Hi

[Loftaris]

Hey folks. I have never melted glass before, I came in search of some help.

I've been looking up how to melt sand and such online, but the one thing I can't find, is what to melt it in.

What i'm looking for is a small container that I can place into a fire pit that I could use to melt some sand. I'm doing some experiments with some boy scouts to see if we can get it to melt, what mixture of ingredients we can use to melt different types of sands, etc.

So, what I'm asking for, is where can I buy a container for such a purpose, can anyone direct me to a website, please?

Thanks a bunch.

[derekg0]

I think you might've mistaken the name of the forum for what most folks here do... I guess it's possible to melt sand in a wood fire pit, however i think you'd need some type of bellow system to introduce enough air to get it up around 3000F or more, since we're mostly lampworkers we buy our glass already made into rods or tube, or at least cullet(broken up pieces of glass).

I don't know if anyone on this forum is actually making their glass from sand, since you don't know what's in the sand it'd be hard to have any purity. But it sounds like a fun time trying to do it, oh and fyi glass is made by adding other components to silica sand to lower it's melting point and give it the properties that the maker wants.

I'm not much help, but good luck,
D

[derekg0]

here's a link to what folks melt already formed glass in, don't know if these crucibles would hold up in a campfire

http://www.sundanceglass.com/cruciblesr.htm

[russo]

A cast iron pan can be used as shown here http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2008-11/making-glass-grill-video, please note that is one hell of a dangerous way (and not quite what you had in mind) to do it...

If I were going to try it I think I would use a old-school cast iron dutch oven and some borax or build a crucible (with a lid) out of porcelain (again adding borax with the sand). The reason for the lid is so you can 1/2-2/3 bury the container in the fire-pit (before building the fire), mix you components (not sure of the % of borax you need) throw the lid on and build your fire. The "pot/vessel" being 1/2-2/3 buried and the coals on top should make the glass cool slow enough to be some what stable once cool, it'll still be pretty brittle I would think though

Things to keep in mind...

The container's lid should be loose enough that air can vent as it warms, I doubt it would explode but you wouldn't want the air to force toe lid out of place and end up with a bunch of coals/ash in your project.

Wood with lots of pitch should help you achieve higher temp, this may or may not be needed.

If you make your own crucible you could make a pattern on the bottom of the inside so you could make some kind of wall hanging out of it after (like with the boyscout troop # or something).
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damn you, now i want to try it....