  So I made Hydrogen and filled it with a reverse vacuum pump, a battery powered mattress inflator,  (at home) it flew pretty good, but the issue came down to 1. Explosive,  2. How to make Hydeogen in the middle of the desert in sufficient quantity.  And without blowing my self up.

it is the lightest element on the Periotic Chart.  The Heleum you buy at Walmart for balloons is only around 80% so Mylar balloons don’t get sucked in to jet engines. 

If you want either gases in there purist form be willing to shell out a few $$ for them at your local welding supply outfit.

so, to make a way to long story short, for my Snake Oil Show to get donations for the Museum, my alter identy, Professor Ersatz Faux got a fan from a wind dancer (like the guy who keeps flopping over on used car lots) and got some light weight Ripstop and seeed up a 8 ft high Snake,, rattled and all, I sold 15 bottles of Clark Stanley’s Snake Oil Liniment (honey) in about 90 min.

TMI-Thanks for letting me intertane you, 

Rick

[ausfire]

On ‎12‎/‎27‎/‎2018 at 7:41 AM, ausfire said:

Yes, an old thread but interesting. I reckon the ice anvil idea would be  a hit. How hard would it be to 3D print some plastic moulds in the shape of an anvil? Now there's a challenge for my work colleague Brasso and his 3D machine. Watch this space!

Ice anvils!! I knew our resident inventor Brasso would think of something. Not easy to do in any detail, but these little guys would be a hit after a hot day at a hammer-in. A nice refreshing drink with an anvil ice cube.

[Brasso]

Cool!!

[Dave51B]

  I...C.....

[Rick Brower]

Ausfire, I am all for it, I made ice anvils once, still have the mold someplace, yours are much better!

if Brasso can duplicate the Anvil in some detail, the letters ACME in one side and shape the horn, I can make a mold and cast it in Glass.

i don’t, as yet, have access to a 3-D printer, South Lake Tahoe isn’t that Hi-Tex.  Their may be some but I haven’t found them.

drawings of Anvil “schematics have you will” are easy to find but only having a rudimentary understanding of how a 3-D printer works, well?

let me know if I can help, I did locate locally an Artest that works in glsss. Not to much detail, after all, it’s an Anvil and not the Hope Diamond. LOL.

Rick

[Rick Brower]

Wow, Great response to the “Glass Anvil” project, I did think about it but when I saw an older Blog on it in iForge I had to Perdue it,  I hope it is not construed as stealing another’s idea and leg work.

so far I have made a couple of wax mini Anvils, ACME of course, and contacted a local glass artist briefly about casting some.  Currently he is doing a large project and doesn’t have time.  So, as is done on iForge, I will share what I know about doing it my self.  White Clay can be used as a mold, it needs to be heated and cooled.  The wax melts out, a funnel shape is made on top, incorporated mind you, of the mold to hold bits of glass proportional to the size of the Anvil cavity.  I have a small Kiln well Capone of melting certain types of glass and I incorporated a Thermalcouple and a digital programmable thermostat to raise & lower the temp.  Have gotten as far as melting glass.  The Anvil size is going to be roughly 1.5” X 2.5 (small to start out).

if it works I plan to make a few more.

would I sell them, I would make some available, probably for a donation to support refining and producing more.

already sunk $200. US in to the Kiln and all, need to get more Clay, only had 2lbs.

love this Blog and love iForge for making it possibl.

Rick

open for positive, constructive comments.

thanks

[Latticino]

Annealing and cleanup are going to be the key to making a viable product.  You need to learn the correct melting temperature for your glass, and how to avoid devitrification when moving from melting down to annealing.  The mold has to be dry and you need the correct size "cup" to load enough glass.  Your glass will probably have to slowly cool over at least a 24 hour period to properly anneal.  If not annealed correctly it could crack, or potentially break more violently, sometimes an extended period of time after it is fully cooled.  Research polariscopes to see how to determine whether there is any residual stress in your final product.

Good luck. 

[Brasso]

Hi Rick,

Is this the sort of thing you were thinking about?

This was one of my first prints and is pretty rough. I just gave it a quick scuff up with sandpaper and whacked some cheap artists acrylic paint on it.

With a bit of filler and some more sanding I think it would make an acceptable pattern for a mould?

The only glass work I have done was making beads a long time ago but without a kiln I had problems with them shattering without the annealing process.

The STL file is available on Thingiverse if you can find someone with a 3D printer, or I could print you a couple up and post them to you, but I am in Australia so postage may be slow and expensive.

All the best, Brasso

 

[Rick Brower]

On 2/21/2019 at 6:02 PM, Brasso said:

 

Pretty sure you can have custom balloons made.  I’ll look in to it, and maybe consider rubber coated rip stop nylon and make a bunch of mistakes making one that looks like an Anvil. Helium for lift is a different story, I am no expert on the subject by any means but if I extrapolate from all I have read is that the stuff you get at K Mart is not pure enough to lift a balloon of any weight. Welding supply shops sell H in a high grade form and I would assume (hate that word) that it could lift a well constructed balloon of ultralight Ripstop. nylon even sewn together?  Their is a cool Tou Store close to me that has 99.? H for their balloons and would fill a small Ripstop balloon for me if I made one.

just happen to have a few yards.

Can you make me one of your Cool ACME Anvils?  Pewter is the easiest to cast. Go to Goodwill and get old Pewter serving plate or Chalis Chespo.

Sorry if I’m being repetitive.

at least I’m not being critical and mean no offense,  I appolige for any inappropriate actions, unknowingly or otherwise.

Hope all is well,

Just a dumb Geologist Phd. - Rick