steel rod

[Karyn Cott]

I want to bend glass over steel rod. My question is this: How thick should the rod be before it will bend and how high of a temperature can I go before it will bend?

[Morganica]

Those are "how long is a piece of rope" kinda questions.

How thick is the glass? What kind(s) of glass are you using? Will the glass have any other support besides a steel rod? How long is the rod? Will the rod be centered with equal amounts of glass on either side or off-center in one or more vectors? Are you using more than one rod in a single piece of glass? Do you want the glass to simply bend a bit, or fold all the way over and touch or fuse together on the other side of the rod? What kind of steel are you thinking of using? Will the rod stay in the final work or is it simply there to bend the glass and then be removed?

Are you doing this in a kiln or a hotshop? If in the kiln, do you plan to manipulate the glass (i.e., go into the kiln while the glass is soft and bend it around the rod), or do you want it to completely bend on its own? Do you plan to fire the glass with any additional decoration after you've bent it over the rod(s)?

And so on....without more information, it's going to be difficult to give a useful answer. One thing, though: It isn't how hot you need to go to get it to bend, it's how much heatwork you give it, i.e., application of heat over time.

[Judd]

Bend, like you want the rod to be part of the glass, or you just want to bend the glass? When I make business card holders, I bend the glass over 1 1/4" hollow square tubing. The tubing is ultra-thin; I think a 16th of an inch or maybe less. I bend float around 1325 Fahrenheit for about 15 minutes. Of course, times and temps will vary for your kiln, but that's at least a ballpark figure.

[Karyn Cott]

Thanks for the info. I just wanted a ball park answer so I could start experimenting myself. I have a small wooden chair that I want to make a glass blanket for. The blanket might just be woven rod or stringer or 1/4 inch fused glass; I have not made up my mind yet, I am wanting to drape this blanket over the back and part of the arm of the chair so it looks like it was just dropped there. The chair is small as I said, about 12 inches in overall height. I was looking for perhaps an answer that said how thick of a rod I should use in order to avoid the rod bending and I will need to manipulate the blanket inside the kiln. Thanks all.

[Judd]

I think your best bet is hollow tubing. Keep in mind, sometimes when you drape the glass over metal, the glass will close around the rod - making removal difficult, and then putting it on the chair much more problematic. I kiln wash my tubing and I put a heavy fiber paper over the rod. That said, experiment! Try it with the float first, then do the woven glass after you got the hang of things.

[Jerrwel]

I think your best bet is hollow tubing. Keep in mind, sometimes when you drape the glass over metal, the glass will close around the rod - making removal difficult, and then putting it on the chair much more problematic. I kiln wash my tubing and I put a heavy fiber paper over the rod. That said, experiment! Try it with the float first, then do the woven glass after you got the hang of things.

The tubing can stick as you lift your project but fall out if it is not too well adhered - first hand knowledge with broken project when rod fell. Now I use wide tape (another use for duct tape, #1002 I believe) to secure the rod from below before I lift the project out of the kiln.