A Helpful "tool"

[Glenn Randle]

David's tool over-run tool post reminded me of something I've recently come up with that's way too simple to sell, but thought I'd share here.

I have begun using large piles of frit which I pick up on the marver. After a good coating I then switch to a different color, sometimes up to 5 different layers of frit.

Laying out the frit, then cleaning it away over & over was a bit of a chore for my assistant so I knew we needed to come up with a quick & simple solution. (I forgot to mention that we also torch the frit to speed & ensure good coverage)

The "tool" that I've come up with is just a short piece of aluminum gutter with an endcap only on one end. The gutter is cut (I used a metal chop saw) to around 18-24" long and an end cap is crimped to either the right end or left, the other end is left uncapped and used to pour the frit back into the bags after it's cooled. We use a piece of thin sheet metal, which is about 8x10" to sweep the frit across the marver.

This has worked well & allows us to switch out large piles of frit ASAP. We've also found the sheet metal "sweeper" is a good tool for spreading the frit piles out into an even-thickness pile, by just pressing down (flatly) while gently pulling the pile whichever direction it needs to go.

I know this isn't the type of info you guys lay awake pondering over. But thought it might come in handy for somebody.

[Drew Fritts]

Glenn,

A potential modification to your spreader:

On one edge, scribe a line across it the thickness of the layer of frit you want to leave. Take it to your bench grinder and, leaving a tab of about an inch on each end, grind away the edge to the line. Then, when you pass the spreader over the frit, a layer that is the thickness of the portion that was ground away will be left on the surface. The 1" tabs keep it at the right height. The other side of the spreader can still be used to scrape the frit back into the gutter.

Drew <+><

[Glenn Randle]

Drew,
That's a good idea. With your addition we could name it the Fritts "Fritmaster". ;)

[Paul Stevenson]

Master Fritt's Fritmaster

[Pete VanderLaan]

Chihuly just has it swept off the marver onto the floor. He does it to bug other glassworkers. I know this because he told me.

[Allan Gott]

This rings a bell Pete.

We saw them slap a huge- at least 7" of bar - lapis blue bit on the floor at the boathouse after a lip wrap and laugh at the "WTF????!!" looks they got from us naive out-of-towners.

Love the frit management ideas boys.

[Charles Friedman]

Dale use to encourage the help to take all the unused color they wanted.
Most of the help I have had over the years have worked for Dale at one time or another.
they would show up with the greatest of multi-colored bits. that I would use to make fish with, that was fun, using up Dales old color for free.
Thank you Dale, again.

[Glenn Randle]

Maybe I shold send Dale a complimentry "Fritmaster". :feathers:

[David Patchen]

That's no joke--I was at Pilchuck and a very bearded guy who worked at the boathouse had a massive box of colored bits he was rolling in. They were clearly the leftover from wraps, but there was probably 20 lbs of the stuff. Wild to live in a land of such profligate use of color.

[Scott Novota]

Just think there is most likey a market on e-bay for that stuff. I bet they could get 100+ a bit for it.

They could have pictures of the piece that was made and somewhere in it the phase "be a part of history" so something like that.


I would love to have about 20 pounds of left over chunks of color.



Scott.
.

[Glenn Randle]

I wonder how much of it is compatible! :rolleyes:

[Jon Myers]

What do you mean compatable? They bought it all... its got to work...

[Paul Thompson]

Originally posted by Pete VanderLaan
Chihuly just has it swept off the marver onto the floor. He does it to bug other glassworkers. I know this because he told me. On the one hand it may seem as a waste of resources, but it also sounds like all this stuff is picked up and used by someone, somewhere. So on the other hand, DC is tossing onto the communal winds these seeds of color which will sprout and take form in far flung locations. It got me to thinking about "degrees of separation" for two pieces of glass art.

[Laura Doerger-Roberts]

Speaking of compatibility.... maybe we should start a thread about compatibility problems. Maybe save one of our kindred spirit the heartache or inconvenience of losing a piece to compatbility problems.

I know. test every time. But how many of us actually do that?