Who's Got Ceramic Balls

[Bogstandard]

gail,

i have just found some for sale in the uk. just under 10 bucks for 50 incl postage, now awaiting delivery.
i will give them a good dose of looking at

thanks

john

btw, if they are ok, i will tell jan about them, so he can try them out himself.

 

[GailInNM]

John,
If the ones you get are similar to what I have I think they will work fine. Let us know the results in either case.
Gail in NM, USA

 

[Bogstandard]

i will definitely do that gail.

john

 

[tel]

http://www.smallparts.com.au/cgi-bi...ride&firstitem=1&mc=Balls-Ceramic&Step=3=post

 

[Bogstandard]

Tel,

I have used Smallparts before.
When the shipping charge of over $60 was put on an order that went into a medium sized jiffy bag and contained $47 of lightweight materials, I was put off using them ever again. Considering that normally it would cost around $20 for shipping that size and weight.

At least Dick Turpin wore a mask.

John

 

[tel]

OUCH!!! I must say I've had a pretty good run with them, with usually quite reasonable postage charges. Not the cheapest supplier around, but a magnificent range of stuff

 

[gilessim]

Just wanted to say here ,after the mention of a "friendly glassblower", that opposite my house, is a glass factory ,they make expensive drinking glasses, vases etc..They are all hand blown. I've been in there quite a few times to see what they do and it's very interesting, they explained to me about the slow tempering process they use to stop cracking etc., so even if your glass balls are not Pyrex but they're tempered you should be ok with them. Anyway, they also make crystal balls so I'm sure they'd make me up some heatproof marbles if I ask nicely!, BTW they are called IVV if anyone has heard of them.

Giles

 

[shred]

Just wanted to say here ,after the mention of a "friendly glassblower", that opposite my house, is a glass factory ,they make expensive drinking glasses, vases etc..They are all hand blown. I've been in there quite a few times to see what they do and it's very interesting, they explained to me about the slow tempering process they use to stop cracking etc., so even if your glass balls are not Pyrex but they're tempered you should be ok with them. Anyway, they also make crystal balls so I'm sure they'd make me up some heatproof marbles if I ask nicely!, BTW they are called IVV if anyone has heard of them.

Giles

I do a little kiln glass work in the winter time to heat the garage shop It's neat stuff, but even after tempering most normal glass formulas are still susceptible to thermal stress and must always be heated and cooled carefully in the range between about 200'F/100'C to 1000'F/540'C (above that it's much more like goo) The right answer is special glass formulations, which they should know all about..

 

[Bogstandard]

THANK YOU GAIL.

Just got my catapult ammo, and it is perfect.

A couple of the balls were slightly too big, but they will be able to be used elsewhere.

They are fairly lightweight, and with four rolling up and down, don't knock the end out of the 16mm test tubes I have.

So with your failed destructive testing, and my finding they don't turn the test tubes into bits of glass, I think we have a winner.

Thank you again.

John