Suppliers of Studio Products


These companies sell a diverse line of products for the glass studio.

Hand Tools


These companies sell hand tools. Some are better than others and everyone has their favorites. I would recommend you go to a GAS conference and visit the booths of these companies and give their products a try.

Sand Blasters


These companies sell sandblasters. Go to their web sites to get an idea of what they sell. If you're going to do a good deal of sandblasting don't cheap out. I've listed a few below. I know there are many other distributors of blast cabinets and blasters. I would recommend you look in your local yellow pages for a reseller.

Batch & Cullet


These are the mainline companies that offer batch and or cullet. Spruce Pine sells the Labino batch and Gaffer batch.

Grinders and Polishers


Steinert Industries builds state of the art diamond grinders, grit grinders, and polishers. They also have blow pipes, hand tools and optic molds.

Rociprolap


DNS Engineering manufactures the Rose Rociprolap as well as selling same. Covington Engineering is a reseller of this item. Covington also sells slab saws which are good for cutting large castings.

Water Feed Hand Grinders


GranQuartz & Granite City Tool Co. both sell a large selection of water feed hand grinders as well as the diamond pads to go with them. Granite City also sells the Ruemelin Sandblaster for heavy duty blasting. See Sandblasters

Grinding and Polishing Media


McMaster Carr sells everything hardware and then some but they also sell blast media. Salem sells many varieties of abrasives including Alumina Oxide, Silicon Carbide, Cerium and other types. They have a good online catalog of products. See Granite City Tool as well for blasting media.

Belt Sander & Sundry Supplies


CR Laurence bought Somaca and now sells the ubiquitous Somaca 106" belt sander used by just about everybody. They also sell all kinds of stuff for the glass studio. Excellent web site. Their online catalog is something to behold.

Glass Lathes


Merker sells the famous Merker Lathe used in many studios. They also have hard to find grinding and polishing wheels. They are located in Germany. Frantisek Janak sells a most excellent Czech Lathe. I first saw this lathe at the Pittsburgh Glass Center. It is a state of the art variable speed lathe. It is a floor model style lathe. At present there is no web site for this product. Below is an Email address to contact Frantisek for purchasing information.

Glass Furnaces


There are a number of companies that manufacture glass furnaces for the glass studio. Below is a web listing for those companies. I would recommend you find a studio using they type of furnace you're interested in purchasing and get their opinion on the product.
*Makes other equipment for the glass studio.

Adhesives


The companies below sell UV adhesives and I've noted the companies that sell HXTAL. If you're going to do a decent amount of UV gluing I recommend purchasing a good UV light.

Rubber Molding Supplies


The companies below sell all types of rubber molding products.

Investment Mold Materials


These two companies sell casting investment. Ransom & Randolph manufactures three high temperature products specifically for investment casting. Zircar manufactures Luminar or Mold Mix 6, a softer fiber based paintable investment material.

Crucibles


These companies sell furnace crucibles.

EC Crucible

Digital Controllers


Some controllers are more sophisticated than others and some have a fairly steep learning curve. Digitry was the first to make the digital controller user friendly and has constantly upgraded their product line to meet the demands of the modern glass studio.The mainline companies make many different models for different applications. All the companies listed make high quality dependable products.

Burners Tips & Systems


Some of these companies sell just a tip for your burner system as well as complete burner systems. Pine Ridge does not have a web site. Send email to purchase directly or find a distributor.

Wire Elements for Annealers


These companies wind elements for your annealer to your specifications.

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Tools, Nuts, Bolts, Stuff


These three companies sell everything hardware and then some. Harbor Freight sells Chinese made products, some good and some as you might expect not so good. It's hard at some time or other to avoid buying from Harbor Freight. Cheap diamond tools? Harbor Freight has them. I purchased a sandblast unit and exhaust on the cheap from them. Seems to be well made and the exhaust works fine even if it does sound like a cyclone. McMaster Carr and W.W. Grainger are the old stalwart "we sell everything", and they do, companies. I must have bought 50 squirrel cage blowers and chicken timers from Grainger in the early years.

Acid Polishing


This is the only company I know of that does real acid polishing. Some things you need to know before shipping your stuff off for polishing. Your glass has to be absolutely clean and by that I mean if you're sending a sand casting or a plaster/silica mold casting the surface must be totally cleaned, no plaster or sand residue of any kind. If you send your pieces with residue the cost of cleaning prior to polishing will be significant. It should also be noted that acid polishing does not smooth the surface of your glass. It only polishes. If you have a rough surface you will end up with a polished rough surface.

Abrasives


Some of the abrasives carried by these companies include:
Grit for grinding
Grains for blasting
Blades, pads, belts, drills, and wheels
Check their web sites for a complete list of products.

Wood Blocks


These companies fabricate high quality cherrywood, and other wood, blocks as well as a host of other wood tools and molds.

Casting Glass


These companies sell billets of casting glass. Casting glass differs from standard blowing cullet. Casting glass is formulated specifically for casting will not (usually) devitrify when cast and it comes in many colors. As you might suspect casting glass is more expensive than cullet.