what to do with scrap glass??

[OracleGlassArts]

So we have a 5 gallon bucket full of water can scrap, exploded pieces, bench sweepings etc. and its a huge pain to move it out of the way in a small shop.

Lately we have been thinking about finally taking it to a dump (a whole 3 blocks away) but I wanted to maybe save it for some reason?

Ive heard the idea of aquarium gravel being joked about, but that got me thinking about tumbling the edges smooth or something.

I also was wondering if it could be remelted in a crucible since it is mostly all clear and all boro, besides dirt and crap that got swept into it.

Is there anything creative that yall have done with your scraps?

[Mecha]

Well, I started with playground sandboxes.

Then it was the ball tank at chucky cheese.

I think public pools are the new hot spot for summer 2012.

[FredLight]

^cringe^

[n3rd]

i use spray adhesive on park benches and then just drop my glass scrap on top

[RedToroBoro]

Non-slip Grip for Skate Boards?

[slave]

At the old shop I worked at I got them to add two new prodo pieces based grinding and sifting scrap into frit. I've seen tons of needless waste..

I'm seriously surprised no one has started a boro recycling company..

oh and my scrap bucket is about 30 gallons.. wtf.

[FredLight]

I just bagged mine and put it in the recycle bin. I did mark it "SHARPS", even though someone told me that does no good.

Next time, I'll mark it "BORO"....

Did you know Schott was making their own landfill for awhile? They weren't advertising it, an artist making eggs and spheres reportedly paid them to dig some up for his work, and he blurted that out in an interview....

They've since removed that from his website...http://www.christopherries.com/biography.htm

[ReLo442]

IVe been thinkin about askin some of the boro fournace people if they want some all clear scrap. I tend to work alot of clear, especially when trying out new ideas. with new stuff comes breakage so I have a lot of clear that I could easily seperate if anyone needed it.

If anyone thinks of something good lemy know. So far I just fill a box up, tape it up real good and throw it out with the rest of the trash. One of my houses they will take it no prob, the other...not at all.

[Greymatter Glass]

dirty scrap sucks for remelting.... I guess if you found a reliable way to segregate clean clear scrap from the rest of the trash it could work in a pinch, but clear is sooo cheap, why bother? If you have your company set up right you can claim deductions against manufacturing losses and shrinkage (so I have heard, never tried it myself)

We fill 5 gallon buckets and dump them in our (large metal commercial) dumpster as they get full.

From time to time I see someone digging in our dumpsters, usually I tell them it's full of broken glass and they walk away. Sometimes they jump in anyways...

[FredLight]

Use Band-Aids to spell out "Danger" on your dumpster.

[coloringdan]

Has anyone else tried the scrap stack? Just like a vac stack but instead of rods just grab a bunch of scrap pieces of color from the trash or whatever, dump it inbetween the two tubes and melt away. You can get some pretty abstract tubing.

[LAWNMOWER]

When I first started, I didn't know u could buy frit! So I would take my scrap and separate color shorts into warm colors, cool colors, striking, etc. Then id put them in a heavy duty blender with distilled water(helps hold impurities, other don't stay with the glass) then I'd sift them through 3 screens to get different sizes of frit. Also I would take all my handles and do the same(there was always a little color, but it made a cool effect) for my clear frit. Now I throw away most of the scrap, cuz I calculated the time it takes to do something with it, and its totally not worth it! But if u do this, WEAR A MASK!

[Greymatter Glass]

Has anyone else tried the scrap stack? Just like a vac stack but instead of rods just grab a bunch of scrap pieces of color from the trash or whatever, dump it inbetween the two tubes and melt away. You can get some pretty abstract tubing.

isn't that what AK does?

[Blueberry Pirate]

I've seen one woman dry out the scrap glass and use it to practice scupture and to make wacky colored marbles.

[Bruce Dille]

The better a glass blower gets
The less scrap he will produce.

[Greymatter Glass]

The better a glass blower gets
The less scrap he will produce.

eh....


there's valid philosophies both directions. Sometimes "scrap" is wasted glass, other times it's essential to the production, but removed from the final work and left over and not really in an economically viable state to reuse... stuff like bridges, punties that get too short, scratched or otherwise damaged glass that gets skinned off lenses...

