BUILD A GLASSMAKING WORKSHOP ON A SHOESTRING The first firing at Dartington for August bank holiday 2011.

 The workshop was built and equipment installed in less than 4 weeks. Special thanks to Plymouth College of Art for supporting the research. Thanks to John at Dartington for the construction work. It's amazing to think that this spot was empty at the beginning of the month. Also thanks to Barbara King of The Shops at Dartington and Neil Hughes of Dartington Crystal who has kindly sponsered the project through free cullet, the glassmaking bench, blowing irons and the marvre.

The Gloryhole is a new development. it runs almost 200 degrees hotter than the furnace mouth but has no enrgy source driving it. I have to admit, I had no idea that this would be successful when I designed it. I had an idea that air would be sucked in to the gloryhole and out through the flue, causing the gloryhole to run inefficiently. However, due to the unique furnace design, this is not the case. In fact, when the gloryhole is opened up (it's covered with the round ceramic fibre disc you can see on the floor when not in use) the temp of the furnace actually increases by 20 degrees. The same is true of the furnace mouth.
This means that the furnace runs more efficiantly with the irons warming and the gloryhole open. Who'd have thought a pedal bin I bought for £3 from the tip would work so well?
The furnace cost just under £400 to build, but I got most of the steelwork free or cheap as most of it is scrap. The combustion chamber is a standard steel oil drum that cost a fiver from a local pallet recycle firm. Don't fabricate one, it'll cost up to £200  as you'll need a large scale roller. The combustion equipment is amazing. It's far more advanved than anything I've seen before, can be lit and stabalised at 100 degrees without overfiring, has the power to go up like a rocket and heat the much larger furnace that I'm designing and - this is the best bit - automatically relights if it goes out through a break in gas or electricity supply. The price of the burner plus controller and thermocouple is just over £2,000 but this is a great investment as it will run any furnace I build over many years to come.
You can get prices and info from Saflame Ltd
6 Peel Road, West Pimbo, Skelmersdale, Lancashire,WN8 9PT
01695550400 
IMPORTANT - anyone who would like to build one of my furnaces can contact me for permission to use the design but the condition is that you must use the burner and control equipment that was designed to run with the furnace. This is due primarilly to safety considerations. Any installation MUST be checked by a gas safe engineer and a gas safe certificate must be given before the furnace is commissioned.