Hey Ya'll
I tried to post here awhile back, but there was an error. Now I am trying again :)
In the interest of making this a go to rescource for beginners, I think a thread on bending tips and tricks might be nice. Of course, practice is needed, but guidance is nice too.
I love teaching. Here is a little document I give to students. By no means is it comprehensive or complete. Its about how to plan approaches to complex neon patterns. I shall paste it below, feel free to make suggestions or additions. Would love for folks to add to this, to improve it.
Planning Your Approach
“How am I going to bend this?” James Akers’ 2022 edition
These general rules and guidelines used for planning approaches to bending neon patterns. They are by no means the only way- just helpful tips and tricks. There are often multiple ways to get to the same end result. Feel free to add in your own methods as your bending “handwriting” develops.
- Parse it out - which tubes will be separate and which will be together?
1.1 It’s generally good to keep your tubes between 2 and 16 feet of glass. Sure you can go bigger and longer- but things start getting pretty fragile and you can usually just make two separate tubes and make everyone's lives easier. Tubes shorter than 2 feet tend to burn out faster and be difficult to mount (not enough space for tube supports).
1.2 Face welds are unprofessional, but sometimes unavoidable. Think about where your welds can or could be? Where will they be easiest to make and to hide? Will you use the hand torch? Crossfire? Think about how long the tubes you're working with are after you have given yourself handles (remember you could weld handles on if you needed to).
1.3 Are there any colors that should be separated? While you could get phosphor reds, pinks and oranges, it is often easier (and cheaper) to separate these elements into separate tube/s (with a different gas fill). Keep rule 1.1 in mind and go the argon phosphor route if possible/ necessary.
1.4 Less welds is generally better so getting more out of one length of glass saves time, glass, leaks, and easier opportunities for repairs down the line.
2. Scan for trouble - Are there any pieces or shapes that will make my life difficult?
2.1. Look for anything nested inside of anything else. Start from the inside and work your way out in these cases, especially with contour lines.
2.2 Watch for perfect circles or things with near perfect curves. It's good to do these first. Look for where the really difficult sections are- try to do those first or make it so you can weld them in or separate them.
2.3 Are there any repetitive sections placed near each other? Letters or repeated elements should usually be the same. Try bending these all together and pay close attention to matching them. Use the same pattern with the same marks if necessary.
3. Look for traps and shortcuts - Are there letters and bends that I should be wary of and how can I avoid getting stuck?
3.0 Don’t freak out! Remember that like drawing, any design can be broken down into basic bends and shapes.
3.1 Think, of the vertical space coming off the table in layers. Face layer (table) layer 2 (a doubleback over the table) and layer 3 (a doubleback over layer 2)
3.2 Every vertical doubleback will send a tube on layer 2 across the opposite direction. Watch out for horizontal doublebacks in text- will the opposite direction of the tubing cross anything? This is especially true with letters like "E, A, G, F", etc.
3.3 Look for nearby right angles or simple bends that can be reliably marked and skipped. Will there be a double back on layer 2 over your skipped bend that might make it difficult to heat?
3.4 On anything "double stroke" or "outline" find the bends that can "close" a shape. This can make your life easier and keeps things out of the way when bending.
3.5 Return to thought 1.2 to re-evaluate where your welds go if you encounter consecutive challenging sections. Examples of such challenging sections of text might include le“tt”er or igl“oo”. Consecutive challenging letters/ sections can dictate where the welds go.
Like driving, horseback riding, glassblowing or coding - your skills with pattern approaches will improve the more you practice. Practicing with a wide variety of designs and shapes will expose you to a variety of bending challenges and problems.