Christmastime is here!

With the Christmas season approaching, we here at His Glassworks will be closed from December 24th through December 28th in celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ our Lord.
We will also be closed from December 31st through January 4th for the less auspicious New Year holiday.

Have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Video killed the Radio Star (or Have Camera, Will Travel)

Yes, finally we have motivated ourselves enough to start producing some short videos demonstrating many of the products that we carry (and use ourselves). We hope to continue posting videos as time allows of virtually every product type we carry. We have even created a new section in our Frequently Asked Questions section for Video Demos, so head over there to see what we have posted recently.

Also, most of the videos will also appear with the products that they demonstrate within the website, so as you go through the site be sure to keep a lookout for the videos that demonstrate product usage. You can even log into YouTube and subscribe to our video feed that will notify you every time we upload a new video.

Be sure to check out our two most recent videos:

Mixing and applying HXTAL for laminating glass:




and Grinding and Polishing with Diamond Disks:

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas

It's that time of year again, the Holidays. The perfect time to find the perfect gift for the glassworker on your list.

But what to get them? There are so many tools, so many options, and you're not sure exactly what they want or need...

No fear, the His Glassworks Gift Certificate is the easy way to make sure they get exactly what they want. Available in amounts from $50.00 to $1000.00, gift certificates can be mailed through the postal service to yourself or your recipient or emailed directly to your email or your recipient's email.

Both the mailed physical gift certificate and the emailed version contain a gift code for redemption through the online store on the web so we make it as easy as possible to redeem the Gift Certificate.

Give the gift of tools this Christmas. They'll love you for it.

Paint it Black

So this year, we've decided to have ourselves a little Black Friday Sale.
There's a little preview of the category of items that will be on Sale starting around 11pm Thanksgiving evening through midnight Friday night.
Once 11pm EST hits, all the items will be active and you'll see exactly what will be on sale.
We've never really tried this before, but a number of people have asked us to, so we're giving it a go.
Some of the items are going to be the best prices we've ever had on these items and it'll only be for the one day, so stock up!

I heard it through the Grapevine

We're finally starting our His Glassworks, Inc. newsletter.
Currently it will only be a quarterly newsletter to let you know of new items, tips and tricks on some products and special sales only for newsletter subscribers. Our first edition will go out this week, so be sure to sign up here in order to get any subsequent editions and maybe score some good discounts.

"The Times, they are a Changin'"

Yup, it's almost that time again. Time for prices to increase on many of the tools that we carry. A number of our manufacturers actually raised prices to us back in July of this year, but we don't like to do that, so we normally only raise our prices in January of each year if we can help it. And this January will be no different. Many of our manufacturers have already informed us that their prices will again increase to us in January. This time we can't hold off any longer.

So, on January 1st 2009 a large portion of our products will experience price increases from 2 to 8% from all our 3M product lines, to Covington machinery, to Cyclone sandblasters, to Abrasive Technology and Crystalite products. As I mentioned earlier, most of these prices actually increased to us back in July, but we've held many of them to the same level that they were in January of 2008.

Now is the perfect time to get the tools and accessories you need before the price increase. Not only will it save your tax liability for 2008 here at the last quarter of the year, but it will save you money by purchasing before the January 1st price increase.

"He's not heavy, he's my brother"

So, the bane of all adhesives. Weight and measurement.

How do we solve it? Easy. Find good inexpensive scales that allow you to accurately deal with your work and your adhesives.

We have several epoxy compounds that need to be weighed out accurately in order for them to work correctly for either bonding or coating your glass.

HXTAL NYL-1, XTR-311 and our new Flex-Tec Anti-Shatter coating are all epoxies that require precise measurement in order to function properly. We now offer a number of digital scales in order to make it easier for you to get these measurements correct.

For HXTAL and XTR, we offer the small Digiweigh DW100AX scale that is perfect for small amount mixtures of either of the epoxy adhesives. It works wonderfully well, is easy to use and has a very small "out of pocket" expense for those of you who do not use adhesives that often.

For those of you who travel or do restoration work on site for clients, we also offer the Ohaus YA pocket travel scale. With the same capacity and readout as the DW100AX, this is a great small scale for measuring out either HXTAL or XTR for on site repairs on pieces that cannot be moved back to your shop.

For the more industrious glass bonder, we now offer the Ohaus Scout Pro scale for those of you who bond glass more often and require something with a little more "day to day" use and abuse. The Scout Pro is a sturdy industrial quality digital scale with a 200g capacity.

For those of you looking for the greatest protection for your installed glass pieces or panels, Flex-Tec is quickly becoming the sought after solution for Anti-shatter protection. Consistent results require correct measurements, so we now also offer the Ohaus Valor scales for larger mixtures. With a weight capacity of 13 pounds, the Valor is the perfect way to get your Flex-tec measurements perfect for the best possible coating bond to your installed glass work.

