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is it possible to use a cement mixer to tumble glass? If it is do I need a bunch of sand and water or something larger and heavier, like railroad spikes? And how long to run it?
Thanx in advance, Lora☺
A friend of mine talked about building a large tumbler similar to a cement mixer. He drank a lot instead.
I think it would work. You could try it with pieces of glass, water and sand. I don't think any heavier stuff like the spikes would be needed. The first question would be how much would stay in. Doe the mixer turn fast enough to toss contents out? Second, how long does it take to get the results you want? That will give you an idea of how expensive it is for the electricity (I'm assuming it's electric). It might be that a couple of hours tumbling would smooth the edges enough for you to work with them safely. How long you tumble depends a lot on what result you want. If you want the sea glass look it might takes days - or weeks - to get there and I don't think the motor of a cement mixer is designed to run that long, whereas the motor of a big tumbler is designed to run 24/7 for years (ideally).
Good grief, cant run it for days thats fer shur. But we did run it for long periods a couple of years ago mixing cement for a foundation. It is electric & it tilts up & down. I think it will tilt almost straight up, but it probably wont run like that.
Brender suggested checking HF. I got the day off, no work. So, I'm going to go check them out. I just cant afford a big ticket item.
I thought about using bricks, but figured they would get pulverized like the glass. Spikes was all I could think of that might work.
Thanx kb, I guess I'll jump in there & see what happens:) It'll be noisy. And I have to wait till Spring:(
Lora☺
If you just want to take the sharp edges off so the glass is safer to work with it might work. If you have a lot of glass it could work well because you could do so much as compared to one of the HF models which are just not very big.
Hi guys, I've been reading about tumblers on other forums, and apparently those Harbor Freight tumblers are pretty popular. Sounds like they are around $30-$40 depending on size. Also, if the goal is just to remove sharp edges, most people seem to not use any tumbling media at all. They just use water, and the glass pieces abrade each other as they tumble.
People say the HF tumblers smell funny (like rubber) but that they are surprisingly quiet. One person said she was able to sit about 5 feet away and talk on the phone, which surprised me!
I did find one thread talking about using coarse grit (HF sells that too) or coarse sand, but they were creating beach glass, and they wanted the matte finish, so the surfaces needed to be roughed up.
I hand-tumbled the tile pieces (not glass) for my countertop. I put the pieces in a Tupperware type bowl with a snug lid, with water, and just shook the bowl for about 10 minutes. You wouldn't think it would make a difference, but it does. You can't see a difference visually, but it makes the edges lose that knife-sharp edge that breaking tiles gives you sometimes. I just did small batches as I needed them, and it worked fine. So, you could even try that as a warm up!
Sheri
*Sunup to sundown*, LOL.
We had our 1st. SG class tonite:) What a trip. 7 pieces in 1st project, I didnt expect it to be so time consuming. But it was a blast. We had so much fun. Is it Tue yet? ha.
I dont have any progress reports for the table or shower doors.
But a guy at work is giving us 1/2 a sliding glass door:) More fodder for my ideas!
I'll be watching for your *mixer adventures*☺
Lora☺
I have the HF tumbler and I tell ya it does stink!!!! I use mine outdoors- the smell does fade eventually but it does take time. If you get the one from HF make sure you buy extra belts for it. They tend to brake frequently. I have gone through about 4 of them. They are easy and cheap to replace though. I dont use anything when I tumble glass, although if you want quicker results the sand or course grit works good. I have alot of grit but only use it when tumbling beach glass.
To soften the edges of my stained glass it only has to tumble a few hours. I think it was a great investment, of course you cant tumble large quantities at one time though.
Hi, I've heard alot of (mostly) good feedback about the HF tumblers. I think they have 2 styles of the drum kind. One has 2 drums. But they are really small. And they have a vibrator kind, thats mostly for cleaning small machine parts.
BTW, can beach glass be used the same as SG?
Thanx, SG is quickly becoming my *second* true love;-))
Lora☺
I have the 2 drum kind. The vibrator kind I have heard doesnt work as well for what we all use it for.
I have use beach glass in my mosaic projects with great success, I made a tray with white tiles and green beach glass. I have seen other people use the beach glass in stained glass projects and they looked fine..it just depends on if you need a piece thats flat or not.
Very Nice chickee, I like it. Yeah, I figured I would need to use flat glass. I guess I didnt know if flat glass would stand the abuse of the tumbler. But I would be willing to try uneven beach glass for some SG ideas. I just need to try a few different ways to attach them together, foiling may not work. We havent got that far in class! Next week, I think. I love the look and feel of beach glass. I want as much as I can stand☺
BTW, we got our hands on a huge table to work on. It's 4ft.x6ft. w/storage underneath.
perfect for glass.
Lora☺
Awesome find..that table!!!!!! I wouldnt have a spot to put it but man Im envious.
Are you going to make your own beach glass with bottles? I have used bottles and often go to the 2nd hand store and buy colored glass's, vases, or anything else that you can nip up and tumble. I know Wuvie has made some really cool glass using stuff I never would have thought of!!
The table came from work. They built a new building and a lot of the old stuff was on the way out! I dont know who built the table but they dated it! It says 1980. It's standing on end w/ the open side to the wall. And it's covered w/wood-look contact paper! I got the *L* cab. on the left at an auction for $1.00. And you may have guessed we dont have room for them either:( at the moment!
I'll be happy if I can finish the 1st project from class. I'm in awe of WUVIE and balvenie, all of you have a talented eye for cool, gorgeous or just neat projects. One of these days I'll be saying *I made that* (☺me, grinning)
Lora☺
Just joined tonight after finding this site - came home from work after stopping at HF to pick up the $100 cement mixer to tumble glass. I have a rather large collection of blue glass bottles and decided to use them as landscaping glass to make a "river" in our new desert landscape. With grandkids and a dog I wanted to be sure it was a safe environment. So far I'm having a blast smashing the bottles (very theraputic) and am looking forward to dumping it in the mixer tomorrow - then it's wait to see how long it takes to smooth down the edges.
Depending on your bottles, it could take just a few hours to a
few days of tumbling. If I may suggest, I would not run the mixer
for long periods of time.
It is very noisy, so that alone tends to make you want to shut
it off, LOL. We found that by tumbling for an hour, then letting
the machine cool, then run it again, etc. works well.
The Saratoga water bottles are somewhat thin on the sides,
while the bottoms are chunkier, taking longer. Wine bottles
are a bit thicker and such.
You may find that breaking the bottles into smaller pieces works
better, especially if you have little ones running around. If you leave
large pieces, they could still break when someone steps on them,
exposing a sharp edge once more.
Just a bit of a precaution for those grandchildren. :-)
KM (who just got back from Eureka Springs, whoo hoo!)
