Post by dom92 on Sept 1, 2008 11:25:13 GMT -5
Recently got back in to rock tumbling (my first hobby as a kid) after nearly 30 years away from it. I decided to try tumbling some glass from a broken wine bottle to see if I could make it look like sea glass. I know a lot of people try this at one time or another, I thought I'd relate my experience and also see if anyone has further recommendations.
I first tried tumbling the broken glass in a round Lortone tumbler with some sand from the beach and water. I did this for three days and found that the process was way slower than I had patience for; hardly any change to the glass at all. Decided to clean it all out, and try some course tumbling grit. I did this for 7 days, and it was too long. Some of the glass had a nice beach glass look to it, but some of it had been ground down to almost paper thin pieces. I'm surprised they didn't break.
Since this was an experimental batch, I decided to throw it all in an octagonal tumbler with some fine grit to see what happened. 48 hours later, my glass had sharp edges again and many of the pieces had strange grooves in them, almost like someone had taken a grinder to one spot and ate away at it.
I think when I try it for keeps, I'll go with a course grit for 2 or 3 days in the round tumbler (no fine grit or polish). Anyone have different experiences?
I first tried tumbling the broken glass in a round Lortone tumbler with some sand from the beach and water. I did this for three days and found that the process was way slower than I had patience for; hardly any change to the glass at all. Decided to clean it all out, and try some course tumbling grit. I did this for 7 days, and it was too long. Some of the glass had a nice beach glass look to it, but some of it had been ground down to almost paper thin pieces. I'm surprised they didn't break.
Since this was an experimental batch, I decided to throw it all in an octagonal tumbler with some fine grit to see what happened. 48 hours later, my glass had sharp edges again and many of the pieces had strange grooves in them, almost like someone had taken a grinder to one spot and ate away at it.
I think when I try it for keeps, I'll go with a course grit for 2 or 3 days in the round tumbler (no fine grit or polish). Anyone have different experiences?
