Globe woes :-(

Hey, that's exactly what I did Phil - great minds and all that!

 

Here are some close-ups of my efforts, which aren't that great to be honest. The cut surface is uneven and there's even a dip where the glass cracked but not catastrophically thank goodness. Anyway, it worked and I'll keep using it because it looks OK in position and it saves the original globe.

Lessons learned...

1. I need to use a good quality cutting disk - this one was cheap as hell.
2. Make sure the wood I used to support the flask as I cut was straight and adequately secured.
3. Go slower.
4. Use lubricant/coolant.

The thing is, this only cost me £2, it works just fine and I can make more any time I like! One thing that was unexpected was that the flask wasn't round - not even close!

 

Oh, and the size of cafetière I used is OK for Vapalux and Bialaddin models. The diameter is too narrow for Petromax or their clones and I haven't tried it in anything else.

 

I really like the lighting hole.

 

G'day Colin, Being your first attempt at cutting glass, not cracking it in half is doing well.
So a couple of small chips is well and truly acceptable and no doubt you will improve your technique on the next one.
I don't like using good glass and especially rare glass on a user so IMO your cafetière globe is a functional user on the lantern.

 

Exactly! I foresee a graveyard of old cafetière carcasses piling up in my workshop soon!

 

I wasn't sure at first but it looks OK and it's actually very practical.

 

It's been a while since I started this thread but today I needed a globe the same dimensions as a standard Bialaddin/Vapalux and I needed it now, without waiting for a purchase to get to me!

So, having collected a number of old cafetière Pyrex jugs for this purpose I set about cutting one to size. It's tricky work and any wobble in the drilling machine, the cutter or indeed my own hands causes unpleasant and distinctly worrying vibrations.... but I persevered and this was the end result.



I put it in my Bialaddin 300x and left the lantern running for 2 hours to make sure it didn't crack under thermal stress. There were no problems at all and I'm rather happy! You can see the rough cut edge at the bottom when it's in the lantern but I don't think it's all that noticeable. I might smooth the rough edges more when I have time, as Phil suggested but for now I'm just happy to see it work!

Some of you might say, why bother? Well, it's nice to have an alternative source of lantern globes should the genuine articles become scarce and quite a few lamp models use the same diameter.