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What do you all do with the bits and pieces of glass that are left over after cutting a project?

I want to be frugal, while not being a pack rat. A conumdrum.....

Currently we have 5 gallon buckets of many colored glass pieces:

Do I divide it up by color and haul it back to Bullseye so they can remelt it and turn in back into full sheets? (You can do this with precious metals and they give you a credit towards purchasing new silver, gold etc. Great idea huh Lani!?)

Do I send off to the glass recyler? Can they use this odd colored stuff?

What do the rest of you do with all those small bits and pieces of precious glass that is now too small to use for projects.

Carla
jeweler, Oregon

re-melt them.

pattern bars.

"Klaus" projects.

make frit.

mosaics.

give 'em to schools.

"What do the rest of you do with all those small bits and pieces of precious glass that is now too small to use for projects. "


Too small??? What's too small to use?

You're supposed to send them to me to dispose of for you

If it's compatible, then there's no such thing as waste... make your own multi-colored sheet as thick as you want.

Tony

Also,

Pot melts

Make stringers and murrini out of them in glory hole

Make beads with a torch

Steve

Steve Immerman wrote:Make stringers and murrini out of them in glory hole

Make beads with a torch

Steve

Make certain to add Paperweights and Marbles and kiln formed beads to the list

Sara

In regards to what to do with scrap glass. I teach at the local Community College that has a stained glass and fusing program. They were just throwing their glass in the trash. Here in Oregon all the schools are hurting for funding, special projects, etc.

To make a short story long, I have contacted schools in our area and let the art teachers and after school programs instructor know that I have scrap glass availible. I keep a list of all the teachers interested and when I haul the scrap home from the Community College I call the next one on my list to see if they are interested in it. Most of them are Thrilled to get it. They use it for mosaic projects.

It really is a good thing for all concerned. The College gets good publicity, the schools get material for art projects that doesn't cost them anything, and the glass doesn't end up in the landfills.

Plus it makes me feel good to be able to facilitate this whole thing.

Scrap fusing glass??? There's no such thing!!

Truly, I have a bunch of trays (actually just cut off bottoms of cardboard boxes, about 2" deep) on shelves under my table and the pieces get put in there by color - not a tray for each color, but for similar colors or ones that I am apt to use together. I couldn't work without my boxes of scraps.

Tony Smith wrote:If it's compatible, then there's no such thing as waste... make your own multi-colored sheet as thick as you want.

Tony

OK - say I want to make a 5-6mm thick sheet from scrap Bullseye (dimensions 1 - 20mm by 3mm thick). How hot/how long do I fire to get a nicely flat sheet, assuming a very approximately even layer of scraps 2 sheets deep?
(answers in centigrade please if poss!)

What if it's not compatible?.... I ask this because I still wonder how regular non-art industrial glasses can be recycled. Surely those glass are hopelessly incompatible and yet they are all re-melted together. And produce a stable new end-product. So, is it a function of the high heat that overcomes the inherent incompatability? And wouldn't that work with art glasses if the temperatures were high enough in the re-melting process? If this theory holds any merit, what would that high temperature be? And could we not then use any of our scraps to make, for example, those cool pot melts? Eh?

Peg, you should be able to fuse an equivalent amount of small pieces together at 1550°F (845°C) for 30 minutes. Hold on the way up at 1200°F (650°C) for 30 to 45 minutes or use Lynne's method of slow climb of 50°/hr (27°C/hr) from 1150° to 1250°F (620°C to 676°C)

Bullseye's Working Deep tipsheet can give you a general idea of how to dam the edges so they stay square. http://www.bullseyeconnection.com/pdfs/ ... eet_03.pdf

I'm sure others have different firing schedules, but this has worked for me.

Dani, I think most of the non-art glass that is recycled these days gets crushed up and used as fill for roads and other non-traditional glass uses.

Tony

Save up your scrap, then donate it to the schools. We just did a school-wide fusing for Art in Action-(1200 2"x2" mosaic tiles). The kids (k-5) loved it. I should be posting some pictures and more about those involved pretty soon.

Personally, I use my edge pieces and make cool looking trays and what-not. The wavey edges add a beautiful abstract element to those pieces.

Have fun!

Ginger

Dani wrote:What if it's not compatible?.... I ask this because I still wonder how regular non-art industrial glasses can be recycled. Surely those glass are hopelessly incompatible and yet they are all re-melted together. And produce a stable new end-product. So, is it a function of the high heat that overcomes the inherent incompatability? And wouldn't that work with art glasses if the temperatures were high enough in the re-melting process? If this theory holds any merit, what would that high temperature be? And could we not then use any of our scraps to make, for example, those cool pot melts? Eh?

I think they are melted together, blended and become homogenized so to speak. Don't know much of anything about hot glass, but don't they mix batches frequently without much regard to c.o.e.? All the different parts come together to make a whole of the same thing?

It wouldn't work with pot melts because the glasses don't truly mix, but get layed down on the shelf side by side or layered.

Just my guess from what little I know about hot glass, not based in actual knowlege...except for how pot melts work

Coefficient of expansion is a major consideration for furnace glass workers, too. Most people start with a batch of a known COE and add other chemicals to achieve a final product that works at the desired COE. Mixing unknown scraps together is less common than you would think, and doing it to achieve a given COE requires considerable knowledge and skill. This article will give you some idea of the batch modifications required with recycled glass: http://www.cwc.org/glass/gl965.htm

There's a reason they call it glass chemistry.

A little more about glass recycling from The Glass Packaging Institute.

http://www.gpi.org/Handling.html

This is all about container glass and how it's used.

Ron

That was a great link Brad. The report is enlightening. It would be interesting to see if they actually went into production using post consumer glass.

I found it interesting a couple years ago when I took a tour of the Spectrum factory to note that they gave away tones of glass regularly to companies that used it as aggregate in road surfacing. They had a hopper set up that dump trucks could drive under and be filled with their waste glass from production. I imagine if their glass could have been recycled, they would have.

Tony

Carla wrote:What do you all do with the bits and pieces of glass that are left over after cutting a project?

I want to be frugal, while not being a pack rat. A conumdrum.....

Currently we have 5 gallon buckets of many colored glass pieces:

Do I divide it up by color and haul it back to Bullseye so they can remelt it and turn in back into full sheets? (You can do this with precious metals and they give you a credit towards purchasing new silver, gold etc. Great idea huh Lani!?)

Do I send off to the glass recyler? Can they use this odd colored stuff?

What do the rest of you do with all those small bits and pieces of precious glass that is now too small to use for projects.

Carla
jeweler, Oregon

We R using ours 4 putting arround plants / later in2 paths gravel / concrete

Put the glass in2 a rociprolap / concrete mixer + grit / sand

This will knock the edges off

Try also just by itself

Here's what I do with scrap. "Circular Reference" and "Urban Forest" were both made with "scrap."

http://www.gregorieglass.com/glass_latest.htm

Way to go Greg! Let's here it for scrap!

Tony

I cut up the glass scraps in roughly quarter sized pieces and cast them in kiln washed ceramic flower pot drip trays, then slump them into bowls or plates, or include them as prefused elements in fused pieces.