Quartz

Moderator: Mike Everman

Mark
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Re: Quartz

Post by Mark » Mon Aug 20, 2018 7:48 pm

Mike Everman wrote:
Mon Aug 20, 2018 4:40 pm
Hey Mark, hope all is well! Getting ready to cut some of that Quartz tube you sent me lo these many years hence.

I wonder if scoring it in the lathe with a glass cutter and break will work? I do need to grind the ends flush to a specific length, too.

As I recall but can't find it was you were a fan of diamond wheel in a dremel?
Nice to hear from you Mike. There's no easy way that I have of cutting the tubing. I think I sent some thinner tubing along with the 1 inch diameter? The thinner wall thickness is more of a pain, chipping easily with my 12 inch diameter diamond saw. I tried to prevent that by wrapping some tape around the outside and cutting through it that way. You need to go slow and use a very light pressure. Maybe a perfect fitting dowel on the inside would shore up the thin-walled tubing. Maybe mold a blob of plastic/wax to a rough end and then melt it off after the cut. But a cut doesn't have to be perfect if you coceal the rough end in the head and use the neat uncut end for the tail perhaps. Whatever ...
Be sure to use a fan or vacuum so you don't breathe the dust or cutting oil vapors. Quartz sparks constantly when cutting . Also eye protection of course. Mineral oil or other cutting oils are seriously bad for your lungs.
If you are clever, you might be able to hose clamp a dremel or the extension cable to the bridge of your lathe and ever so gently feed a diamond cutting wheel into the glass tubing. My brother sometime does that on his lathe for cutting metal. But without cooling oil or water maybe the blade will give out prematurely I don't know.
With a lathe you can use some wet aluminum oxide sandpaper and sand down any rough edges on the tubing as it spins. There are lasers that can cut quartz easy as pie.
Also you could try this if you're feeling lucky. With experimentation you will find a way I'm sure. Even those guys who cut tile could cut the thicker quartz tubing with their water cooled saws. Good luck, I'm happy to hear you are wanting to experiment. Inspiration is contageous.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=pQKO1rJC2XI
https://youtube.com/watch?v=8tbm8V9vyMk
https://youtube.com/watch?v=v9kT4v51nAM
Last edited by Mark on Mon Aug 20, 2018 8:02 pm, edited 6 times in total.
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Mark
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Re: Quartz

Post by Mark » Thu Aug 23, 2018 1:44 am

In keeping with the theme, I bought some 4 mm OD X 2 mm ID quartz tubing that might be useful as a fuel feed line. I got a piece as hot as I could get it with a torch and then submerged it in a glass of water. It sizzled and then popped and pinged and I was sure it cracked but it held up unfazed when removed from the water. Some guy had bought the stuff for making military flashlights. I asked the eBay seller and this he replied - "The custom bulbs were going to be for a special flashlight built for the military. They had to be custom made for the level of brightness and IR output required."

Anyway the box came out to a little under 8.6 cents a piece so I could part with a few swizzle sticks if you or someone else comes up with something clever. Seeing some segments of water trapped or taken up in the tube from the torch test, it occurred to me one use, that maybe making a little toy putt-putt boat using the quartz tubing would be fun one day. Some photos I took for perspective ...
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/file ... &aid=66990
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/file ... &aid=66994
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/file ... &aid=66992
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/file ... &aid=66998

Looking over some old threads I saw this piece of quartz tubing like the ones I sent you , here shining my red laser level through the opposite end not shown. I just like the way it carries light, and it's what that tubing was originally made for, for making fiber opic cable. If you hold one end near sunlight from a window in a darkened room, the effect is dramatic.
download/file.php?id=13694&mode=view
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Re: Quartz

Post by Mike Everman » Thu Aug 23, 2018 2:08 pm

Cool. I get dibs when you go off to the hoarder’s hospital.
Ha
So, do you think the guys that did your quartz jam could blow a whole pulsejet?
Who did you use, and did you have a good experience with them?
Mike Often wrong, never unsure.
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Re: Quartz

Post by Mark » Thu Aug 23, 2018 7:36 pm

All you have to do is draw the design and send/email it off to Jam Jar Land. But be specific about internal edges where the diameter changes, you probably don't want turbulence inducing blobby parts where sections are fused. Or maybe they could blow it all in one piece. Not to worry, they will send you a photo holding it in gloved hand for you to approve or reject. I think it was Elaine who helped me, very polite and friendly, so don't be shy about asking questions as you convert English to Chinese. Note my jam jar has "two flat bottoms". Anyway, 3 to 4 mm wall thickness would probably be fine for smaller shapes? Too thick and it might crack from thermal shock. Too thin and vibration might get it. Some quartz telescope lenses are cooled down slowly over 6 months to a year I think.
Ask a question here - tell them what shape you're interested in, they sell through eBay.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/fused-quartz-t ... Sw6VRZ7Y4Y
https://contact.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.d ... rtzglass_5
And remember not to hoard your cash (ha) quartz objects cost actual money, but they can probably do it for far less than most places in the U.S. I'm thinking of having another shape made too. I haven't bought much of anything in the way of hobby stuff in about a year I don't think. As I get older and ponder mortality, I like things fun and simple, being set in my ways. There's not enough time to do it all.
Any thoughts on cutting your tubing, or is it too difficult? Ha
(I'm toying with a foolish short-lived duckbill valve idea on a Schmidt Tube motif)

