I know I will probably never get the opportunity to make HID lamps (or any types of lamps at all), but I certainly do love coming up with ways to do it. Obviously if you are going to make a MH or MV lamp you are gonna need some quartz, and it is gonna have to be manipilated while hot to shape it into the desired shape. I have the following questions:
1) Flame Fuels:
I hear that in industrial settings oxy-hydrogen is used for working with quartz. But, I have seen Youtube videos of people making quartz high temperature test tubes with a simple oxy-acetylene torch. ChatGPT says that a hydrocarbon flame has to be oxidizing in order for the quartz to not absorb the excess carbon, but is this really a problem in non-high-precision applications? I know this is a stretch, but oxy-propane has a similar flame temp to oxy-hydrogen (less BTUs, but whatever), would that work? Obviously acetylene is not as accessible as propane.
2) Pinch Seal Details:
I have heard
@James say something about mechanical "hammers" for pinch sealing quartz. Maybe that is just the type terminology that is used in the industry, but do you have to be really forceful with the quartz when it is hot? I assumed that the molds for the pinch seals were graphite, but apparently they can also be alumina or other ceramics. Is there a more accessible option? Again I know this is a
real stretch, but how about water soaked wood molds (like the ones used for decorative glassblowing)? Obviously graphite isn't
that hard to get, but wood is even easier to get (and machine).
4) Shrink Seal Details:
So doing a pinch seal is obviously not super simple. But would doing a shrink seal be easier? As far as I am aware all you have to do it hook it up to vacuum (plug the ends) and then heat it evenly until it collapses on the foil. Am I wrong? This just seems like an easier thing to do than pinch seals. An before you mention it, I definitely do not want to attempt a graded seal. Those intermediate glasses are almost certainly unobtainable.
4) Annealing:
Obviously quartz has a very low CTE, so you would think that annealing wouldn't be super duper necessary, but you have to get it really really hot to work with it so maybe that cancels out(?). Any info about annealing fused quartz? While watching Youtube videos about quartz I didn't see any annealing being done, but maybe that is the wrong thing to do.
Thanks!
