Made it back to my workplace of 10 years ago for their 10th annual NEON festival. NEON in this case stands for New Energy Of Norfolk (Virginia). Since I left there, the Chrysler Museum Glass Studio has expanded, tripling in size.

They still have their daily noon demos and my friends Heather Sutherland and @AbbeyfuckingDivens asked if I wanted to be a part of today's demo. I was able to test out their new manifold cart on wheels and with a microwave I picked up a the local thrift store, light up some blown glass work that Heather made all while hot.

Their new cart has a much nicer manifold than the one I put together over 10 years ago. The Amphitheater hotshop is also much nicer. The public and studio team were dazzled by my race agains the clock, "do it all while hot an clean" performance- all packaged up into an educational 1 hour demo. What fun!

#neon #norfolk #Virginia #glass #plasma #microwave #highvacuum #sculpture #glassblowing #teamwork #education #museum #flameworking

Had a manifold cleaning day two days ago.

I was able to rent the large ultrasonic cleaner at Urbanglass. With distilled water and some degreaser this cleaner uses cavitation to scrub the surfaces of things in it clean.

It sure makes cleaning the high vacuum manifold easy! I was overdue for a cleaning, the results weren't too bad, but after years, it was kinda overdue.

And now I have the good greases instead of the cheap silicone stuff. This makes future cleaning easier.

First tube off the clean pump- a 25mm blue mega tube with tiny lil 12mm electrodes. Far from ideal bombarding scenario, but the tube still came in bright an red immediately (a good sign).

Here is to years more of happy tubes!

#studio
#cleaning #nyc #highvacuum #glass #laboratory #ultrasonic #clean #maintenance #neon

Snagged some photos of the two "N"s after pumping them (but before dipping in black paint). You can see the glass and electrodes get pretty toasty on that bombarder- basically overpowering the tube to heat it up- all the impurities are burned off an sucked out. When the molecules left behind cool off- they contract- making the vacuum even better in the tube before the argon is added :).

Not too much difference in the ANs. I guess I could have made them the same in hindsight. Ah well, it's all up now in the castle- working to set the fancy vibes to sell the fancy things to the fancy folks. And I am on the other side of the country North of Seattle, headed deep in the woods to Pilchuck Glass School :).

#handmade #neon #sign #work #italian #murano #nyc #commercial #science #bombarding #itselectric #highvacuum #brooklyn

As the studio was closing down I was able to carry out plans to sneak these pieces into the big kiln and move the manifold over for a proper bakeout. Excited to get these #borosilicate #neon pieces filled. Some #experimental #workinprogress indeed. Studio is closed today #badair, but we should be filling tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

#krypton #argon #sculpture #light #mirror #scientific #urbanglass #nyc #brooklyn #art #glass #annealer #highvacuum #bakeout #flameworking #onwheels #commission

Today's activity: repairing an ion mill!

Wasn't pumping down, suspected the internal diaphragm pump needed new seals. Still bad with my other pumps so I started replacing tubing, tightening fittings and applying vac grease to seals.

Unsure where the leak was, but fixed now! Will let it pump for a while and see what the final pressure is. From what I can gather, should end up somewhere in the neighborhood of e-6 torr

#microscopy #ionmill #gatan #sem #electronmicroscopy #highvacuum