jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 15, 2020 17:01:45 GMT -5
Using a pair of powerful plier type Italian glass nippers it took about 15 minutes to split this glass. Fast work. This brand nipper is the most heavy duty I have ever used. May even nip agates. Uses 1/8" thick carbide cutting blade wheels. By nipping it with this tool there is no loss from a saw blade kerf. And no impacts to propagate fractures. Best of both worlds. The glass is the thick base section of many hand blown vases from all over the world found in local thrift stores. The nipper allows nipping off squares, triangles, wedges and most any other shape. Lots of shape control due to ability to aim break. It took a 7 pound and 13 pound capacity 6" HDPE barrel to hold the glass. Speed will be 74 rpm, burped every 2 days, large raw silicon carbide(1 cup/7# and 2 cups/13#) and clay slurry thickener as shown in photo. Will probably grind them in step 1 from 20 pounds to 10 pounds for a well rounded shape before moving to finish steps. Patterns and colors highly variable. Many have thick color layers blown in. And most of the colors are blown into the center of the glass leaving a clear layer on each side of the color. Should be a sexy load. Starting them Thursday July 16. Note most are the same thickness and size Large raw SiC, clay slurry thickener, 6" I.D. HDPE barrels with quick caps
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Fossilman
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Post by Fossilman on Jul 15, 2020 17:36:50 GMT -5
NICE! Must have caught up on your chores buddy... Liking the colors!
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Post by oregon on Jul 15, 2020 18:37:53 GMT -5
Using a pair of powerful plier type Italian glass nippers it took about 15 minutes to split this glass. Fast work. This brand nipper is the most heavy duty I have ever used. May even nip agates. Uses 1/8" thick carbide cutting blade wheels. By nipping it with this tool there is no loss from a saw blade kerf. And no impacts to propagate fractures. Best of both worlds. always remember the Hans Gamma interview where he nipped Jasper slabs...
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jamesp
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Member since October 2012
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Post by jamesp on Jul 15, 2020 19:41:30 GMT -5
NICE! Must have caught up on your chores buddy... Liking the colors! I hid for while Michael. Snuck away, that's right.
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jamesp
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Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,553
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Post by jamesp on Jul 15, 2020 20:07:19 GMT -5
Using a pair of powerful plier type Italian glass nippers it took about 15 minutes to split this glass. Fast work. This brand nipper is the most heavy duty I have ever used. May even nip agates. Uses 1/8" thick carbide cutting blade wheels. By nipping it with this tool there is no loss from a saw blade kerf. And no impacts to propagate fractures. Best of both worlds. always remember the Hans Gamma interview where he nipped Jasper slabs...
doesn't seem to be on his site, but the archive has it...
flash version.
I couldn't open the link oregon. Larger carbide wheels can be had, like 1.5 inches in diameter and 3/16" thick. They are replacement cutting wheels for large pipe cutters used in the field for cutting like 12 inch steel pipes. Mount a pair on each pinch side to compress in a lever press with a 3 to 4 foot lever rod and I'd say baseball sized rocks would be confetti in short order. Most of the glass tapered from 3/8" to 5/8" to well over 1" thick. simply pinch the 1/2" side and send the crack toward the 1"+ thick direction and make killer tumbles with fairly predictable shapes. Had to use 2 hands at times or take another bite in line with the first bite. The crack would even go thru a 90 degree turn in the glass. obsidian would be a breeze. Glassy jaspers, cherts, flints agates should be tame-able.
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Post by oregon on Jul 15, 2020 22:44:05 GMT -5
always remember the Hans Gamma interview where he nipped Jasper slabs...
doesn't seem to be on his site, but the archive has it...
Try this link hmmm I guess it's an outdated version of flash, so you have to 'allow' it, that setting is probably buried for most folks.. sry.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 26, 2020 8:07:05 GMT -5
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rockroller
spending too much on rocks
Be excellent to each other.
Member since October 2013
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Post by rockroller on Jul 30, 2020 17:07:18 GMT -5
jamesp do you just start cutting on the vases with the nippers or do you break them first some other way? thanks, ~Roland
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 31, 2020 4:34:50 GMT -5
jamesp do you just start cutting on the vases with the nippers or do you break them first some other way? thanks, ~Roland The first nip of the nippers starting at the lip of the vase can make and usually does make a serious crack from the lip of the vase well down usually to half or 3/4 of the way down to the base and then hooks back up to the lip. Then game is on. This big shard can be dissected from that point. Or the vase can be sawn in half from lip to base if a more controlled dissection is desired. It can be cut in rings starting at top and working the way down. A tile saw rips thru vases like butter. Long narrow triangles, equal sided triangles, squares, trapezoids, 5 siders, most any shape can be nipped. Long slivers if nipping parallel to a long edge. One thing for sure, no saw kerf is involved. And it is fast.
