learn2turn
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since February 2011
Posts: 77
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Post by learn2turn on May 3, 2011 17:07:25 GMT -5
I want to make some sea glass for a friend's daughter.
I have a 3lb rotary and a double 4lb vibe so the vibe is sitting waiting all the time for stuff form the rotary.
Do you think I could make sea glass in just the vibe?
I know they are not as good as rounding as rotary so I don't know if they will clean up the edges.
The idea would be to smash a few bottles, like Saphire gin, and put the 1-2" pieces in the vibe with a 1/4 cup or so of sand and water and let it go for a few weeks.
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Post by johnjsgems on May 3, 2011 18:21:34 GMT -5
Faster in the rotary with 60/90. Maybe only a day or two needed. In the vibe I would try it in 120/220 and use at lweast 1/3 ceramic media or small pea gravel. Monitor frequently. If you try it please post results as I have people asking me all the time how to make sea glass.
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learn2turn
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since February 2011
Posts: 77
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Post by learn2turn on May 3, 2011 19:56:44 GMT -5
I have some pea gravel in the gardening shed so maybe I'll just try that with a tad of sand. All it will cost me is a few KWhs. Next time I have a couple of colorful empty liquor bottles and the vibe is idle, I'll give it a go and report back on how it goes.
-Ken
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Post by johnjsgems on May 3, 2011 20:03:15 GMT -5
Emptying the bottles could be more fun than tumbling them.
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Post by tntmom on May 3, 2011 20:04:05 GMT -5
Ken,
Glass type material if my favorite to tumble! The vibe works just fine but you will probably need to rinse and recharge daily for at least a week to get them shaped and pit free. One piece of advice I have learned is to use graded 220 (not 120/220). It smooths the glass much more uniformly for the sea glass frosty affect, you probably don't even need to take it to 500. I also found with glass that 1 teaspoon of Borax added to the load helps buff while grinding, making it even smoother without losing the frosty appearance.
I think pea gravel might be a bad idea with glass as it is most likely a harder mohs and could cause cracking or chipping. I run 2/3 ceramics with mine.
~Krystee
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playin4funami
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since March 2011
Posts: 87
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Post by playin4funami on May 3, 2011 21:21:12 GMT -5
we have been doing glass in a rotary tumbler and having a ball doing it. we have been running glass and about 1/2 cup of plain old sand in the tumbler with 3 tsp of borax added it, it is not as fast as using grit but only takes about 5 days to get a nice frosted look, we burp the barrel every day as I have had alot of gas buildup with glass. it takes no time at all and by using only sand and not grit it is cheap, the only real problem I found is that some flat peices of glass can stick to the bottom of the barrel and not tumble right, not a big deal just throw them back in the next load. I like the frosty look and leave it at that. my son did a full tumble on some and made them back to smooth round glass peices, the gravel doesn't hurt too much on thicker glass hunks. I don't have a vib but these could maybe also be done dry in sand in a vib I am thinking, for a nice result.
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peachfront
fully equipped rock polisher
Stones have begun to speak, because an ear is there to hear them.
Member since August 2010
Posts: 1,745
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Post by peachfront on May 9, 2011 16:21:00 GMT -5
Krystee, it looks like you have a lot of experience with this. Actually, I'd love to hear anyone's input on my follow-up question.
I will need some tumbled "sea'" frosty glass for a design I have planned. I'm thinking green wine bottle colored glass, which is good, because I can get all the green glass I need.
However, small problem: Getting the labels off these is a BEAR! Now I'm wondering if I even needed to work so hard. Would the labels have tumbled off in the vibe? My vibe is too big compared to my rotary, so I was thinking I could run some glass since it's easy to get a lot of glass. Hahahahaha. Cleaning the glass has been way more work than I thought it would be.
Also, any reason I can't tumble obsidian and sea glass together in the early stages? I would want to bring the obsidian through to a high polish, and remove the faux sea glass when it's nice and frosted. Good idea? Terrible idea? Wouldn't work anyways?
Thanks.
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Post by MyNewHobby on May 9, 2011 18:20:36 GMT -5
That is a really good question .... about tumbling glass with obsidian.
I do not know exactly but am thinking that glass is actually less brittle then obsidian and could damage the obsidian.
I would really like to get the answer on this one as I would love to try a mixed batch like that as well.
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peachfront
fully equipped rock polisher
Stones have begun to speak, because an ear is there to hear them.
Member since August 2010
Posts: 1,745
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Post by peachfront on May 9, 2011 19:04:05 GMT -5
Yes, I need to prep about 5 pounds for my vibe. If it's all glass, that's a lot of glass.
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Post by tntmom on May 9, 2011 21:00:23 GMT -5
However, small problem: Getting the labels off these is a BEAR! Now I'm wondering if I even needed to work so hard. Would the labels have tumbled off in the vibe? My vibe is too big compared to my rotary, so I was thinking I could run some glass since it's easy to get a lot of glass. Hahahahaha. Cleaning the glass has been way more work than I thought it would be. Also, any reason I can't tumble obsidian and sea glass together in the early stages? I would want to bring the obsidian through to a high polish, and remove the faux sea glass when it's nice and frosted. Good idea? Terrible idea? Wouldn't work anyways? Thanks. I don't think the labels are much of an issue, the vibe will remove that and the glue, worse case scenario is that you might need to rinse and recharge earlier because the mud will get gunked up faster. I've combined glass and obsidian before. In fact the last batch I posted had a huge piece of obsidian in it and it's tumble mates were slag glass and a few soft cabs. forum.rocktumblinghobby.com/index.cgi?board=trtphoto&action=display&thread=44793 It worked really well with no issues. BUT.... I have NEVER done a full batch of any glass material by itself. I have always used a minimum of 1/2 ceramics and Borax. This yields much smaller loads but I don't get any damage... Hope this helps, ~Krystee
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Post by johnjsgems on May 10, 2011 8:44:49 GMT -5
I was going to suggest filling with half ceramics. Labels come off if you leave the bottles in water. I know, I've had a lot of wine bottles in ice chests over the years. Obsidian is volcanic glass so should be OK with the bottle glass.
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peachfront
fully equipped rock polisher
Stones have begun to speak, because an ear is there to hear them.
Member since August 2010
Posts: 1,745
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Post by peachfront on May 10, 2011 12:27:25 GMT -5
Thanks. For the ceramics, any reason why leftover bits of ceramic from past mosaic projects wouldn't work? I'm not buying a new product just to tumble glass. :-)
What about cut-up pieces of styrofoam or old packing peanuts?
To Krystee-- I thought I remembered you were the one who tumbled that lovely piece of Mahogany Obsidian! Excellent!
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