Easy bending of pyrex cane to precise angle/length
Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2013 6:44 pmhttp://youtu.be/wcnPBd20vNY
I needed some bent cane to hold some circular electrodes for the fusor. While I did the first one over my vice jaws, that took skill to get to 90 degrees, with the bend in the right place. This does not. The jig here is a special firebrick (mostly air, not the hardware store type, but the pro kiln type) that was easy to sink a known-depth hole into, and a washer just about half the thickness of the cane. The video shows it better than words anyway. Without the washer, you get a more acute than 90 degree angle. If you try to fix that by pressing at the bend with pliers, you get a divot. This way, it's just plain easy. The only difference for quartz is you would need a hotter (propane/oxy) torch. This brick is nice - you can carve it up with machine tools and it doesn't dull them - it's soft stuff, and has next to no thermal mass - look how fast it turns yellow hot with a map gas torch and small flame. And how fast it cools right back down.
I needed some bent cane to hold some circular electrodes for the fusor. While I did the first one over my vice jaws, that took skill to get to 90 degrees, with the bend in the right place. This does not. The jig here is a special firebrick (mostly air, not the hardware store type, but the pro kiln type) that was easy to sink a known-depth hole into, and a washer just about half the thickness of the cane. The video shows it better than words anyway. Without the washer, you get a more acute than 90 degree angle. If you try to fix that by pressing at the bend with pliers, you get a divot. This way, it's just plain easy. The only difference for quartz is you would need a hotter (propane/oxy) torch. This brick is nice - you can carve it up with machine tools and it doesn't dull them - it's soft stuff, and has next to no thermal mass - look how fast it turns yellow hot with a map gas torch and small flame. And how fast it cools right back down.