A professional who operates glass lathe to cut, shape, and seal glass bulbs used in manufacturing electronic tubes, following blueprints, standard procedures, and sample parts. Responsibilities include:

• Places glass blanks and tube components in chuck or tailstock of lathe, adjusts and locks parts in lathe manually or depresses pedal of compressed air device that automatically locks parts in lathe.
• Starts lathe, lights gas-torch heating element, turns valve to regulate flames, according to specified heating rate, and heats glass to working temperature indicated by color.
• Turns handwheels or pushes lever to control heating of specified areas of glass parts.
• Depresses pedal to control air blast and holds tools against revolving glass to perform mechanical operations, such as cutting and shaping glass to repair defects.
• Anneals glass parts, using gas torch.
• May operate glass lathe to form glass beads on tube components or to seal new glass tubing on necks of rebuilt television or oscilloscope tubes.
• May fuse glass seal tube and connector pins into side of partially formed vacuum tubes, using gas torch.