Making frit....

[Pyro Beads]

I am pretty sure I read some place on here that you can use a coffee grinder to make frit... (cannot find it now) I just picked up a proctor silex fresh grind and am wondering (before I open and distroy it) if this will work. And if so how small do the pieces have to be?? I would really love to use up some of the shorts I have. (jars and jars....)

If some one could please direct me to a post on this or any information would be great!!!

Thanks!

Nanc

[Moth]

I use a coffee grinder to break my shorts into frit.

First, put the shorts in a canvas bag and whack them with a hammer to start breaking them down. Do this outside.

Next, put on a dust mask/ respirator mask that is approved for fine particulates and powders. THIS is the most important part.

Dump your glass into the coffee grinder cup. You want to do small amounts at a time. Like 1/4 cup TOPS.

Grind grind grind.

Dump it out and continue til it is all done.

Keep your mask on for this next bit too.

You need some screens of different sized mesh. I use a piece of window screen, then a flour sifter, then another kitchen sifter and then a fine seive over a bowl.

Probably a good idea to do this outside too.

Stack up your screens (if you can get them to nest together), with the biggest mesh at the top, smallest at the bottom.

Pour your glass into the top screen and shake the screens so that it goes from one to the next until the finest stuff ends up in the bowl.

Now each screen has a different sized frit. It is all sorted.

If you can't nest your screens together, no big deal, just keep resifting the frit smaller and smaller to sort it.

If you don't want to sort it into sizes, you don't have to...just use it all mixed up.

I do recommend rinsing the frit though before using it because it gets very dusty from the grinding and hammering action and this gets out anything that isn't frit.

Good luck!

~~Mary

[glass addict]

I make frit by getting a gather of glass really hot and then letting it fall into a specially set up coffee mug. Special set up=water in the mug with a paper coffee filter to catch the glass. The hot glass hitting the water fractures the glass.

When I'm done, I let the glass dry out, put some paper on top of it and gently tap with a sledge hammer.

Happy fritting!

Mary

[SunDoorBeads]

These ideas are too cool I have wanted to try both these methods because I have a lot of silver glass shorts (1 in or so) and wanted to make a frit blend but didn't know how to start! Too cool I have the procter silex one in my kitchen- SHHHH i:-$m going to steal it dont tell the DH

[StOrM]

I f you want to make big frit could you not just put the shorts in the kiln at like 1000 degrees and then put them in water to break them up?

[Sue in Maine]

I f you want to make big frit could you not just put the shorts in the kiln at like 1000 degrees and then put them in water to break them up?

This is what I do. I put them all in a stainless steel bowl, put it in my LARGE FUSING glass kiln, take them up to 950 and turn the kiln off. With long needle nose pliers and my fireresistant gloves on, I life the ss bowl out of the kiln and dump the hot glass into a large ss steel bowl of ice water.

Once cooled, I take the shocked glass out and lay it on a towel, leaving them to dry for a few days. I tend to sort the colors out now too. Once they are dry, pick my colors, put them into the coffee grinder and grind.

IMPORTANT SAFETY TIP: Put a damp dish towel over the coffee grinder BEFORE you open it. A large puff of glass powder will burst out of the coffee grinder and you DO NOT WANT TO BREATHE THIS GLASS DUST IN. Opening the coffee grinder OUTDOORS is best but if you must do it inside, put a damp something over the grinder. I also aim it away from my body.

Then I have 3 different size sifters that I dump the ground glass up into. Just sift it thru and package it up.

CAUTION: A LITTLE bit of black goes a LONG LONG LONG way.

CAUTION: After a while, you may possibly get some bits of your metal grinding bit chipping off into your glass frit. Some people use a magnet and run it over their frit. I don't but, heck, I'm am amatuer playing at home with my homemade frit.

Have fun making your own special homemade frit blends.

Sue

[DarleenMB]

If you're looking to make small amounts, simply blow a bubble of whatever color you want, and then dunk it real quick into ice water. Makes nice tiny frit. If you have larger chunks just whack 'em with the large end of a ss chopstick or something similar.