Just one more way we're trying to make your coldworking an easier task.

She comes in colors!

Some might think it's amazing the number of questions we get regarding the color coding of diamond tools, but when you consider the sheer number of tools on the market and crazy color combinations they come in, it's really no surprise. It truly is a rainbow of color combinations and depending on what type of tool you are using and who manufactures it, the colors can range all over the place.

I'll try to give you a brief breakdown of colors according the different manufacturers and their products. Probably the most numerous product selection we have is from 3M. Their color code for their electroplated diamond products like their disks, hand pads and EverRun bands follows like this:
The green color is a 250 µ or roughly a 60 grit diamond

The black color is a 125 µ or roughly a 120 grit diamond

The red color is a 74 µ or roughly a 200 grit diamond

The yellow color is a 40 µ or roughly a 400 grit diamond

The white color is a 20 µ or roughly an 800 grit diamond

The blue color is a 10 µ or roughly an 1800 grit diamond

Now this only applies to the electroplated diamond material from 3M. All the other diamond materials from 3M have a completely different color range for the grit desginations, but these are the main diamond tools that we currently carry from 3M, so it will fit across the range.


Once we move to the newer diamond materials from 3M such as the electrostatic diamond tools, including the disks, belts, and EverRun bands the color range changes. The electrostatic diamond material has a much lighter color palette to indicate the fact that it is not as aggressive or rough as the more primary colored electroplated diamond tools. The 675L electrostatic diamond tools will actually leave a finer surface grind for the same diamond grit as an electroplated tool, so the coloring difference makes quite a bit of sense actually.

The more orange colored material is a 125 µ or roughly a 120 grit diamond

The blue/green color is a 74 µ or roughly a 200 grit diamond

The yellow color is a 45 µ or roughly a 300 grit diamond

The light green color is a 30 µ or roughly a 400 grit diamond

The tan color is a 20 µ or roughly a 600 grit diamond.


This covers most of the 3M diamond tools that we carry as stock items. Once we move to our own diamond smoothing material, you get to learn a whole new set of colors for resin bonded diamond material in disks, belts, velcro backed disks and wheels. There are a number of different manufacturers of resin diamond material out there and most of them (ourselves included) try to follow a standard set of colors for the diamond grit in the resin bond diamond material. There are a few manufacturers out there who just color there materials whatever they please and this can be rather confusing. If you purchase your resin bonded diamond material through us though, they will always follow this color range:

The black colored material is a 100 grit resin bonded diamond

The purple material is a 220 grit resin bonded diamond

The maroon/brown material is a 325 grit resin bonded diamond

The cherry red material is a 600 grit resin bonded diamond

The sky blue material is a 1200 grit resin bonded diamond


We will often get customers who confuse the maroon/brown 325 grit material for a red color, but the true red of the 600 grit material is a very bright cherry red and is easily noticeable as red.
These diamond materials are all different and perform different duties on your glass, so it pays to be informed as to how to tell the difference both in material and color to efficiently utilize and order the correct tools for your work.

A little goes a long way

If you haven't heard of CERF (the Craft Emergency Relief Fund), then now is a good time to look into what they do. CERF assists artists and craftspeople in developing their business and sustaining themselves in the craft. They also assist with disaster relief for artists hard hit by natural disasters such as fires, hurricanes, floods and the like.

Recently we have established a way for everyone to help their fellow craftspeople by helping CERF. If you've purchased anything from our website in the last few months, you may have noticed a new addition to the checkout process. When you confirm your order and before you submit it, we now offer you the chance to round up your estimated order amount to the nearest whole dollar and donate that change to CERF for their ongoing efforts in the arts and crafts community.

The service is provided by an organization called Change Round Up that does an excellent job of making a little contribution go a long way. It's the ultimate example of how something small, when joined together with lots of other small donation, can really add up to make quite a difference. The next time you place an order, think about donating those extra cents via Change Round Up to CERF and make a difference in another artist's life. You can even submit a larger donation if you wish.

A little can truly go a long way.

3M EverRun Bands

So we've been carrying and offering the 3M EverRun bands for a number of years now and they've been a roaring success with everyone who has used them. The one question that we always get though is "How do I move beyond the 800 grit?"


For the most part, we haven't had a great answer for that. We normally tell people to give the shaped smoothing tools in the Square shape a try and use that. Those have worked well for most people, but they aren't the same feel and don't behave quite the same as the EverRun bands, so it kind of threw some people off.

Well, with the advent of the new electrostatic diamond material from 3M last year, we've been able to play around with a number of different uses for this material. Once we made some 4 inch velcro backed disks out of the 675 material for a customer who needed to clean up a surface from the electroplated disk, we discovered that the 675L material is an excellent way to give a clean easy pre-polish surface to glass surfaces ground with the normal electroplated diamonds.

