Beaker / Test Tube Coffee Mug

Ever been down the ole Laboratory early one morning and some has lifted you favourite, and only coffee cup from your desk....

You are desperate for a coffee so you find some glassware and decide to just "knock one up"! No Worries!

A beaker on its own is a bit "Polish 2008 Industrial Techno club" so you decide to impart some charm on it, by creating a comfortable drinking handle...

This instructable seriously takes about 3 minutes start to finish, it does however involve high temperature and is dangerous to anyone not familiar with a gas torch.

SO BE CAREFUL RIGHT!!

Required items:

1 x Borosilicate 3.3coe Glass Beaker

1 x Borosilicate 3.3coe Glass Test Tube (I used 13mm x 1mm x 125mm long - Not dispoable, A good one)

1 x Gas torch, Map gas or equivilent heat is ok, propane works but will take longer

Somewhere to fix your torch in a comfortable direction at a good work angle.

Safety Gloves , Eye protection, Ventilation, First aid kit.

A little bit of dexterity.

Mark with a pen or with reference points, exactly where you would like to put the start of the handle. I have only got a 125ml beaker , so right near the top is suited.

OK - NOW

1. Turn on your torch. Have a nice controllable medium flame burning-

2. Heat up the Beaker in the spot you want to attach the handle, it is thicker so heat it for about 30 seconds.

3. At the same time, (after 30 seconds) place the very end (last 5mm) of the open end of the test tube into the flame as you continue to heat the beaker, keep both on the flame for another 30 Seconds -

4. Once the open end of the test tube is molten, push it against the beaker in the chosen spot, let the torch flame continue to envelope the union point for another 20 seconds. Hold the closed end of the test tube to stabilise.

5. Remove from flame and let to cool completely.

6. If it cracks then you didnt heat the surrounding areas of the union point enough, and didnt heat a large enough surface area.

Once cooled: You should be left like this - nicely attached test tube. Just need to bend it down.

Align where you want the handle to go and simply heat the test tube and let it fall the position you want, or if you cant wait, just give it a hand to bend around.

The Test tube will be stuck so well to the beaker, it cant possibly come off, not if you attached as described.

If you managed a perfect seal when attaching, the test tube will expand and pop a small hole due to expanding moisture and air inside, dont worry, you wont die..

If you dont use glass with the same expansion rate coefficient, it wont work, or will be much harder to do without cracking the beaker. 33coe is what you need, borosilicate 33coe or 3.3. Plenty on Ebay, amazon, whatever you like.

I guess you can do whatever you like now. Attach more stuff, jazz it right up. Whatever.. you have a cup, and coffee will be in your body soon :)

Freda Tyger :)