[Pyro Beads]

Thanks everyone!! I did make some frit tonight after reading through some of the replys. I had a bunch of really short stringers that for some stupid reason I just could not throw away. (I save ALL my glass) But I thew them in the grinder and I also took my nipper and cut up some of the shorts I had and it turned out pretty good. Only problem, I ground it too much so it was REALLY fine, but I made a bead with it and it turned out pretty good.

I put them all in a stainless steel bowl, put it in my LARGE FUSING glass kiln, take them up to 950 and turn the kiln off

I wonder if it would work to put the shorts outside since it's way below zero and then in the morning bring them in and put them in boiling water.......

[Moth]

I wonder if it would work to put the shorts outside since it's way below zero and then in the morning bring them in and put them in boiling water.......

It would most likely crack them for sure, but they wouldn't be in as small pieces.

[tammydownunder]

I heat up my shorts and dunk them into a cup with clean water. From there, I use a tea strainer to eliminate the fine frit (00). Then, I use a piece copper mesh to get 001 size frit. The large pieces, I put through the coffee grinder and then sift again. I have found that the coffee grinder plastic lid suffers small chips from the force of the glass. It used to bother me but I found that it burns off quite easily in the flame. It smells nasty but doesn't last long and doesn't show on the bead.

[Tesorobeads]

Some great ideas in this thread to try.

Debbie

[Pyro Beads]

So many great idea's. Thanks every one!!! Now I can finally use up all those shorts I have laying around!

[thl]

Love the baggie trick too. I just managed to find all the pieces to make the pipe frit crusher today. I've used a hammer in a pan on the concrete floor in the past, but it flies around worse than nippin' murrini.

[SteveWright]

I heat of a gather of glass and mash it into a lollipop shape a then directly into a mug of cold water. I just make frit as I need it. And no breathing hazard. Especially with the newer high silver content glass, it would be a tossup which would get you first.

Steve

[Lisi]

If anyone knows where to get all of the screens needed to separate frit into these sizes, please let me know:

powder, #00, #0, #1, and #2

Nothing terribly expensive like the what the Olympic Color factories use, which I imagine runs in the hundreds of dollars. Their pro frit crushers are big machines that cost thousands.

I need the right size sifter screens, I would really appreciate that if you know where I can get them. I will even send you some frit after I make a bunch. (Moretti)

One thing that drives me batty is frit that is in all sizes in the same jar. Some of Gaffer's frit is like that, and I thought about buying 1/2 kilos so I could sift my own and get the dang dust out of it and more consistent particle size. I'm picky that way and it's one of the reasons I don't make my own frit. I have a great frit crusher with some screens but I need more professional stuff.

[houptdavid]

http://www.thompsonenamel.com/products/tools/grinding.htm

[Astrid Riedel]

I have ruined my coffee grinder doing this, it ate the blades in no time at all! LOL
If you are using the coffee grinder you need to take a magnet and pickup the fine metal dust from the blades!

I dont like making frit at all, But I think I might try blowing a bubble ( not too thin otherwise you get shards!) and putting it in water, should make the frit fairly even I think ? Thanks for the tip :)

[tammydownunder]

If you just heat up your shorts and put them into water, it does a pretty good job of shattering it. Then, I just wrap it in a tea towel and give it an extra bash with a hammer. I'm not a frit 'ho but occasionally I need a certain color and I am able to achieve decent results without an outlay of cash. Girl on a budget.

[crystalflipz]

I use a blender instead of a coffee grinder. Heat up your shorts and dunk them into ice water. Then dump the shattered glass and water in the blender and whirl it around until there are no big chunks left. Pour the water and glass through your sifting screens - I use two stacked kitchen strainers with different sizes of mesh, dump the sifted piles of glass into coffee filters, place on a cookie sheet in the oven at 200 until dry. 3 sizes of frit and NO DUST!! Works like a charm.