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Making beach glass

Ok, I skimmed a few threads before we started this project, but I didn't go into a lot of heavy detail as I am viewing this as experimental and using this as my lab notebook. :-)

My 9 yo daughter received a rock tumbler for Christmas and we did a batch of rocks that we bought from a lapidary supply from a wheelbarrow they said was bulk for tumbling. I personally think we could have pre-polished (did 3 days) and polished (about 5 or 6 days) longer but oh, it was painful for my daughter to wait as long as she did.

Next project in line- beach glass. I went to a local stained glass supply house and bought stained glass "scraps"- 10 lbs for $15, IIRC. Then, I decided I would rather do mosaics with the stained glass. :-)

went to the local Salvation Army- after trying various other thrift stores and coming out emptyhanded- at least wrt colored glass :-)- and bought:

light amber ashtray- 4" across dark amber coffee cup- made in France "duralex" brand dark blue heavy candle holder- 8" high light blue votive smelly red Avon candleholder- 8" high cheap opaque white vase

what we learned: thick glass is really hard to shatter. the french Duralex coffee cup shattered instantly into teeny tiny pieces that were all stuck together- I guess it was tempered. We ran out of room in our tumbler with the above mentioned stuff- didnt' get to use the white vase or the clean clear rum bottle. oh, we have

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which is a (3) lb. ((1) qt.) fifteen sided rubber barrel. :-) so we have enough for a next batch which will likely use a green or brown wine bottle in addition to the ugly white vase. the barrel was pretty full but I added about 2 cups of play sand from my son's sandbox and topped off with water. It's tumbling quietly now- my daughter thinks the sand is cushioning the sound. tomorrow I'll check for off-gassing. and figure it will be well on it's way to a fine matte finish. :-)

===== Kate,

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Mom to Ursula (9!), Sage (6.5), Benno (3!!) "A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him or her." David Brinkley, News Journalist
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Kate
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as to which one to use. The range is: 36, 60, 80, 90 anything over 90 takes you into a medium grit. Experiment with them all and you will see many different effects on your glass. If you want something similar to what you find on the beach, use the 36 grit and tumble for 4 days. You can check each day and stop when you have the glass you want. No law says you have to tumble for a week, BUT, if you are wanting beautiful polished stones... tumble all stages for a week. Most important advice: Only fill barrel 1/2 to 3/4 full. The media needs room to tumble. Goodness.... talk about rambling! Good luck and good glass!

Harry

My Ebay Auctions are at

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Harry

Harry, I have a ton of glass that I'm going to be sending this week. I don't know if I should box it altogether or in little groups.

When you do it, you could say that the glass came from the beaches of New Mexico in the Land of Enchantment. LOL

Reply to
Debbie B

< Oh wow... thank you! It would be cheaper to box it all together. If you have to you can break it and it would go into a smaller box, BUT, be very careful! I always wrap it in something to smash it so the shards don't fly everywhere. A heavy plastic works good and I sometimes use newspapers. When I do it... LOL I will be nice, because I do know what you mean. lol Does New Mexico have beaches?

Harry My Ebay Auctions are at

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Harry

I think New Mexico is all one *big* beach. };->

Of course it does: There are probably lots of small lakes and ponds, here and there, and no doubt, some artificial bodies of water with artificial beaches. You don't have to have an ocean to have a beach -- although it helps.

Arondelle

Reply to
Arondelle

No not all all. No beaches. LOL

Reply to
Debbie B

We have very little water now. They are releasing the water for the farmers so most of our lakes don't have very much water. Which is really sad.

Reply to
Debbie B

thanks Harry. It's now, what.... oh, 11 days later and I have failed to add my notes about what I've done. Bad scientist, me.

After a couple days I took out about 1/3 of the glass since it seemed too full and wasn't tumbling well. The smoothness over time seemed to increase a bit after that. Just today I took a look and concluded I had too much sand - even before I read your post!- and I took out about half of it. I was thinking that the glass needed to slosh around more. My daughter thought it was done at first look but then concluded it might need "another week". The glass is smooth and not dangerous but it just isn't getting that pleasing smoothness all around- the smoothness that would make you want to pet it. If I found it on the beach, I'd toss it way out into the bay for more finishing time, so I did the mechanical equivalent.

I did remove the sun that came from the candleholder since it was pretty big, my daughter wanted it and I didn't want the face worn off.

oh, and the tumbler leaked. the sand is really hard to get wiped off around the lip to seal well. I scrubbed with a dry cloth after scraping with a blunt object, but sealed it in plastic wrap this time so if it leaked while I was sleeping I wouldnt' have quite the mess of finely ground powder to clean that I did earlier.

where do you get numbered grits? I haven't made it back to Golden to the lapidary supply since, oh, December, so I dont' know what htey have. The grit we used before came from American Science Surplus with the tumbler, er, I mean, From Santa Claus!!

===== Kate,

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Mom to Ursula (9!), Sage (6.5), Benno (3!!) Nature's way is straight and unerring, foursquare and calm, great and tolerant. Everything is accomplished without the necessity of fabricated purpose. Man's way is equally self-evident. His internal principles are correct; his external acts are righteous; his results are certain. ~ I Ching (B.C. 1150?) Chinese Book of Changes
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:-)

Reply to
Kate

< I use a toothbrush to clean the rim of my tumblers. Don't use anything to scrape the edge, because if you do it will always leak and you will have to but a new barrel. Here are 2 links you can get the best grits from. The numbered grits are 3rd up from the bottom on this page:
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Here is where you can also get numbered grits but not the real course ones. Lookin Tumbling Media:
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Harry

My Ebay Auctions are at

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Reply to
Harry

Look in Tumbling Media:

My Ebay Auctions are at

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Reply to
Harry

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