es355lucille
starting to spend too much on rocks
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Post by es355lucille on Mar 10, 2016 17:54:04 GMT -5
I tried to search for information regarding glass tumbling. I have a gas fire pit in the back yard. I normally like to gather up the glass and clean it once in a while and store it for the winter. Well last season I tried to gather it up and guess what? It's sharp! No fun at all! So here is my question......I would like to tumble the glass, either to a dull finish or a nice glassy finish (not sure which yet).....what would be a good process to do this? I have a lortone B33 tumbler. I have the grits and polishes when I purchased the unit. But I don't think I will need the step one rough tumble. Would I start with the med/fine grit for a short tumble then pre-polish then polish? I also have plastic pellets if needed. Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me. Brad
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Mar 11, 2016 9:01:10 GMT -5
Use it at a rate of 1 pound glass and 2 pounds rocks. Basically as filler with larger rocks. If you just tumble those small pieces it may take quite a while. But treat glass as a rock. Now getting a wet shine on it later may need further discussion. yes, use the step one grit. You can pull the one pound of glass at clean outs and add another pound. Should take 3 weeks in coarse grit to round the glass. so if you do 9 one week coarse grinds you can do about 3 pounds of glass aprox. Never tumbled fire pit glass. Tempered glass is softest, bottle glass is about hardest. Tempered glass tumble rounds very fast. Beware, glass causes gas and can blow the top off your barrel or make it leak. flickr set on obsidian and glass: www.flickr.com/photos/67205364@N06/sets/72157647518503352
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Mar 11, 2016 9:09:10 GMT -5
4 inch rubber cap bulging from pressure when tumbling glass:
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Fossilman
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Post by Fossilman on Mar 11, 2016 10:20:49 GMT -5
Thanks for the tips James...
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es355lucille
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since February 2016
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Post by es355lucille on Mar 11, 2016 11:21:11 GMT -5
Use it at a rate of 1 pound glass and 2 pounds rocks. Basically as filler with larger rocks. If you just tumble those small pieces it may take quite a while. But treat glass as a rock. Now getting a wet shine on it later may need further discussion. yes, use the step one grit. You can pull the one pound of glass at clean outs and add another pound. Should take 3 weeks in coarse grit to round the glass. so if you do 9 one week coarse grinds you can do about 3 pounds of glass aprox. Never tumbled fire pit glass. Tempered glass is softest, bottle glass is about hardest. Tempered glass tumble rounds very fast. Beware, glass causes gas and can blow the top off your barrel or make it leak. flickr set on obsidian and glass: www.flickr.com/photos/67205364@N06/sets/72157647518503352Thanks for the information James. I was thinking that fire glass is tempered glass, am I correct with that? I was thinking that if it was not....it would crack when heated. Thanks again this process will help me a lot when I get time to do this project!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2016 11:24:20 GMT -5
If it has sharp edges it ain't tempered. Tempered glass breaks into cubes.
Like the passenger door of your car.
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Post by manofglass on Mar 11, 2016 11:34:59 GMT -5
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es355lucille
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since February 2016
Posts: 194
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Post by es355lucille on Mar 11, 2016 12:23:51 GMT -5
If it has sharp edges it ain't tempered. Tempered glass breaks into cubes. Like the passenger door of your car. Thanks Guys!!
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Mar 11, 2016 12:26:10 GMT -5
If it has sharp edges it ain't tempered. Tempered glass breaks into cubes. Like the passenger door of your car. Scott, this is 3/4 table top glass. It must not be tempered. I will say it is the absolute softest glass I ever tumbled. I was guessing that it is tempered, but perhaps not.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2016 12:46:23 GMT -5
If it has sharp edges it ain't tempered. Tempered glass breaks into cubes. Like the passenger door of your car. Scott, this is 3/4 table top glass. It must not be tempered. I will say it is the absolute softest glass I ever tumbled. I was guessing that it is tempered, but perhaps not. Yeah, that's tempered. See? No shards. Keep whacking away to get the cubes.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Mar 11, 2016 13:51:37 GMT -5
Scott, this is 3/4 table top glass. It must not be tempered. I will say it is the absolute softest glass I ever tumbled. I was guessing that it is tempered, but perhaps not. Yeah, that's tempered. See? No shards. Keep whacking away to get the cubes. This is similar 3/8" table glass. It fell of a truck and I collected it. It broke as you see it. I think it was this rounded running SiC 30 or 46 in two weeks or less.
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es355lucille
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since February 2016
Posts: 194
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Post by es355lucille on Mar 11, 2016 23:30:57 GMT -5
I like the look of the frosted glass as well.
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Post by Starguy on Mar 15, 2016 19:45:40 GMT -5
Ditto. Check the tumbler at least daily. Especially on coarse and fine grits. Some may disagree with me but my theory is that any glass contains small/microscopic bubbles of pressurized gas. Same with obsidian. The only time I have had problems with pressure buildup, I was tumbling glass or obsidian.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Mar 15, 2016 20:06:59 GMT -5
Ditto. Check the tumbler at least daily. Especially on coarse and fine grits. Some may disagree with me but my theory is that any glass contains small/microscopic bubbles of pressurized gas. Same with obsidian. The only time I have had problems with pressure buildup, I was tumbling glass or obsidian. And that tiny bubble probably has a bunch of gas compressed in it. Tumbling will sure open them up and release the gas. Like a small oxygen tank can hold 50 cubic feet of gas(at 2200 PSI).
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Mar 15, 2016 20:10:58 GMT -5
I like the look of the frosted glass as well. Glass will cut you to pieces. LOL, after a few days it the tumbler it has no more defense, all sharp edges el gonzo. You can heavy frost it with coarse grit or a really soft frost with 1000 grit. It can be a challenge to get a wet shine. You can look up types of glass and see that there are 5-6 basic categories that vary a lot in hardness. Same with obsidians, they vary a good bit.
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es355lucille
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since February 2016
Posts: 194
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Post by es355lucille on Mar 15, 2016 22:42:16 GMT -5
I like the look of the frosted glass as well. Glass will cut you to pieces. LOL, after a few days it the tumbler it has no more defense, all sharp edges el gonzo. You can heavy frost it with coarse grit or a really soft frost with 1000 grit. It can be a challenge to get a wet shine. You can look up types of glass and see that there are 5-6 basic categories that vary a lot in hardness. Same with obsidians, they vary a good bit. I would be happy with them being frosted and then I could at least handle them safely. I will look at the categories. Thanks James!
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Post by captbob on Mar 15, 2016 22:44:05 GMT -5
If it has sharp edges it ain't tempered. Tempered glass breaks into cubes. Like the passenger door of your car. I hate it when the passenger door of my car breaks into cubes!
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