Wow there’s a lot better reception for this than I would have anticipated! We would love to host the class if you are interested. You can bring your glassblower or I can have one of ours teach some. We are also members of the ASGS so we can get a bunch of other glassblowers to stop by and talk shop.
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I have a sick spot in Vancouver BC, a shared work space that has a bunch of glass blower stations around a giant central hood
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I vote BC!!
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i vote BC but in the summer! PLEASE in the summer!
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Witch Dr in Boston would probably be down as well
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Isn’t BC Canada… I don’t have a passport guys
RIP Grandpa Turk
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All chemists should be equipped with an acetylene torch. Scientific glassblowing is essential to keep your lab a tight ship, shit happens, glass cracks.
Most chemistry graduate programs require a scientific glassblowing course.
Cannabis chemists and extractors should be no different.
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@Rowan my facility, along with other classes, could host this…in the future of course.
Scientific glass blowing is certainly in high demand in NorCal. There’s only a couple spots I’ve been able to find for repairs in my time breaking distillation apparatuses up here. Every lab I have consulted has a boneyard of bromer pieces. Could be an awesome addition to classes offered
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I hate to be a downer here but it is unlikely you’ll be able to actually repair anything without an investment in tools and time to learn. A lot of jobs come in and the piece is not salvageable or at least is going to cost more in labor than to just make a new one. There is a learning curve if it is something a little out your comfort zone. We just had a repair today that cost us 3x more to make than purchase brand new at retail price. Also keep in mind that the stress has to be annealed out so you need an oven for that. If you are up for a challenge and like to learn new things then you are going to fall in love with glass blowing, but if you are merely a practical person and want to actually make or repair stuff right away then I’m afraid that you will be going down a rabbit hole.
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For what its worth, while not being the cheapest route, there are some good glasses schools in MA. I went to Mass College of Art in Boston for glassblowing (using a blowpipe), Diablo Glass School in I believe Roxbury for lamp working (torch work), and Snow Farm in western MA for glass blowing. I can highly reccomend all of them, though Diablo and Snow Farm are a lot cheaper than Mass Art since that’s an accredited college. Snow farm is a really cool place, they do all kinds of art and trades like metal working and photography, and you can stay in the dorms they have there. It’s not a short trek, but the Bern Gallery in Burlington VT does lessons with lampworking, mostly geared towards pipe making.
I did all my schooling and such with glassblowing and lanpworking in my late teens and early 20s before I went back to school for a science degree.
@goldleaf_scientific is pretty accurate that scientific glassblowing as a whole different animal, and its unlikely most people would be proficient enough to repair that kind of glass without spending a lot of time learning. I do not think that should stop you from at least doing an intro class. You can learn to make marbles in two days, this unfortunately is not quite the same.
Although, if you buy a kiln you could bake out your fritted glass if they get clogged with something like AC.
A scientific glass class would be really cool though, the machines they use for making boiling flasks and such are really neat.
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There’s a maker/hacker lab in most large cities and I’ve been surprised at the lack of scientific glass blowing happening…amidst 3D printing and TIG welding it just seemed like the ideal place. I’ve seen amazing repairs done in a small booth with fume extraction and a 3.2 cu. ft. Annealing kiln. My buddy in Placerville makes a killing off emergency repairs
Why tho? Don’t do that…
I like rabbit holes. But also glassblowing is not that bad, obviously some cracks are beyond repair and you shouldn’t waste your time with them.
However, I taught myself how to do basic repairs with chips and minor cracks. One night I went full autismo in the glass repair room in my university chem wing and stayed up till dawn playing with the Acetylene torch and further destroyed already damaged glassware until I got the hang of doing minor repairs.
Repairs can be time consuming, but minor chips and cracks can also fuck your day/week up… when in reality, they do not require serious skills to repair. Ovens and torches are cheap so there’s literally no reason cannabis extractors shouldn’t be learning and utilizing basic glassware repair methods.
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Besides “ aces in their places”. A cannabis extractors time is probably best spent extracting Cannabis.
But if you have a personal interest in it, why not?
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If you have enough glassware having a repair ability is a lifesaver. While it may take 10 years of dedicated effort to become a master lamp maker fixing chips and cracks sometimes is not that hard. And bending tubing, adjusting angles, adding end connectors, making u traps, helical coil heat exchangers , adding glass to stress points, and fixing small problems to prevent big problems is sometimes not that hard. And hopefully people on this forum will ultimately hire someone, get them trained and they will become the master glass blower. And annealing ovens not much of a cost for these guys spending 80,000 on just a centrifuge.
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'Twould be a clutch capability indeed…especially in an RnD environment
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Around Boston we have a handful of scientific glass repair shops, not sure how many exist in other cities but I’m sure they’re out there. We’re also within driving distance of Rocco and Ace glass.
It wouldn’t be too hard for your average person to do minor repairs on certain items surely. Though, its still going to take having the space and capital to divert to the equipment.
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I’m down for sure
Cannabis extractors need equipped with an acetylene and a TIG torch…
In addition to their dab torch 
I’ve managed minor repairs with a propane torch kept onsite for other reasons…
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I remember once I broke the nipple on my buchner funnel and I welded it back together with a map gas torch. It only lasted me long enough to finish that run but it saved me from taking a bigger loss
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