User:AY/Glass Blowing

Introduction

This guide is very much a work in progress. For further glassblowing information, see the T2 glassblowing guide. Set your heater to Standard to mimic the T2 glory hole.

WARNING: The Push and Pull hotkeys are reversed on the menu from the way they actually operate. A is push (into the GH), S is pull (out of the GH). Also, like all buildings with hotkeys, your mouse cursor must be touching the actual building in order for the hotkeys to register.

Basic Concepts

Glassblowing is a timed craft, giving you approximately one minute from the time you start a project to heat and work the glass. To become a decent glassblower, plan on spending a great deal of time and glass familiarizing yourself with the glory hole and its quirks. A gloryhole in a low-lag area and a fast, stable connection to the game are highly recommended, if not outright required. Additionally, it's vital to learn and use the hotkeys. Menu-based glassblowing projects will give extremely poor results in almost every situation.

Every 'tick' of the process, several things happen automatically.

• Any part of the project that is within the heating plane (varies based on heat settings) will heat up
• Any part of the project that is outside of the heating plane will cool down
• Any part of the project that is heated will sag towards the ground

Similarly, every 'tick' the user has a few options that affect the project

• Move the project further into or out of the glory hole
• Rotate the project, typically to counter the sagging effect
• Blow the glass, which widens the project based on its heat level. Unheated glass will be unaffected.

Finally, there are several things a user can do that won't directly affect the project

• Check the goal display to get a reference point for what needs to be done
• Discard the project, destroying any materials in use
• Unload the project, receiving a finished item of whatever quality level you've currently acheived
• Check the quality level for feedback on how well the project is going
  • Note: quality varies wildly based on the rotation orientation and changes every tick, fast fingers help

Hotkeys

• G - Goal Display
• A - Moves the project into the glory hole
• S - Moves the project out of the glory hole
• Q - Check the current quality
• N - Rotate counterclockwise
• M - Rotate clockwise
• U - Unload (complete) the project
• D - Discard the project, destroying the materials
• B - Blow into the tube

Basic Projects

Wine Glass

Requires: 1 resources/fine glass rods

Here is a guide to making wine glasses using the Glory Hole. As of this writing I'm able to consistently make 7k quality glasses with a decent shot at 8k.

I like to use the F5 camera and position myself a couple feet inside the structure with the camera positiond on the other side so that I can see a couple of feet outside the structure as well. This gives a good view of the grey front edge of the Glory Hole which is the hotspot used to heat the glass as well as most of the inside where you will perform the final shaping.

When performing the initial heating, it's important to keep the glass spinning at a fairly constant rate. I've found that about two turns per heat tick (~1 sec) seems to work fairly well.

First you want to form the base. Move the rod in 1 click and let it heat up to yellow. Blow once and move it in one more click. When it gets yellow, blow twice. That's it for the base.

Immediately push the rod in so that the other end (what will become the mouth of the glass) is just inside the grey hotspot. Heat it up yellow and then proceed to pull the rod out and heat up 4 more sections of the rod to yellow. Move the rod back in a bit to keep the center 3 sections yellow and let the section on either side fade more to red (the mouth end will likely have already done so). Then push the rod all the way into the structure and blow 5 times.

That's it for blowing. You now rotate the glass so that anything that has sagged is now above the axis of rotation. Let it sit there until gravity pulls it closer to where it needs to be. During this stage I find it handy to check the quality frequently as I rotate it or let sag. Often you will see the quality go up as the piece droops closer to the goal and then go down as it droops past. Just rotate it above again and that should help. When you are satisfied with the quality (or time has run out), unload your beautiful new wine glass and prepare to experience faster Oenology point gain.

Hookah Bowl

Requires: 1 resources/fine glass rods

• This guide is for using Pin point heat
• Constantly spin to keep entire piece centered (there is a correct rhythm to spin it's not just spinning as fast as you can)
• Start the bowl shape at the bottom
  • Move the glass in 2 times
  • Move the glass in 3 times pausing between each
  • blow 4 times
  • Move the glass all the way inside the glory hole
• Make the mouth of the bowl
  • Move the glass out 5 times
  • blow 2 times
  • Move the glass out 2 and then in 2 (turning the section just under the mouth brown/orange not yellow)
  • blow 4 to 6 times
• Make the ridged middle body of the bowl
  • Move the glass out 2 times
  • Move the glass out 3 times (very quickly) (pause tell this section is orange)
  • Move the glass out 1 time (pause tell orange)
  • Move the glass out 3 times slowly pausing such that each segment just barely turns yellow (you want these 3 segments to heat up at the same time, so as you get better you can go back and forth over this area)
  • Repeat over the next 3 segments
  • Blow 2-3 times

Thermometers

Requires: 1 resources/glass pipe, 1 resources/quicksilver

Guides/Glassblowing$therm.jpg

Methods:

• oicurtis
  • Standard heating, rush the pipe in, pull it out seven times, rotate while it heats. Blow three to four times while rotating, unload when the quality rises above 3500. Four blows should ensure this, while five will risk a ruined project.

• Quizzical
  • While making a thermometer (or anything else in a glory hole, for that matter), you want to spin constantly to keep the glass rotationally symmetric, rather than letting it droop off in some direction. I prefer to stand just behind the Glory Hole, and zoom in close enough to get a good look at what I'm doing. Set the heater control to Pinpoint. Don't operate a glory hole near peak times, as it is very sensitive to lag.

