Where to buy Prince Rupert's Drop

OOoh! I saved a nice description of how the drops are made....wanna
tell me how a baloney tube is made?

Bryan "I hunger for knowledge and thirst for experience" Paschke

On Wed, 3 Sep 2003 22:28:42 -0700, "Randy"
wrote:

I can make them for you, along with " Baloney tubes" They are similar to PR
droppings, only they are a hollow tube. I would demonstrate them by driving
a spike in a block of would using the Baloney tube as a hammer. I then drop
a micro piece of silicon carbide down the tube to make it explode, and I
mean EXPLODE. You do this while it is inside a Zip lock bag to contain the
shards.

Randy Hansen
SC Glass Tech
San Diego, CA

"Keith Patrick" wrote in message
.. .
Does anyone know where to buy a Prince Rupert's Drop online? I looked for
one years ago as a gift to no avail, and was reminded of my search
recently.

HI Bryan,

They are made essentually the same way. A PR drop is made from soft glass. I
just frorm globs on the end of a rod and let them drop off into a bucket of
ice water. You will loose better than 50% of them. But the ones that don't
crack are what your looking for. After retrieving them from the ice water I
burn off the long tail to make the tear drop.

For a baloney tube I use boro. I like to use about a 3/4" heavy wall. (if
you use it as a hammer you need the wall strenght.) These are little more
tricky. It's more like what Mike said, you sorta just dip the cherry red
part of the ball on the end of the tube into the ice water. If go to deep
you cause cracking on the tube. Again you loose more than you keep. After
they're cool it's a good idea to keep them under wraps. They sometimes
explode for no reason.

It makes a cool demo. To see how strong the glass is at the same time it is
so week, that just a speck of silicon carbide dropped into the tube will
cause it burst.

If you do try to drive a spike into a block of wood (spelled it right this
time!) Were goggles or a face shield, and don't let people watching get to
close. ( had to say that for legal reasons)

Good luck,

Randy Hansen
SC Glass Tech
San Diego, CA

In article yjS5b.17446$n94.4977@fed1read04, Randy wrote:

They are made essentually the same way. A PR drop is made from soft glass. I
just frorm globs on the end of a rod and let them drop off into a bucket of
ice water. You will loose better than 50% of them. But the ones that don't
crack are what your looking for. After retrieving them from the ice water I
burn off the long tail to make the tear drop.

So do you actually have to use ice water, or is just plain old room
temperature water okay too? Is it just that you get a lower yield or
is the yield zero?

Mike

The way I was shown how to do them was with as much ice as you could hold in
the bucket. I haven't actually tried it any other way.

Randy Hansen
SC Glass Tech.
San Diego ,CA