Glass April 10 melt/cabs

I have never had luck drilling stone or glass but would like to figure it out. TheRock had some ideas his wife uses in the wire wrapping section. Jugglerguy posted this reply that makes the most sense to my brain. " Duke, I don’t understand the little Jet Ballistic cup for drilling in. I drill hundreds of holes in pudding stones to make beads for a friend. I’m just drilling 1mm holes. I use a Dremel in a drill press stand. I also cut larger holes for other projects with a regular wood working drill press. In both cases, I drill in a sandwich sized Tupperware type container with water in it. I put a small piece of 1/4 in plywood in the bottom so I don’t drill a hole in the container when I go through the stone.

When doing the pudding stone beads, I drill from both sides to avoid blowout. I glue a short piece of the 1mm drill bit I use into the plywood so it sticks up about 1/16 of an inch. After drilling about half way through, I line up the short bit in the plywood with my bit in the Dremel. Then I set the partially drilled bead on the short bit and drill the rest of the way through. I hit the hole every time that way without any blowout."

Read more: forum.rocktumblinghobby.com/thread/82329/maryjanes-first-stab-jewelry#ixzz5CCTUwRg1

This is my little drill for the foredom, nice because it has a reostat foot control.

Those pendants are fabulous, but the bails are meh, and kind of take away from the pendants.
You can get much prettier bails where the shape more closely matches the pendant.
And yes, bigger too, for practical purposes.

Maybe you should go into the stained-glass window biz.
You make such beautiful things.

I would prefer to sell the pendants wholesale to those that wrap and set lookatthat.
Just thought I would get them out there on Etsy with bails and practice listings/photos.
Done filled up a roll around tool chest so the inventory is ready for market. Lots of stock.

Thanks for the kind words. Real love is melting/grinding the small pieces of glass into pendants.
Such small melts allows so many variations.

I found that the Crystalite Triple Ripple Drills from Kingsley North were the best bits for drilling. They were only $125 per 100 back in the day but are $225 per 100 now. Most glass is fairly easy on drill bits so you should get many holes with 1 bit. It sucks when it takes 4 or 5 bits for 1 hole! I have drilled many hundreds of holes with bits. I have a 4 X 6 X 3/4" dish that I use a piece of obsidian in the bottom with water covering the pendant. The obsidian is to pendant on to help keep the back from blowing out. Obsidian is soft so no harm to the bit. I do not use a drill press, tried it did not like it.


Well that is basically the way I 'did' it because I have am ultrasonic drill that I use now. The cost to drill with that is very low but they cost a lot to buy. If you keep at this and drill thousands of  cabs it may become the way to go. Highland Park    I bought mine used but it came from this dealer Ultrasonic Drill and he is a very nice person to talk to. Ultrasonic drill are a bugger to figure out how to use the right way but once a person gets it right it is very fast.............MrP

Digesting this Michael.

Tuesday melt. wife has taken on store bought colored back plate melts. But they are hybridized with the blower's scraps.
My green lines melt was too far apart to connect into a continuous slab so it will get a re-melt.




Been grinding metal for 40 years, only in the past few weeks have I tried cabs

wife's red back plate melt and a vase I commissioned. tumble ready



Made some techno cabs out of failed green melt. Stringered glass cost a lot more so these scraps are desirable. tumble ready

parasites ?

First with my bails, not sure how I will do the ones that are clear and I can see the bail through.

Those represent about 20% of the melt.
I nipped the clear sections out of rest and extracted the grass sections and will remelt them together for more of same.