Every neon bender should have some sort of bench weight in their toolbox. It comes in handy when you are splicing with your hand torch and you need to hold the piece that you are working on in place. It’s also helpful when you are tipping off mercury traps from processed units. There are all sorts of different things a bender might use for a weight. I have an assortment of metal pieces that I use, and until recently I was using a sandbag weight I made a long time ago using a piece of nonasbestos tied up with rubber band. It’s been leaking sand all over my bench for months now and starting to unravel beyond repair. Time for something new!

I thought it would be fun to make one using one of those heat-resistant gloves, like an Ove Glove (as seen on TV!) I already use an Ove Glove sometimes when I am bending glass, like when I am trying to make a bend that requires my hand be very close to the torch flame, or sometimes I’m just too impatient to wait for something to cool down if I need to hold it in order to keep working on the piece.

Everything I used to make this I already had around my house, the only thing I needed to buy was the glove. I found mine on eBay for 12.99 a pair. I just searched for “cotton, heat resistant oven glove”, and found several options.

There are lots of things you can use to fill your weight. Birdshot and sand are both popular options but I didn’t have either one of those and I wanted to use something I had on hand, so I rummaged through my kitchen cabinets and found some expired popcorn and long-grain white rice.

Using the popcorn, I just began by pouring it into the glove, pausing periodically to push the kernels down into the fingertips using a pencil. Once all the fingers were nicely packed the glove was just about full, I sewed the glove opening closed using a needle and thread. Because the glove material is so thick, you’ll need something heavy-duty. I used embroidery thread and a darning needle.

 That’s it! It is not super heavyweight (around 1 ¼ lbs) but it’s heavy enough for making splices on the bench. I think for tipping off mercury traps I’d prefer something a little heavier, so might use birdshot on the next one.

UPDATE: After using my popcorn-filled helping hand for a few weeks I decided that it really isn't heavy enough and doesn't serve me well. I refilled it using BBs and it's so much better now! I weighed each glove for comparison: popcorn-filled glove = 1.3 lbs vs. BB-filled glove = 4.1 lbs. 

What kind of bending weight to you use? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.