How to wrap a nail around the stem of a glass

What do a glass goblet with a long stem and a brutal iron nail have in common? It seems like nothing. But only by combining dissimilar objects can you show something unusual and, at the same time, demonstrate your ingenuity, dexterity and mastery of your hands. Let's do the seemingly impossible - wrap a nail around the stem of a glass goblet without breaking it.

Will need

To achieve our plans, we will prepare the following items, tools and devices:

• glass goblet with a thin stem;
  
• ordinary iron nail;
  
• section of profile pipe;
  
• vice;
  
• grinder;
  
• welding equipment;
  
• gas burner;
  
• a couple of pliers.

Since we will have to deal with metal heated to white and the possible scattering of glass fragments, we will put on personal protective equipment: a transparent shield, long sleeves and gloves.

The process of winding a nail on the stem of a glass

First, we will make a holder from a profile pipe to securely fasten glassware in a horizontal position. This will make it more convenient to carry out the upcoming manipulations.
We apply markings to the profile pipe in the longitudinal direction: on the wide side there is a wedge-shaped contour tapering towards the bottom, on the narrow side there is a slot of equal width.
We fix the profile tube in a vice with the markings towards the top and, using a grinder, make the intended cuts. After cleaning and rounding the edges, the holder is ready for use.

To do this, we insert the supporting part of the vessel into a slot of equal width, and the leg into a wedge-shaped one, which, when lowered, will reach the place where the width of the slot is equal to the diameter of the leg. This will be the place for stable and reliable fixation of the glass.

It's time to set up the welding machine. We put it in the RDS (or MMA) mode - manual arc welding with stick electrodes. Since the diameter of our nail is 3 mm, by analogy with a similar electrode, we set the current to 100 A.
Instead of an electrode, we insert a nail into the holder and close it to the welding table, to which we attach the negative wire of the device.
We feel that the nail is warming up, but slowly. We increase the current to 120 A and quickly heat it to white heat, after which it becomes soft and pliable.
But before we begin the main task, use a gas burner to heat the glass so that it does not burst from a temperature change when it comes into contact with a hot nail.

We heat the nail again to a state close to melting.


This will give us more time to screw the nail around the stem of the glass. To do this, use pliers to grab the nail by the head, place it across the leg, and with the second pliers, grabbing the tip, we begin to wrap the leg in a spiral. At the same time, we try to ensure that the nail does not touch the glass.

Since this was just an experiment, a kind of trick, let’s take it to its logical conclusion: heat the leg under the bowl with a gas burner and turn it to the side. It turned out, in a way, a work of art.

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