ataraktos
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since January 2020
Posts: 140
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Post by ataraktos on May 30, 2020 9:55:09 GMT -5
I'm trying to tumble some broken bottle glass . I know, it's not recommended by some, it can be sharp, all the safety precautions, etc. I have a nice batch that I've carefully brought through coarse and medium in the rotary (Covington 3 pound barrel). Well, by the time I got to stage 500 I was having to burp the barrel 4+ times a day. (These Covington barrels, for me, can go 3-4 days at most, tumbling, say, jasper before they need a burp. They *always* need a burp - that's another problem I haven't managed to sort yet, though not from lack of trying.) Anyway, the barrel with my glass didn't make it overnight at 500 ao and completely exploded. What a mess, but all my glass survived. And my tumbler got new grease. =)
So, I've turned to trying a fresh batch of broken (beer bottle) glass in the lot-o, to see how much it chips. I've tried several mixes of filler media, none of which have fully eliminated the tiny little edge chips. It's not completely chewed up by any means. It's doing well enough that it *feels* possible, almost possible.
I thought I'd reach out here, while my unsuccessful experimentation continues. Am I wasting my time - is this glass just too thin/fragile to avoid minor chipping in the vibe?
thanks!
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braat
spending too much on rocks
Member since December 2016
Posts: 350
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Post by braat on May 30, 2020 15:42:59 GMT -5
I've had some success using my Lortone and Thumler 3 lb barrels for stage 1 and my UV10 Thumler vibe for the remaining stages. I've tumbled normal brown beer bottles and lots of other glass and most of it turned out good with no chipping but some of the green Heineken bottle glass, which is thin to start with, suffered chipping but I wasn't surprised really as it was only about 1mm thick at the end (surprised how much did not chip!). For stage 1, I use 2/3 cup dried/used coarse slurry, 1 tsp 46/70 grit, no media, barrel filled to 80%, and water to about 60%. Weekly I pull out the smooth to touch and shaped Ok glass till I got enough for a vibe run. Stage 2 vibe I use 60% media (aquarium quartz pea gravel) and 40% glass in a bowl dedicated to stage 2. I fill the loaded bowl with water and drain water off till it's a slow drip then add 2 tbsp 220 grit and add 1/2 to 2/3 cups sugar and monitor the action till it is slow but not stopped. I add water or sugar as required to maintain that action for 2 days. I don't do between stage burnishing in the vibe as I've found it hazes/frosts the glass so I rinse media and glass by hand in the sink instead. Prepolish and polish stages (2 days each) have their own bowl and I use the same recipe as stage 2 (60/40 media, 2 tbsp grit and 1/2 to 2/3 C sugar, water drained to slow drip). Final cleanout is by hand in the sink under running water then glass is dried and inspected/admired and buffed with microfibre cloths. Oh...forgot to say the vibe is pretty full...2440g media and 1430g glass (60/40ish)...for anyone wondering how I got those numbers, on my first (successful) run I mixed media/glass to what looked like 50% and they turned out good so I weighed it out and it was closer to 60% so I'm sticking with that Also, I've only ever burped barrels when tumbling glass (never with rocks), usually once during weekly cleanouts and only once did it bulge/pressure up enough to come out the lid. Anyways maybe some of the above may be of use? I'm pretty sure your Lot O will do the job with no chipping, just gotta find the right combo of cushioning/vibe action...
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ataraktos
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since January 2020
Posts: 140
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Post by ataraktos on May 30, 2020 18:56:26 GMT -5
I've had some success using my Lortone and Thumler 3 lb barrels for stage 1 and my UV10 Thumler vibe for the remaining stages. I've tumbled normal brown beer bottles and lots of other glass and most of it turned out good with no chipping but some of the green Heineken bottle glass, which is thin to start with, suffered chipping but I wasn't surprised really as it was only about 1mm thick at the end (surprised how much did not chip!). For stage 1, I use 2/3 cup dried/used coarse slurry, 1 tsp 46/70 grit, no media, barrel filled to 80%, and water to about 60%. Weekly I pull out the smooth to touch and shaped Ok glass till I got enough for a vibe run. Stage 2 vibe I use 60% media (aquarium quartz pea gravel) and 40% glass in a bowl dedicated to stage 2. I fill the loaded bowl with water and drain water off till it's a slow drip then add 2 tbsp 220 grit and add 1/2 to 2/3 cups sugar and monitor the action till it is slow but not stopped. I add water or sugar as required to maintain that action for 2 days. I don't do between stage burnishing in the vibe as I've found it hazes/frosts the glass so I rinse media and glass by hand in the sink instead. Prepolish and polish stages (2 days each) have their own bowl and I use the same recipe as stage 2 (60/40 media, 2 tbsp grit and 1/2 to 2/3 C sugar, water drained to slow drip). Final cleanout is by hand in the sink under running water then glass is dried and inspected/admired and buffed with microfibre cloths. Oh...forgot to say the vibe is pretty full...2440g media and 1430g glass (60/40ish)...for anyone wondering how I got those numbers, on my first (successful) run I mixed media/glass to what looked like 50% and they turned out good so I weighed it out and it was closer to 60% so I'm sticking with that Also, I've only ever burped barrels when tumbling glass (never with rocks), usually once during weekly cleanouts and only once did it bulge/pressure up enough to come out the lid. Anyways maybe some of the above may be of use? I'm pretty sure your Lot O will do the job with no chipping, just gotta find the right combo of cushioning/vibe action... thank you, thank you, thank you! this morning, as luck would have it, i went back to sugar with my new, hand-sorted aquarium gravel (per inga's obsidian instructions) so with your detailed info (thank you again!) i feel like i'm on a promising track! also, nice to find someone else interested in the garbage glass! ;-) was just telling someone else - I'm gonna tumble this glass from the recycling, if i ignore all this $ rough I've hoarded forever, LOL. (and yes, the motion is really slow but i figure that's probably important to not chipping. i'm pretty picky about rocks but even more so, i want the glass flawless.)