From that realization we were able to create with 3M the same 1/2 inch diamond band as the EverRun diamond bands but with the 675L electrostatic diamond material instead. Now we can offer a fantastic way to move from the rougher electroplated EverRun diamond bands to a much finer electrostatic EverRun diamond band to give a clean easy pre-polish finish to work from. These new EverRun Diamond Finishing bands should close the gap from rough grind to final polish for the 1/2 inch diamond bands that everyone has been looking for.


We're hoping to be able to also formulate and test some cerium impregnated bands with 3M that will complete the entire flow from rough grind to final polish with the EverRun bands. We'll keep you posted on that one. In the meantime, check out the EverRun Diamond Finishing bands and see for yourself how they'll improve your finishing work.

3M Cerium impregnated Trizact material

So, if you're familiar with 3M's trizact material you'll know that it's an embedded alumina oxide material that has the abrasive encapsulated into tiny little pyramids of grit. These pyramids do an excellent job of focusing the grit on the material and cutting at a nice rate with nice surface results on your glass.

Never one to rest on their laurels, 3M has taken this same technology and instead of creating pyramids of alumina oxide, they instead used cerium oxide. The 3M 572LA Trizact material is therefore a cerium impregnated polishing material that requires nothing but water to achieve a quick, bright, fantastic polish on your glass.

We've been testing the material for over a year now and are very impressed with the results. We've even sold our large felt polishing wheel and have moved to polishing just with the 3M cerium impregnated 4 x 106 inch belt on our Somaca. It's that good.

We've taken the material and utilized in various forms now. We have the aforementioned belts in 6 x 2-1/2 and 8 x 3 for the expanding drums, 3 x 41-1/2 for the tabletop wet belt sanders and 4 x 106 for the larger upright belt sanders. We also have the material available in velcro backed 4 inch and 5 inch diameter disk for use with right angle grinders for your final polish on cast work. We've even made cerium hand pads out of the material so you can move your work to a final polish by hand with no machines required (how cool is that!). We even have replaced our 1 inch felt disks in our smoothing disk kits with 6 of the cerium impregnated disks. No more messy slurries, no more wondering if you're using too little or too much cerium to polish your work. Just put this material on your machine, add water and polish.

Flex-Tec Secondary Trials

In our ongoing pursuit of how to waste time and seem to be accomplishing something, we decided to do a second batch of Flex-Tec trials with a drop test on coated and uncoated glass.

It's very cool to watch. Once again, you can find Flex-Tec on the site for sale here

Flex-Tec Early Trials

Here's a video we did of one of our first Flex-Tec trials. We figured we'd go all out and just shoot the glass. We were very impressed with the results.
You can purchase Flex-Tec through our website. We hope to have some FAQs together for it soon also.

Great Play!

Peregrination

Overheard...

A lady was picking through the frozen turkeys at the grocery store but she
couldn't find one big enough for her family.
She asked a stock boy, 'Do these turkeys get any bigger?'
The stock boy replied, 'No ma'am, they're dead.'

Peregrination

ACTUAL QUESTIONS ASKED OF NATIONAL PARK RANGERS

From the May 1995 issue of Outside magazine:

GRAND CANYON:

* Was this man made?
* Do you light it up at night?
* Is the mule train air conditioned?
* So where are the faces of the presidents?

EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK:

* Are the alligators real?
* Are the baby alligators for sale?
* Where are all the rides?
* What time does the 2 o’clock bus leave?

MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK:

* Did people build this, or did Indians?
* Why did they build the ruins so close to the road?
* Do you know of any undiscovered ruins?
* What did they worship in the kivas - their own made up religion?
* Why did the Indians decide to live in Colorado?

CARLSBAD CAVERNS NATIONAL PARK:

* How much of the cave is underground?
* So what’s in the unexplored part of the cave?
* So what is this - just a hole in the ground?

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK:

* Where are the cages for the animals?
* What time of year do they turn on Yosemite Falls?
* What happened to the other half of Half Dome?

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK:

* Does Old Faithful erupt at night?
* How do you turn it on?
* When does the guy who turns it on get to sleep?
* We had no trouble finding the park entrance but where are the exits?

DENALI NATIONAL PARK:

* What’s so wonderful about Wonder Lake?
* How much does Mount McKinley weigh?
* What time do you feed the bears?
* How often do you mow the tundra?

Attempting the occasional peregrination, just for grins

If you have a good joke, photo or story that you would like to have me share here please email it to me at:
bob@hisglassworks.com
And note that if your joke is off color it may not be posted. Also, if it pokes fun at any particular group or people the subject MAY be changed to 'glassblowers'. So, instead of being a blond joke, it may become be a 'fairheaded glassblower' joke. But if it is not really disrespectful the original wording may remain.

These peregrinations are just for fun and hopefully a laugh will be shared or perhaps just an interesting photo or thought. And, as always, there may be serious posts added here as well, so you will never know what you might find.

Cheers,
Bob