Earlier this week I was searching craigslist and I happened across a listing for someone selling off a full lampworker’s glass shop. The guy is selling a HUGE amount of equipment for a VERY good price. He is asking $2200 for two torches similar to what we have, a third BIG two stage torch (Carlisle CC, very well respected durable and reliable torch), a Paragon SC2 Kiln, 5 Oxygen bottles, to 40lb propane bottles, hoses, regulators, and flashbacks, and a whole lot of hand tools and a big stock of borosilicate glass.
looking through the pictures he sent me, this is the list of what I was able to quickly identify:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ycNB63O_-InY_TERXeSF5SteB-bZB-KqvUpifX-mNvA/edit?usp=sharing
it’s easily over $5k worth of stuff, and he says it was all bought in 2016 and it looks in good shape. I have uploaded the pictures that were sent to me on slack in #glasswork.
I know it’s a bit bad timing since we just bought a new torch, and I gathered from that vote that while a $400 vote passed, there probably isn’t support to use Hive13’s money for $2k+ for glassblowing equipment. However, this is a really good deal, and I’m hoping that among those of us most interested in the glasswork that we might be able to pool together enough to make the purchase through donations from a few individuals.
This equipment, if we bought it and donated it to the hive, would both make it so that we had a 100% Hive13 owned glassworking setup, the large torch would allow for us to work borosilicate tubing to make blown functional glass (goblets, Christmas ornaments, etc,) as well as larger sculptural glass (large pendants, figurines, large marbles, etc). The kiln is also a much higher quality kiln with a bit more versatile interior size. The kiln coudl easily be used for small ceramics, enameling, slumping and fusing, and other crafts.
Based on discussions in the Hive13 Slack’s #glasswork channel, it looks like we have people willing to put forward $2000 of the needed $2200. The current numbers are:
- Kayla & I - $1000
- Lisa - $500
- Copper - $250
- Doomshotxl - $250
We would just need one or two more people willing to put in a little money to add this stuff to the hive!
Just to cover some questions that came up on slack:
- The rough and informal Hive13 donation policy is:
- Donations immediately become hive property, and the equipment is then treated exactly as if it had been purchased. As a courtesy, if we decide to get rid of a donation, it is typically offered up to the donor as first dibs to buy back or take back before being sold/given/trashed at leadership or memberships decision.
- Group purchases are treated as donations, the donors each choose their donation level to the agreement of the other donors, and leadership must consent to the donation just as any equipment, but once the donation(s) are made, the equipment is just like any other hive purchased or donated equipment, and the future of it is up to the membership and leadership.
- Certainly is worth making sure anyone who participates in a purchase like this knows that they retain no ownership beyond being a hive member, and that all hive members have equal rights to the equipment.
- My intent with this equipment would not be to expand the footprint of the glass area, but to simply replace the old torch with the new big one and keep the one we just bought up. The two smaller torches in this lot would either be sold to pay for other supplies, or kept and set up for certification classes and events.
- I would likely return the torch and annealer I am currently borrowing from Ed Francis so that he can pass it on to another student of his.
- I would likely put up a vote once we had the equipment in for the materials to build a nicer workbench with storage for tools and glass built in (Kayla got a nice 36" x 96" piece of stainless steel donated to use as the top) and add fume extraction (while the small torches we have are safe to use without in a space the size of the hive, a big torch would need extraction, the lot comes with a fan/blower of some sort, but no ducting) and a foot pedal to control the second stage of the tbig torch (doesn’t come with one). This vote would likely be for something in the range of $600-800, but would be the last thing we needed to have a really pro level glass station.
- The lot comes with 5 oxygen bottles. We already have 2, so may not need or want to keep all 7. The ones we do not need refilled with oxygen, we could get refilled with welding gasses so we have redundant argon and CO2/argon mix tanks. alternately, they could be sold and the proceeds used to buy other equipment.
To give people an Idea of what can be done, here are a few videos of artists working glass on larger torches:
Is anyone interested in chipping in to get us the remaining little bit we would need to buy this equipment? If so, join the conversation on slack in #glasswork or send me a message. This would be an amazing deal on some really nice equipment!
Thanks,
Kevin M.
