Is Hegan Glassworks Still Making Optic Molds?

[Kevin McLeod]

Is Scott Hegan still operating his foundry and making optic molds? I just went to buy one and saw that the old website (Hobbyglass.com) isn't up anymore. His artist site (http://heganglassworks.com/) is also quite out of date/broken.

[Pete VanderLaan]

I don't know but what I will say is this:

The market has a capacity to produce seriously valuable tools that insufficient people decide to buy. The years have demonstrated this again and again. I'd try E Bay as a source, or you could put up a standing offer here in the classified section. Make the headline clear. Even though craftweb has been quiet for the summer, it's still the case that a minimum of 100 people are browsing it at any given moment. I view that as a major success. The archives is where I constantly find them poking around going back fifteen years or more.

It took about ten days for George Buquet to come up with a copy of what is a decidedly rare book. It can work on molds. An awful lot of people have quit glass in the last ten years.

[Kevin McLeod]

I emailed him asking, awaiting a reply.

It looks like Olympic still has plenty of his molds in stock, though who knows how long they have had that stock.

related thing that's always been curious to me: For whatever reason Olympic has always seemed to hide his name/branding on their site, just listing them as "bronze molds" and most of the pictures have the non-logo side showing.

[Victor Chiarizia]

he's been on a crazy fun European vacation for a while. guy knows how to live....think he's heading home now...fb has it's use. vic

[Kevin McLeod]

Originally Posted by Victor Chiarizia

he's been on a crazy fun European vacation for a while. guy knows how to live....think he's heading home now...fb has it's use. vic

I saw that on his Instagram! looks like a ton of fun!

[Art Freas]

"My opinion there is that Olympic will go to whatever lengths it takes to keep potential clients from contacting manufacturing sources directly"

Not unique and not shocking where there are contract in place. Roberto Dona always points you to his US distributor. That is Roberto honoring his contract.

You see the same thing in the SW industry where you buy a package that has other products embedded.

[Pete VanderLaan]

Originally Posted by Kevin McLeod

I emailed him asking, awaiting a reply.

It looks like Olympic still has plenty of his molds in stock, though who knows how long they have had that stock.

related thing that's always been curious to me: For whatever reason Olympic has always seemed to hide his name/branding on their site, just listing them as "bronze molds" and most of the pictures have the non-logo side showing.

****
My opinion there is that Olympic will go to whatever lengths it takes to keep potential clients from contacting manufacturing sources directly. I don't think that should be surprising. In our crucible business our home phone is stamped on the side of the pots and High Temp is well content with that being the case. They don't really want hundreds of customers, they prefer having one to bill every month. We did the crucible designs for all of the round bottomed pots and are always relied upon to analyze crucible failures if they occur. We also get the thrill of dealing with the malcontents. Even so, people try to buy their pots direct which doesn't work.

At Olympic, they will simply tell you what you want to hear. There's a difference.

[George Bucquet]

What is High Temp? I buy refractory from High Temp in Portland but do they sell pots, too? (It’s Saturday; I can’t call.)
Pete, what pots do/were you selling/making?
I’ve only used Engineered Ceramics/Selee for the last 35 years. Now I’m needing test pots @ 5 to 10 pounders.
geo

[Pete VanderLaan]

I represented Engineered Ceramics for a long time but there were qulaity control issues with the castings and ultimately, I had ethical issues with the company which I would just as soon not go into.
I had been talking with High Temp in Portland which had been quite unsuccessful at marketing their crucibles for a long time. We met, back ina about 2008 and began an agreement that I would design pots and would be the company representative on any of the round bottomed ones exclusively. They loved the notion of having only one client to bill each month and that I was more capable than they were at addressing issues with using them. So it was a good match. You might be surprised at how many glassmakers there are that do not remotely understand what you can and can't get away with.

When we began our relationship, I stressed that delivery time was a major problem with both LeClede and EC. It still is. What I wanted to see was a far smaller line of pots but that we really made every effort to keep them in inventory. We do. These days , it's harder at times to pull that off given supply chain issues and keeping employees. Even so, we are rarely out of stock on any given pot for more than ten days. We have some small pots, my most useful is a7.5 inch that holds about fourteen pounds of glass. I've represented High Temp for about 16 years now. John Bartell from LeClede said I put Engineered Ceramics on the map. I think that's accurate.

I do think if you are looking for more of a throwaway pot that gets changed constantly, you would be better off with an Assay crucible from Coorstek. Cheap, and get the job done. Not suitable for long term.
Every glassworker I know likes to either swear at or swear by a particuler pot. Every glass maker melts differently, charges the pot differently, turns it on and off and simply put a pot can't be made to accommodate all off the variables that go into their use. When mine go into a furnace, they are not turned off until the day they are replaced, and that date is on a calendar the day it's installed . What you melt matters. I remeber when John C was melting fluorine opals, he ran at about 2500F. He got about six melts per pot.

At any rate you can go to our website www.crucibleconnection.com . What we make is listed there.

[Charles Friedman]

Originally Posted by Kevin McLeod

I emailed him asking, awaiting a reply.

It looks like Olympic still has plenty of his molds in stock, though who knows how long they have had that stock.

related thing that's always been curious to me: For whatever reason Olympic has always seemed to hide his name/branding on their site, just listing them as "bronze molds" and most of the pictures have the non-logo side showing.

Not sure why your bitchen about not seeing a name on a mold. It is right there. Bronze molds do not spoil.

https://glasscolor.com/tools/molds-m...r-glassblowing

A business must keep its information close to its chest. You can find anybody these days with the internet. They also buy the inventory to keep them on hand. That is a lot of money sitting on a shelf waiting just for you. That inventory money helps keep some busnesses to stay alive.

Phil spends millions of dollars on inventory just for you have a supermarket for glass users. There is not another place like this in the world.

[Kevin McLeod]

I was doing no bitching, haha

My comment about how long they had the stock was just about wondering if he was still making the molds.

And yes, I had seen that some of the smaller ones you can see part of the logo embossing.

[Pete VanderLaan]

So Charles, do you know how Phil started out handling Kugler Color Rod. I do. I'm guessing you don't.