Looking for a small tool...

Started by lampworklover, August 31, 2014, 10:00:22 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

lampworklover

I love my tungsten poker from Tuffers beacuse it never sticks to hot glass. I also like my cheap stainless steel toothpicks because they're so much smaller and have a finer point; but obviously the fact that they don't work well with the heat is a disadvantage.

So, is there such thing as a very fine tungsten (or other, more heat resistant metal) poker; something as small and lightweight as the dental picks? Having a few problems holding anything of any weight at the moment, so the smaller the better (if indeed such a tool exists....)


ajda

Do a search on eBay for "solder pick" or "soldering pick". You can find individual ones with wooden handles or some neat little sets of 3 with coloured aluminium handles. These are described as titanium (more exactly, I think they might be a type of titanium-steel) and are sold as tools for manipulating solder with precious metals. They are supposed not to stick to the solder at high temperatures. Whether they work with glass as well as tungsten does I'm not sure, but they are very cheap so you could probably take a punt on a set and try them out...
Alan
www.ajdalampwork.etsy.com

DragonArtGlass

I picked up a really fine pin like poky thing with a wooden handle from Bath potters a few months ago.
It was this http://www.bathpotters.co.uk/potters-pins/c177 seems to work OK.

Hotglass28

I'd be interested too as my cheap picks, which work brilliantly at the mo might need replacing at some point. 

How about Mandas pokey tool she has or do you think it will be too heavy? It looks very nice too! :)
www.facebook.com/pages/The-Owl-Goes-Hoot/567182803365298
www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TheOwlGoesHoot?ref=l2-shopheader-name

lampworklover

Some excellent ideas, thanks peeps!

Margram

Lorna showed us how to bend a needle, heat it and the end of a rod of glass, then plunge it in. Make as many as you want...(you may need to heat the centre of the needle to bend it).
Marg x  Etsy Flickr My blog

spexy

I tried that but I found the glass kept breaking so I now use a sewing needle in a pin vise which I bought on Ebay. It will stick if it gets too hot though so needs cooling in water after a few uses.

Kalorlo

I got some pure tungsten electrodes (make sure they're the green tip kind, other colours have other stuff added that you DO NOT want in the flame). Sharpened the end, now got tiny tungsten poking tools. Hold in a pin vice.

Pat from Canvey

I think Lorna used clear boro, or I may be thinking of someone else, Angie perhaps.

Jellybean

I've used all sorts - needles like Lorna's, tungsten picks, steel picks - but I do love my dental pick best  :)

mizgeorge

As Alan says, there are lots on ebay, but I have to rate this tungsten one for quality - I use it for soldering, but it's done double duty for glass many times and is still going strong after a lot of years

http://www.cooksongold.com/Jewellery-Tools/Solder-Probe-metal-Handle-prcode-999-AAF

Kalorlo

Is that one definitely tungsten not titanium - it doesn't say in the text? (I had one like that and tried to do the tungsten trick of drilling through glass with the pick red hot - I melted the end because it was titanium...)

mizgeorge


Moira HFG

Quote from: Kalorlo on September 02, 2014, 09:23:58 AM
I got some pure tungsten electrodes (make sure they're the green tip kind, other colours have other stuff added that you DO NOT want in the flame). Sharpened the end, now got tiny tungsten poking tools. Hold in a pin vice.

What a good idea!