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braat
spending too much on rocks
Member since December 2016
Posts: 350
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Post by braat on May 30, 2020 19:57:54 GMT -5
thank you, thank you, thank you! this morning, as luck would have it, i went back to sugar with my new, hand-sorted aquarium gravel (per inga's obsidian instructions) so with your detailed info (thank you again!) i feel like i'm on a promising track! also, nice to find someone else interested in the garbage glass! ;-) was just telling someone else - I'm gonna tumble this glass from the recycling, if i ignore all this $ rough I've hoarded forever, LOL. (and yes, the motion is really slow but i figure that's probably important to not chipping. i'm pretty picky about rocks but even more so, i want the glass flawless.) No problem...just passing on what I've learned in these forums. I'd name names but I learned long ago if you leave someone out you do more damage than good...but I don't think anyone will be upset if I pick out jamesp as my glass guru. Looking forward to seeing your flawless garbage glass...
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El JeffA
spending too much on rocks
Member since February 2016
Posts: 353
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Post by El JeffA on May 30, 2020 20:13:45 GMT -5
I have been successful finish tumbling glass in a Lot-O with ceramic filler. The problem is...the wife prefers a frosted look for glass. It resembles real beach glass and looks more natural to her. I have RE-run many loads of perfectly shiny glass In 120 or 500 grit in the Lot-O to achieve that. Good luck!
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braat
spending too much on rocks
Member since December 2016
Posts: 350
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Post by braat on May 30, 2020 20:33:24 GMT -5
I have been successful finish tumbling glass in a Lot-O with ceramic filler. The problem is...the wife prefers a frosted look for glass. It resembles real beach glass and looks more natural to her. I have RE-run many loads of perfectly shiny glass In 120 or 500 grit in the Lot-O to achieve that. Good luck! Ha ha... I've often thought it ironic I'm trying to turn perfectly shiny objects into smaller perfectly shiny objects
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ataraktos
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since January 2020
Posts: 140
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Post by ataraktos on May 31, 2020 13:24:05 GMT -5
thank you, thank you, thank you! this morning, as luck would have it, i went back to sugar with my new, hand-sorted aquarium gravel (per inga's obsidian instructions) so with your detailed info (thank you again!) i feel like i'm on a promising track! also, nice to find someone else interested in the garbage glass! ;-) was just telling someone else - I'm gonna tumble this glass from the recycling, if i ignore all this $ rough I've hoarded forever, LOL. (and yes, the motion is really slow but i figure that's probably important to not chipping. i'm pretty picky about rocks but even more so, i want the glass flawless.) No problem...just passing on what I've learned in these forums. I'd name names but I learned long ago if you leave someone out you do more damage than good...but I don't think anyone will be upset if I pick out jamesp as my glass guru. Looking forward to seeing your flawless garbage glass... Yes, I do believe jamesp stands so high up on his glass pedestal ;-) no one can get upset about a mention of him! (His latest glass, oh my!! I wish I had a friendly neighborhood glass blower! I've purchased some glass from the Rock Shed but I'm smart enough not to try it yet, having never done any glass or obsidian before. I'm sure Shawn wouldn't mind if I just kept buying and grinding it away while I learned but I'm already buying the beer and wine bottles so ... ) Lot-o sugar mixture was so slow last night, I figured I'd turn if off for the night and see how it would start back this morning. It must've sucked up the right amount of moisture from the air and started up fine. (Can't do that with glass in a rotary - 30 seconds and you've got cement at the bottom.)
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ataraktos
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since January 2020
Posts: 140
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Post by ataraktos on May 31, 2020 13:29:18 GMT -5
I have been successful finish tumbling glass in a Lot-O with ceramic filler. The problem is...the wife prefers a frosted look for glass. It resembles real beach glass and looks more natural to her. I have RE-run many loads of perfectly shiny glass In 120 or 500 grit in the Lot-O to achieve that. Good luck! I totally get this! After working diligently for a few weeks to amass enough pieces to move to medium grit, I was almost a little sad. It was so perfectly frosty! =) But I thought the exact same thing - I'll go ahead through and then, if I want, I can always re-frost them! =) They were just starting to go through "the change" from frosty to clearing around the edges when my barrel exploded and I realized I can't deal with the gassy Covington barrels and known gas-producing stuff. (Just had to burp my jasper after 3 days ... the Covington tumblers, I love them. I do. But these barrels almost make me wish I'd chosen another brand! I thought they'd loosen up or break in or somehow, otherwise, stop being so needy after a bit. But no luck, so far. Sigh.)
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