Rod Warmers? Doh!

[Lush!]

I've just been browsing some Murano videos on You Tube and had one of those classic forehead-slapping-penny-dropping moments!

I've never really got the point of rod warmers, but when I noticed the little nudge this lady gives the clear rod at about 1.02 min I suddenly realised she's using the warmer to keep the tip of the clear right in the flame and have a big gather ready to encase her bead with no fussing about at all!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMn9H0b85To


Wow!

Er ... am I the last to realise this?  Are you all rolling your eyes at me now? 



edited to add link, doh again!

[sarah t]

i did not even know there was such a thing as a rod warmer ......i never got the thing about torch top marvers till i realised you could use then to warm up your bits 

[sublimekate]

Not just you Julie..

Doh!! here too  

[Redhotsal]

 

hehe! 

They're great - but they cost an arm and a leg. Yes, yes, I know you can make them yourself but I'm not making so many of my own tools now after my homemade hotfingers nearly hospitalised a student!

[Lush!]

Glad to know me and my ignorance are in good company 

Sal    Now you've got to tell us more!

[Redhotsal]

Hotfingers need FOUR prongs and not three otherwise your really hot marble will slip out between the gap, roll across the table - giving you a moment to recognise that all that work making it completely round has paid off - it will then fall off the table and land millimeters away from your student's right thigh, proceeding to melt noisily, with loads of smoke, down through the cushion your student is sitting on. Shudder........

[SMHBuss]

Sal...at least you didnt grab it!

[Lush!]

Hotfingers need FOUR prongs and not three otherwise your really hot marble will slip out between the gap, roll across the table - giving you a moment to recognise that all that work making it completely round has paid off - it will then fall off the table and land millimeters away from your student's right thigh, proceeding to melt noisily, with loads of smoke, down through the cushion your student is sitting on. Shudder........

that'll teach ya for showing off 

[Josephine]

Whoops!

[Carol]

Yay for four-pronged hotfingers!! 

[Steampunkglass]

Hotfingers need FOUR prongs and not three otherwise your really hot marble will slip out between the gap, roll across the table - giving you a moment to recognise that all that work making it completely round has paid off - it will then fall off the table

Ah! I know that feeling so well! I am embarking on a new style of floor decoration called 'random charred stripes!'

As for the rod warmer, Martin has a frit tray on sale at moment that you can pop a nightlight underneath to keep the metal hot, not sure if it's any good or as hot as you'd need, but might be worth considering (it's in his clearance sale)

[Redhotsal]

Yay for four-pronged hotfingers!! 

Yay for the student who has survived the Redhotsal experience!!!!!! 

[Trudi]

I haven't tried, but could you leave the rod resting just inside the kiln - I have an SC2 with a bead door - not sure how easy this would be for others?

[Lush!]

As for the rod warmer, Martin has a frit tray on sale at moment that you can pop a nightlight underneath to keep the metal hot, not sure if it's any good or as hot as you'd need, but might be worth considering (it's in his clearance sale)

Hmm, no actually, this is the point - I thought rod warmers were for keeping your whole rod warm, but in the video she uses it to hold the tip of the rod in the flame and actually melt the point of the rod so the gather is ready and waiting for the bead!  

[Steampunkglass]

AH! Sorry, see what you mean now, I'm being dense again!  In that case I am sure it couldn't bee too hard to rig something up to hold it???