>What particle sizes are you getting? how much is lost to fines? Is there any control relative to getting coarser or finer frit?
first off, I sift the glass through a kitchen strainer on every pass so I have a pretty good idea of what is made.
On the first pass I get BE equivelent of 40% fine, 60% medium
On the second pass, I close the upper hole (dishwasher inlet) off with large hose clamp and a small disk of sheet steel to act as a plug (I should have added a picture of that). I only put the strained out medium frit through and get about 60% fine, and 40%medium on this pass
third pass, same set up, 30%fine, 70% medium. and a lot of dust. It's almost not worth doing this pass to get fine frit, as all the glass that will reduce in size has done so already.
any more passes usually just makes medium frit and dust, but by this time you have about 65% fine, and 15%medium. and 20%dust lost to the shop vac.
As far as controle of frit size there are 2 things you can do.
1, plug the upper dishwasher inlet hole to get more fine frit.
2, turn off the shop vac when passing the glass through. The shop-vac
tends to draw the glass through the disposal quicker, If you turn it off, the glass spends more time in the disposal making more fine frit. BUT, do turn on the shop vac before you open the can to evacuate the dust. A huge cloud of dust comes out of the can when you open it, if you don't. It's a really good idea to run the shop vac hose through a window or someting so that you are safer from dust and you really really should do this outside. I was thinking of rinsing off the frit through and very fine screen to get rid of the dust on the finished frit, but haven't gotten around to trying that yet. This frit is "dusty." Wear a mask when applying it.
I'm sure that different disposals make different size frit. Make sure to get one that has meaty looking swivel hammer looking things attached to the blade that are iron bearing, not just a cheese grater looking blade like on the cheap disposals. look at the picture link
http://www.stainedglass.dns2go.com/frit ... e%2031.jpg
Overall this is the best method I found to make frit. I tried the blender thing, but couldn't remove the blade particles because they were aluminum blades. Better blenders with steel blades were cost prohibitve and in no way compair to the amount of frit I can make with this set up.
The pounding press Ive seen pictures of looks like way to much work.
As far as cost eficiancy, by the time you figure in your lost dust, It's probably a tiny bit cheaper to just buy it from a BE distributer, and the BE frit is not dusty, like my home made frit, but, What to do with those pesky scraps cluttering up your shelves?
If you are a float glass user, this is a pretty cool deal, because you can be absolutly sure that the coe is the same as your sheet glass.
I'm going on vacation today. If you have any more questions please send them to me and I'll answer them when I get back
Liam
