Glasses

[Rainbow1]

Does anyone know if it necessary to use special glasses for working with boro glass? The reason I ask is I was perusing the Franzt website as I am thinking of trying boro for the first time, and noticed they sell Borosilicate Boroscope glasses? I would have thought that normal didys would be ok.

Jo x

[JKC]

Yes, but you can buy clip ones until you decide if your going to stick with it, much cheaper.

[awrylemming]

I bought welding glasses to use, under a tenner as advised by our lovely boro people.  Sorry, I don't have the link, but somebody will probably be along soon ... 

[garishglobes]

 Boro (and particularly coloured boro) does give off more light and the light rays emitted can harm your eyes. It is sensible to have some extra eye protection to hand. Having said that, most scientific glassworkers just use diddys and they use clear boro all the time. For much of the time you don't actually have the glass very, very molten and hot (when most flare is given off), and you would find boroscopes very dark for most work when the glass isn't molten. I personally use diddys almost all the time and have a pair of clip-on welders shades that get flipped down when the glare from the torch gets bright. I've seen several others with the same system including boro workers who work much hotter than me and with colour, so I think it is a reasonable one to recommend and it gives much more flexibility.

[fionaess]

Boro (and particularly coloured boro) does give off more light and the light rays emitted can harm your eyes. It is sensible to have some extra eye protection to hand. Having said that, most scientific glassworkers just use diddys and they use clear boro all the time. For much of the time you don't actually have the glass very, very molten and hot (when most flare is given off), and you would find boroscopes very dark for most work when the glass isn't molten. I personally use diddys almost all the time and have a pair of clip-on welders shades that get flipped down when the glare from the torch gets bright. I've seen several others with the same system including boro workers who work much hotter than me and with colour, so I think it is a reasonable one to recommend and it gives much more flexibility.

Exactly what I do Emma - I found the shade 5's far too dark, got a pair of clip on shade 3's and even those are too dark over my diddys for everyday boro work..

[Steampunkglass]

I started with diddy, and found when I was heating colour for any length of time it was very bright, then used a bit of welders glass to look through; but found that too dark the rest of the time. As I got fed up of trying to balance a pair of diddys over my normal glasses I now have a proper clip on pair of shade 3, which suits me as I used boro nearly 99% of the time now. I did read advice that it's better not to go too dark as then when you look away you won't see anything and will end up trip over or bumping into stuff!

[soulsilver]

Can anyone tell me if these would be strong enough for working with Boro, they only have these in shade 1.7 or 5 and reading previous posts the 5 would be too strong?
http://www.face-fit.co.uk/product.asp?pID=680&cID=197

[Steampunkglass]

I think it'll depend on how hot you are going to work, and if you are mostly using clear. If you do use these I'd say clip them onto normal diddys to give you a bit better protection

[Elements Glass]

It depends on what you intend to make and how often really...
1.7 is not dark enough if you want to use colour or fume but should be ok for clear glass only. If you are just trying boro out, your normal diddys should be ok for a quick play around.

I use shade 4s which are pretty dark and found myself looking over them to find things on my bench until I put up some super bright lights above my bench.

The darker the colour and the bigger the piece, the brighter the flare is. I wouldn't try backing a 2inch marble with black unless you have at least shade 3s . If you want to fume silver and gold you really need shade 4s or 5s.

Protect your eyes properly and upgrade your lighting if you can't see 

[soulsilver]

Thanks guys thats all brilliant info x I am just playing about a wee bit at the moment but dont want to take any chances, I have been struggling to find shade 3 clip ons, I will keep hunting them