Glass Collective (Unrecognized)

Mission Statement
We are a group of students interested in the art and craft of glassblowing. We do the best we can to share this interest by training students to do lampworking, a method of blowing glass. We maintain, improve and put to full use the limited glassblowing facilities in the Lemelson Center. By leading small workshops and occasional guest demonstrations, we spread the knowledge and excitement of working with glass to all interested parties.

Inventory
Torches

Bethleham Barracuda

Carlisle CC

National Minor Burner

Nortel Minor Burner x 3

Tools

We have a rolling cart full of graphite and stainless steel tools used for manipulating hot glass. We also stock specialized eye protection including clip-ons for those who already wear glasses.

Steel Tools

Tweezers 4

Mashers

Leaf Mashers

Jacks

Diamon Shears

Shears

Tungsten Pick 3

Graphite Tools

Large Marble Mold

Large plate

Smalle plate 2

Small paddle 2

Reamers 5

Beadmaking Tools

Mandrels

Bead Release

Bead Cleaning Tools

Glass

We have a large drawer of color scraps, a few boxes of assorted clear rods and tubes of various sizes, and a small organizational rack of full color rods.

Kiln

We have a Jen Ken, top-loading bead annealer.

Gas Supply

We have a small propane tank, which are leased from Ivey Industries (welding suppliers). Lemelson has an arrangement with Ivey so we only pay a one-time fee to rent the tanks. Every two weeks or so, Ivey comes to the shop and replaces the empty tanks with full ones.

We have a regulator for the propane tank, and one regulator for the oxygen tanks. When one empties, we just switch the regulator over to the fresh tank.

We now have a large tank that holds liquid oxygen. This originally came from lab fees which were collected for a Jan Term EPEC Class in 2010. The benefit of a liquid tank compared to a compressed gas tank is that is empties less frequently. It costs more to fill the liquid tank, but it outlasts a gas tank by nearly two months.