The company
http://www.ykquartz.com/Hva_En/ProductL ... Path=0,1,h
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Re: Quartz

Post by Mark » Sat Aug 25, 2018 12:28 pm

Some parameters
GLASS AND THE SPACE ORBITER
"Fused silica glass consists of a single oxide. This glass consists simply of silica (silicon dioxide) in the noncrystalline or amorphous state. Adding anything to it puts it in another category. Fused silica is the most expensive of all glasses and shows the maximum resistance to heat shock as well as the highest permissible operating temperature (900° C for extended periods, 1200° C for short periods). Fused silica is clearly superior in a number of respects and is restricted to applications where uncompromising requirements dictate its use such as mirror blanks or astronomical telescopes, optical waveguides, crucibles for growing crystals, and harebrained pulsejets . Fabrication of fused silica is difficult and the number of available shapes is therefore sharply limited. The more silica a glass contains, the lower its thermal expansion rate and the higher the resistance to heat shock."
https://www.cmog.org/article/glass-and-space-orbiter
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Re: Quartz

Post by Mark » Sat Aug 25, 2018 2:06 pm

I just ordered a meter of "diamond wire saw" for $1.92 off eBay just to see how it does. You could cut fine gill slits or other patterns in the tubing. Also there's this diamond bandsaw blade if you could construct something to hold or drive it. Maybe even cut the tubing under water.

New MD37718 Replacement Diamond Coated Band Saw Blade for Diamond Laser Blade $15.12
https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-MD37718-Re ... SwYwJaA13K

DIAMOND WIRED SAW 0,26 MM
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Izpphwn-QII
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Re: Quartz

Post by Mike Everman » Sun Aug 26, 2018 4:37 pm

I just ordered the diamond wire saw blade and holder as well.
I also got a set of diamond files: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PA ... UTF8&psc=1

My clockmaking buddy says he cuts tube by scoring it with a triangular diamond file and snapping it with his hands. He mentions 4 times to snap away from your face. ha
Mike Often wrong, never unsure.
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Re: Quartz

Post by Mark » Sun Aug 26, 2018 5:59 pm

This seems easy enough but still you'd have to sand it. I like the fine wire cutting approach because the chipping at the end of the cut would probably be minor. But the tiny wire is probably fragile/snaps easily being so thin and might wear out after not that many cuts although it's inexpensive.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=MeZ59fg6c7E
Last edited by Mark on Mon Aug 27, 2018 2:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Quartz

Post by Mike Everman » Mon Aug 27, 2018 1:51 pm

I’m going to make a plastic guide and see if I can cut it net size. The wire should make a nice finish if guided properly.
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Re: Quartz

Post by Mark » Mon Aug 27, 2018 5:18 pm

That sounds great. Flexible saw blades tend to walk if not guided, from my experience. If you had a stencil source, there's that low cost, easy to use etching creme that might be fun to embellish a section of the glass tubing with a salamander/symbol of fire or other creatures or lettering. Also a sine wave or banding patterns suggesting sound waves or wavelengths perhaps ... I think it takes like 30 seconds and then rinses off.

There was a Jetstick for sale on eBay I was half-heartedly watching about a week ago but I forgot about it and it was sold. If you drilled the tiniest pinhole in some quartz tubing it would be possible to make a sparkplug/spark wire ignitor system. So many things could be tried ...
https://stunthanger.com/smf/open-forum/ ... et-engine/
Last edited by Mark on Mon Aug 27, 2018 6:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Quartz

Post by Mike Everman » Mon Aug 27, 2018 6:39 pm

Drilling pinholes will be a hot topic if I have the glass blowers blow me a pocket jet. I would like to preserve the fueling I use, which will be tricky in quartz. Thinking laser.
Mike Often wrong, never unsure.
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Re: Quartz

Post by Mark » Tue Aug 28, 2018 1:59 pm

Have you an idea of how to hold the quartz with something soft yet high temperature? A metal clamp with some sort of gasket material?
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Re: Quartz

Post by Mark » Thu Aug 30, 2018 8:19 pm

This might be something to employ if you wanted a region of a quartz tube to be conductive. I like the mirror-like finish. Graphite will take a lot of heat, although it might slowly react/burn up eventually if red hot in an oxygen atmosphere.

Coating Quartz Glass Tube In Graphite
https://youtube.com/watch?v=oReCziJFHVM
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