Crazy Crusher

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Terry Gallentine
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Location: River Falls, WI
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Crazy Crusher

Post by Terry Gallentine »

Does anyone out there have any experience making frit with the "Crazy Crusher"? I know that it is designed for crushing rock samples but I assume that it should work for glass as well.
GuyKass
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Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2008 9:53 pm

Re: Crazy Crusher

Post by GuyKass »

The guy who makes it says it does. At least beer bottles...

http://www.crazycrusher.com/videos.html
Crazycrusher
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Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2016 9:48 am

Re: Crazy Crusher

Post by Crazycrusher »

Hi Terry, seen your question, and yes, it works well for breaking and crushing any kind of glass. It is finding it's way in to the glass art world among other areas of work. Basically if something will shatter with the blow of a hammer, the Crazycrusher will crush it, and fully adjustable to the size you need.

typical comment..
I have used the crazy crusher for glass for a few months now. At a workshop in Winnipeg at the end of April, I shared my discovery with several classmates. As a glass fuser I use a lot of frit to develop my pieces. Frit is crushed glass in various sizes. The crazy crusher was a phenomenal find and works wonderfully for this purpose. It has saved me countless hours. I thought you may want to know it has uses beyond rocks and not to be surprised if you have other similar inquiries.
Thank you."

---Shiela S.
Terry Gallentine
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Joined: Mon Jul 19, 2004 2:08 pm
Location: River Falls, WI
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Re: Crazy Crusher

Post by Terry Gallentine »

I did purchase a Crazy Crusher and tried it out. It worked well for crushing small amounts of frit. It would crush a pound at a time after multiple reloadings. I needed to process larger amounts of frit so I purchased a small cement mixer with a plastic drum and used it as a ball mill to process 20 pounds of clear frit at a time. I kept the Crusher in case I needed to crush small quantities of colored frit that would not be practical to crush in the ball mill.
Marian
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Re: Crazy Crusher

Post by Marian »

Can it make chips the size of a dime also? I'm currently crushing a 24x48 inch sheet with a pestle made of pipe in a stainless steel basin of water. I can do 1/8 sheet at a time. I made a finer frit crusher from directions here on the board with a jewelry press with an added an electric motor. It sucks up 2 inch strips and makes frit flakes in a second.
Is there an issue with iron bits in the crush? I have to take a magnet to get out the metal. Wow! a cement mixer? tell me more about the process?
tbach
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Joined: Tue Jan 04, 2011 11:35 pm
Location: Hillsboro, Oregon

Re: Crazy Crusher

Post by tbach »

To Terry Gallantine ... are you able to use the frit powder in your glasswork? I have had no problem using small/medium/large frit using my hand-made galvanized pipe crusher because the frit is easy to clean ... but when I tried to use powder, even after dragging a strong magnet through it countless times, I was trumped (wow ... there's a whole new meaning to that now!!) by impurities that didn't fire well.

I can see a use for CrazyCrusher ... don't use a whole lot of frit, but I have so much scrap. I do, however, use a lot of powder.

Thanks for your help.

Ted
Terry Gallentine
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Re: Crazy Crushe

Post by Terry Gallentine »

I screen out the different particle sizes and then wash the fine powder. I agitate the powder and water and then siphon off the material that remains in suspension. The remaining powder seems usable. As for the question about cleaning the iron out of the frit, I know some in the forum have had luck with magnets but I didn't. I ended up using a 10% dilution hydrochloric (muriatic) acid bath to solve out the small iron particles and then I wash the material with a few water rinses. The cement mixer does work well. I use a closed 5 gallon poly drum positioned sideways in the mixer drum to contain the glass and steel balls. It seems to give maximum agitation to the glass and milling medium.
Marian
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Re: Crazy Crusher

Post by Marian »

HI Terry, Do you have a picture of the cement mixer mill? I want to try this, I use a lot of frit about the size of a dime. Where did you get the stainless balls? What size are they?
Terry Gallentine
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Re: Crazy Crusher

Post by Terry Gallentine »

I am out of town right now but when I get back, I will take a picture of the mixer setup and post it. I am using 1" carbon steel balls instead of stainless balls because of the price. I get the steel balls from Online Metals.
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