How to make bottle tops??

[Hels]

Ive been making lots of vessels lately, and I've seen several people post images of small vessels with what looked like ground glass tops. How do you make ground glass tops that will hold liquid (not the drop kind from melting a stick, which doesn't make a tight seal)?

I have been looking at the ground glass fittings, male/female, but I don't know if that is what they're for.

Also, I only work in borosilicate. I was told that etching cream will not work on boro at all. Is there a tutorial anywhere for making tight glass stoppers? Thanks a whole bunch!!

[szglassy]

Etching cream does work on borosilicate. I found out by accident ( and a costly one too! ) I put some on my glass when it was warm, cooling from the kiln, and it etched my pieces. It was on there for no longer than 5 minutes.
I'm not sure what look you are going for, but it was pretty frosty, but not white.

[Hels]

Thanks szglassy! Can you tell me what brand of etching cream you used to get this effect? There are a bunch of choices, so maybe there's some that work better than others?

[scoutycat]

I believe that stoppers like that are hand ground, by fitting the two pieces together and rotating them with some kind of abrasive in between. But, I've never done it, I just recall some people talking about it on a hot glass board.

[Tink]

Yep. Jen is right.

I use glass stoppers all the time. The drop kind. And I custom fit/grind each one to fit the bottle for which it's made.

Make your stopper so that it's a good fit for your bottle opening. Make up a slurry using water and the grit from a sandblaster. Get your bottle and stopper wet, put some of the slurry in between the stopper and the inside of the bottle neck opening, then twist and turn it until you've ground them to fit perfectly together.

[Hels]

Ahhh! Thanks so much tink!!! I don't have a sandblaster... what could I use instead? That's what I was guessing, but I didn't know what I could use to do it. I really appreciate this

[Tink]

Helen, send me an email with your shipping address, and I'll send you some grit. It doesn't take much, so it won't look like much when it arrives. Just keep it in a babyfood jar or something and add water as you need to.

My email address is tink@tinkmartin.com

[Hels]

Thank you sooooo much Tink!!! I really really appreciate it!!

[Tink]

My pleasure

[szglassy]

it's called Armour Etch from Michaels. I am not sure it will do what you were talking about above, but it will etch your glass.

[country kid]

Silicon Carbide grit

[country kid]

Here's more information
I had the same question sometime back
Kare

[Hels]

Ahh... do you use it the same way as Tink's sandblaster grit? Wet the bottle, put some in the neck and grind it together?? Thanks.

[Tink]

Originally Posted by szglassy

it's called Armour Etch from Michaels. I am not sure it will do what you were talking about above, but it will etch your glass.

Armour Etch won't do it. You need to grind the two parts together to get a good seal.

[country kid]

If you're talking to me the answer is yep!