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My garage studio lost power, but frozen water bottles kept my glass from cracking

Last week, a huge storm hit my neighborhood and knocked out the power for like six hours. I was annealing a batch of pint glasses, and with no AC, my garage got crazy hot real fast. I panicked at first, then remembered a forum post about using frozen water bottles as a temp buffer. I ran to my kitchen, grabbed all the frozen bottles I had, and stuck them around my annealing oven. It actually worked pretty well, keeping the heat from rising too much while the power was out. All my pieces cooled down slow and came out perfect, no cracks at all. Now I always keep a few bottles in the freezer just in case. It's a super simple hack that saved my work during a local mess.

3 comments

3 Comments

young.nora2d ago

Remembered my buddy Dave telling me about his similar meltdown last summer. His basement studio lost AC during a heatwave while he was cooling some big glass paperweights. He ended up hauling a cheap foam cooler from his garage, stuffing it with those blue ice packs from his lunchbox, and nesting the pieces in there as a last ditch move. Said it bought him just enough time for the power to flicker back on. Always blows my mind how these weird little fixes can save your butt.

amy9742d ago

Seriously, Dave's story hits home for me. I used to roll my eyes at these makeshift solutions, thinking they were just temporary bandaids. But hearing how his quick thinking saved those glass pieces, it really made me rethink things. Why do we always assume we need fancy gear when simple stuff can work in a pinch? It's like our brains are wired to overlook the obvious fixes right in front of us.

ellis.leo11h ago

Actually, those bandaids fail hard long-term.