Did I say easy? Is anything about glassblowing ever actually easy? As we all know, the answer is usually no but sometimes we hit upon things that make our lives a little easier and I think you will find that this is one of them. For Glassblowers, it is safe to say that graphite is our friend. It has many useful applications in our shops and has had a lengthy and happy relationship with glass. It is, on the other hand, quite messy to shape into the forms we desire. Just ask any machinist or perhaps you already know this firsthand.Several months ago, I was asked to make a dozen or so distillate-sampling tubes that had an "alembic" type bulb into which the sample vapor condense and collect. The sample volume required the bulb size to be of close tolerance and, of course, identical throughout the series. To save time, I headed for the trusty graphite drawer to see if I had a suitable size bulb mold. As luck would have it, I did not. I did, however, have a nice little block of material that was the perfect size to make a mold. I blew a few single bulbs until I had one that was the right size. I then had to determine how to transfer the negative profile of my bulb into the graphite block.
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