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Post by Mel on Aug 21, 2020 14:34:26 GMT -5
As someone who does glass mosaics, I feel dumb right now. Never occurred to me to use my nippers to prevent cracks on the stuff I tumble. I've just breaking my glass up with a hammer & some pent up frustrations.... And that glass is ridiculously gorgeous! I have lots of glass (I just use old bottles) but I wish I could get my hands on yours! Beautiful stuff.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Aug 26, 2020 8:36:41 GMT -5
As someone who does glass mosaics, I feel dumb right now. Never occurred to me to use my nippers to prevent cracks on the stuff I tumble. I've just breaking my glass up with a hammer & some pent up frustrations.... And that glass is ridiculously gorgeous! I have lots of glass (I just use old bottles) but I wish I could get my hands on yours! Beautiful stuff. The nippers are one of the best finds ever Mel for dividing glass without leaving fractures. They will nip shapes of many choices quickly. Nipping parallel to edge makes long shapes. Lots of control. No loss from saw blade. My Italian made hand nippers are the most robust I ever found nipping glass up to 5/8" thick. Requires double grip or strong hands. Increasing handle length would solve that issue for more leverage. Same concept should be do able with rocks, it would require heavier carbide rollers and more leverage. In either case a wider throat would be needed to do glass or rocks bigger than 5/8". Max throat opening is 5/8" on these Italian units. 1/2" for most glass nippers and they often break the cutting roller. The Italian unit uses thicker cutting rollers. Hammer works fine on glass if you remelt it since fractures will be melted back together. Not the case for rocks. All that glass is thrift store finds thanks.
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Post by oregon on Aug 26, 2020 10:57:07 GMT -5
My Italian made hand nippers are the most robust I ever found nipping glass up to 5/8" thick. Requires double grip or strong hands. Increasing handle length would solve that issue for more leverage. Same concept should be do able with rocks, it would require heavier carbide rollers and more leverage. you could try one of the manual tile cutters, for thicker glass, they're usually to be had cheap second hand...
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Aug 26, 2020 17:35:29 GMT -5
My Italian made hand nippers are the most robust I ever found nipping glass up to 5/8" thick. Requires double grip or strong hands. Increasing handle length would solve that issue for more leverage. Same concept should be do able with rocks, it would require heavier carbide rollers and more leverage. you could try one of the manual tile cutters, for thicker glass, they're usually to be had cheap second hand... The hand nippers do have dual wheel cutters, a cutting wheel top and bottom oregon. It does help. For instance if one of the wheels gets loose just a bit and the cutting edges do not line up top and bottom the splitting efficiency drops drastically. They are allowed to roll too, they are only clamped snug to keep them from slanting the slightest amount yet roll. The sharp edges bite down like incisors in a carnivore's mouth. The leverage arrangement in this manual cutter is going to be necessary to get the needed compression. A plier design would not generate enough force with a normal strength grip. I would really like to have one with serious splitting power, to even process tumbles in the field from agate cobbles up to 3 to 4 inches diameter. Say a 3 foot lever arm, 2 inch carbide cutting wheels, sitting on a ~2" x 8" base, use body weight to apply pressure.
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Post by Mel on Aug 26, 2020 18:10:48 GMT -5
I love my dual wheel cutters (have only used them for making glass mosaics, not for doing polishing stuff).
Sheesh.....Sometimes I doubt there's anything in my skull except spiders....
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Aug 27, 2020 6:58:59 GMT -5
I love my dual wheel cutters (have only used them for making glass mosaics, not for doing polishing stuff). Sheesh.....Sometimes I doubt there's anything in my skull except spiders.... The nippers in the photo at begin of this thread are a beast Mel. They used heavy hex head bolts to hold the thick cutting wheels. The thick wheels only fit this plier. The other brands we have used use a small allen head bolt that strips and does not hold the rollers well under heavy use. And the thinner wheels crack regularly when splitting 3/8"+ glass.
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Post by Mel on Aug 28, 2020 13:20:30 GMT -5
jamesp - Awesome to know!! Your nippers definitely mean business! I'm going to try some thinner glass from my stash tonight and see how it goes. My nippers are nothing even close to yours, but for cutting smaller bottles I think they'll be OK. And heaven forbid I need to buy a new tool....I don't know WHAT I would do....Where'd you get your beastly ones?
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Aug 28, 2020 13:49:29 GMT -5
jamesp - Awesome to know!! Your nippers definitely mean business! I'm going to try some thinner glass from my stash tonight and see how it goes. My nippers are nothing even close to yours, but for cutting smaller bottles I think they'll be OK. And heaven forbid I need to buy a new tool....I don't know WHAT I would do....Where'd you get your beastly ones? Lol, this tool you will like. It's a bruiser and handles thick glass like it is butter. Probably split 100 pounds of thicker glass with no failure. Does not come cheap though...from 'Witsend Mosaic', Amazon was priced higher like $86.
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