fusing neon tubes

[Susan Robinson]

I've got a bunch of broken green neon tubes I'd like to fuse. Has anyone tried this?
I'm wondering what sort of glass they're typically made of (what coe). The phosphorous coating on the inside cleans off pretty easily, I intend to crush them into frit and cast into small pieces.
Any thoughts?

thanks,
Susan

[BSD_Radiant_Glass]

The neon tubing that I worked with in college (UW Madison) was all lead based glass. I'm not sure of the exact COE, but you could gather from the hot glass tank (96 COE) and use the neon tube as a blow pipe and make a little sculpture that would anneal down fine. The clear scrap made a nice kiln casting glass, actually.

I am more concerned however by the fact that you have a green tube. Was this a tube that had been bombarded and filled with gas? If so, get rid of it. Any non red color of neon is filled with an Argon/Hg mix. Yes, MERCURY and it is probably still on the glass you have in very small quantities. It's probably no big deal to have played with it, but DON't fire it. Mercury vapor in your air is no fun.

Besides, cleaning the phosphor coating is a lot of work for little return as far as glass goes. If you're really ineterested, see your local neon sign shop and ask for some of their CLEAR tubing scrap to try.

My advice is free, but worth at least a nickle.

BSD

[Mark Selleck]

Most (all that I'm aware of) clear neon tubing is COE 92. Colored neon tubing was also lead glass(They used to make a couple of ruby shades, cobalt blue, emerald green, Novial gold -a bright yellow, and an opaque gray glass -actually a fired-on coating- that was used between letters/words to block out light transmission.), though I think the Novial gold may be lime. Those glass colors were all available un-coated, though I have seen ruby and cobalt with a white coating that I stayed away from. All of the COEs had to be close, as they were to be fused to each other. There was also some "light-green" tubing floating around that I was told was uranium glass. I never used any of that, but that could be what you've got.

For what it's worth, I use BE fusible colors with my 92 COE clear lead tubing, making hollow blown work. Although BE told me they didn't think they would work together, I've been using them for years, with no incompatibility rearing it's ugly head. In fact, I use one technique that induces a fair amount of stress, and I can only successfully use very closely compatible glasses (The finished product is very thin, and not normally annealed.). Again, no problems, and many long-term successes.
(Your experiences may differ, however. Disclaimer: This is MY experience, and your techniques may not reproduce my experiences.)