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There
are several choices you can make for how we finish
the open ends of tubing. You may want to simply make it
finger-safe,
or strengthen the end, or seal against
the end of the tube.
The following series of photos illustrates the variety
of end finishes we routinely provide.
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| Scribe
cut; the corners are sharp, the surface is pretty flat, but not perfectly
so. |
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| Saw cut;
the face has a ground finish, the corners are finger-safe, and some small
chips are possible. This may be enough to make a good seal against a soft
gasket. |
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| Fire
cut or fire-polished;
the end has been melted, and has a full radius that is smooth. This
fused surface makes the glass stronger, as there are no breaks in its
surface tension. |
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| Heavy
fire-polish or "beaded";
the tube end has pulled together by surface tension, for an even stronger
end. The extra strength comes from more glass at the end. |
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| Same
bead as above lapped flat to provide a sealing surface; the flat has
a ground finish. The lapped surface will seal well against a flat gasket
or o-ring. |
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We routinely lap or grind flat surfaces
for flanges at sealing interfaces using diamond tooling;
Large
diameter tubing with a tooled
flange
and lapped flat. We can form the end of tubing into many shapes. |
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There are a number of other surface
treatments for glass such as;
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