In the last post we looked at a range of manual techniques for cutting glass tubing. Most of these rely on creating a scratch in the glass surface which then allows controlled cracking and separation of the ends.
It’s always easy to apply these methods to straight, unbent tubing and for this type of job these techniques are all that is needed. Sometimes however, it may not be possible to break the tubing in the conventional manner, either because it is awkward or impossible to get good leverage on the tube to snap it, or because the length of glass to be removed is just too short to be snapped. Trimming electrode doublebacks, or to make welds for continuation tubing are common cases where a different approach might be required.
In this post we’ll look at the design and build of a simple hot wire tube cutter for the neon workshop using common off the shelf parts.
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