• • For purposes of making thermometers, let us define a "tick" as a unit of time equivalent to about 2/3 of a second real time. A "step" is a how far the pipe moves when you push or pull it once.

• • After starting a thermometer, start rotating, and then quickly push the thermometer all the way in. You don't want to heat any part of the pipe very much while pushing it in. You can tell that it's all the way in if you try to push it further in and it doesn't move. Once the pipe is all the way in, quickly pull it back out by 6 steps. If the pipe stays all the way in for several seconds, that's fine, but once you start pulling it back out, you need to get it out by 6 steps pretty fast.

• • Pause with the pipe 6 steps out, then pull it out one step per tick until it is 9 steps out. Pause there, and then push it back in at one step per tick until it is again only 6 steps out. Pause there as well, and then pull it back at one step per tick until it is 8 steps out. Once it gets to there, blow four times. Just to recap, at consecutive ticks, the number of steps out that you want the thermometer to be is 0, 6, 6, 7, 8, 9, 9, 8, 7, 6, 6, 7, 8 (blow 4x).

• • If the thermometer has visibly in one direction, rotate it so that the bulb is as high as possible, and let it fall back toward the center for a couple seconds before taking it. You don't have to pull it out of the heat to do this.

• • I broke the first thermometer I attempted, but the other 30-40 I've done have all worked. This method typically gives one of quality around 7k, and I've gotten over 8k several times. You only need 3500, of course, but it's better to try for 8k and end up with 5k than to try for 4k, mess up, and get a 2k that doesn't work. -Quizzical

• Matk
  • Use front heavy heating. Ram the thermo into the hole as fast as you can (hammering down the "a" key). Once it's all the way in, withdraw the pipe 7 steps "sssssss". At this point rotate half a turn - I wait until the pipe sags and then hit "n" 7 times fast to straighten the pipe out. Wait several ticks, the section of the pipe just shy of the end will get yellow, I usually rotate a half turn 2 more times while waiting to keep the pipe reaonably straight (7x "n"). Blow 4 times "bbbb". Rotate a half turn if necessary to center the bulb. Hit "q" to verify quality then unload. If quality isn't high enough, the worst you will have to do is rotate the pipe and let the bulb sag into place. 95 thermos and counting. - Matk

Making a resources/Barometric Sphere

Goal display:

Guides/Glassblowing$barometric_sphere_goal.jpg

Requires 1 resources/glass rod to make. You must be signed up for Tests/Test of Life to get the option.

Push the rod in about 4 clicks to heat the spot where the middle of the first bulb will be. Leave it for a few seconds until the middle of the bulb location is yellow, then quickly push the rod in to heat the centre of the second bulb. As soon as it's yellow, blow 5-10 times (not counted yet) to get two rough bulbs. It seems to help to leave the first bulb to heat slightly longer than the second to counter the cool down time while you're heating the second. I got spheres of 5-6k with this method.

You need 3 Barometric Spheres to make a resources/Barometer. The ideal case is for the 3 spheres to be perfectly matched in quality (otherwise you lose quality on the barometer - see barometer page for the reason) and the easiest way to achieve that is to make lots of spheres, then pick the closest matched ones.

Chemistry

Test Tube

Guides/Glassblowing$test_tube-goal.jpg

Requires: 1 resources/glass rod

• FaceAnkh
  • Similar to a beaker (see oicurtis' comments below)
  • heat evenly, but ideally let the tip (the end nearest the glory hole) be the coolest part and heat the lip (the far end) last
  • rotate constantly, trying to keep the heating even so there are as few sags as possible
  • blow only a couple of times (maybe 3), then check to see how close you are
  • don't focus on the size of the lip - get the majority of the body correct first

Florence Flask

Guides/Glassblowing$florence_flask-goal.jpg

Requires: 1 resources/glass pipe

Methods:

• oicurtis
  • Set heat to gradual
  • Constantly rotating, move the piece in eleven steps.
  • Once the heat radiates out close to the "front" of the piece, blow 12-14 times and check the quality. I average 6-7k at this point and simply unload.

Beaker

Guides/Glassblowing$beaker-goal.jpg

Requires: 1 resources/glass pipe

Methods:

• oicurtis
  • Beakers are short, so use whichever heating method you prefer. I get good results (7kish) with front heavy.
  • Rotating the piece to keep it as even and level as possible, heat the entire project. You'll need to move it back and forth through the heating plane repeatedly.
  • Keeping the entire project as hot as possible, begin blowing. Go ahead and blow 9-10 times, you need to make the beaker wide.
  • Check the quality at this point and blow as many more times as needed to raise the quality to appropriate levels. Rotate the project while checking the quality to find the "best" position, then unload.
  • I ignore the "lip" as the time and effort required to try and nail it gives minimal payback.

Thistle Tube

Guides/Glassblowing$thistle_tube-goal.jpg

Requires: 1 resources/glass pipe

Methods:

• oicurtis
  • Set heat to pinpoint for this one
  • Rotating constantly, move the project in once and allow the tip to heat up, then blow once
  • Move the project in one more time, allow it to heat again and blow twice
  • Move the project in so that the base can cool down to a deep red and heat up a few sections beyond that. When they're heated to yellow, blow a few times. Never stop spinning the project, and check the project.
  • Forming just the two chambers as described, mid to high-end 7k quality is acheived in 10-20 seconds