I'd be willing to say that as you get better you waste less in terms of efficiency, but some pretty advanced techniques can be very resource intensive that result in relatively very little volumetric output.


Also, what about the glass blowing women?

[Sketchball]

Someone I was talking to on Facebook told me he had a yearly ritual.... For some reason the messages have gone but I just hit him up about it again.

From what I remember, he would get in touch with some ceramic/pottery buddies and have them make molds for paperweights. They would make about 5 molds, fill them each with scrap and fire them in their ceramic kiln at a very high temp (2,000+ Deg F??). From there it would just take time and I'd guess the process would be similar to that of using a crucible - eventually the air raises to the top and boils out, though I'm not sure if there is any process of removing scum from the top (doubtful).

Not sure if he said that one or two are bound to fail or that he just gives 3 to his buddies for making the molds and firing them for him, but at the end of the process he walks away with 2 recycled paperweights. I'll post up his name for credit later if I get a hold of him. Overall it's a pretty crafty idea though


This brings up the topic of glass disposal. How does everyone get it done?? Water+glass shards =/= trash bag

[menty666]

My thought on it is that if it's crap you wouldn't want in your piece anyway (like cleaning up the ends of rods), why would you try to recycle it into some other piece?

I suppose there's two classes of scrap: too short rods, handles, and the like vs. genuine junk like rod tips, pieces that had incompatible glass in it, stuff that fell on the floor and picked up lint and crap, etc. But the thing is you'd have to be religiously OCD to keep that stuff separated.

So even if you did decide to crush up your bucket full of stuff into frit, you're still going to have a lot of stuff in there you'd likely regret.

[OracleGlassArts]

i think im gonna go with chuck-e-cheese :D

lotta interesting thoughts in here, thanks for all the responses.

so from considering time and difficulty put into recycling what in the end is in fact crap glass anyways, I think Im gonna take it to the dump. my first thought was to use the shit clear as cut for a batch of color...the impurities just add extra bling! ;) but i still dont think its worth the risk

Idk how cool itd be with mother nature, but I was also considering tumbling my scrap smooth in a river i played near as a kid *the actual river is very well known to be a shithole, no one goes in it without getting some sort of illness injury anyways*

wanted to see what people's thoughts on that before i toss it for good.

[Icarus]

Idk how cool itd be with mother nature, but I was also considering tumbling my scrap smooth in a river i played near as a kid *the actual river is very well known to be a shithole, no one goes in it without getting some sort of illness injury anyways*

The river might not always be a shithole, but your glass will still always be there. Also, there is a reason that the river became a shithole. Probably from people being like "ahh, no one cares about that river. I'll just dump my shit in it."

Put it in a landfill. Your taxes pay for someone to come and pick up your trash, and properly dispose of it for you. Why make more work for yourself?

[re-vit]

This brings up the topic of glass disposal. How does everyone get it done?? Water+glass shards =/= trash bag

dog food bags are less destroyed by shards. kitty litter bags not so much. you need the waxy inner layered type of bag. the Iowa State Gaffer's Guild turned me on to that trick. Never once saw a dog there- members must have brought those bags in.

in our shop, the metal trash can/lathe accessory station gets dumped directly into the curbside pickup bin. it's rewarding to hear all the glass raining into the garbage truck as it dumps; no one else's trash sounds like that. :twitch::chilling:

[Greymatter Glass]

pick up discarded 5 gallon buckets... doesn't matter if there's a bit of dried paint or cement or whatever, doesn't need to be food grade... free is best, but even if you pay $2-3 for it, so what... never rips, never leaks, has a handle for easy moving...

Glass is essentially ecologically inert, so there's not really any hazmat concerns, just dump it in an approved landfill (it's still garbage, don't litter streams, rivers, open space, forests, etc) ... if you feel like you need to mark is sharp or glass do so...

whatever you do don't set it out for recycling.

[hngntuf]

Here's an idea:

http://www.concreteideas.com/recycled-glass-in-concrete

Stephen

[J proper]

Practice your ti signature on your scraps if it will fit

[OracleGlassArts]

I just let it go long enough till my old man dumped it while I was gone, nice of him since I don't drive.
Nice thing I found to do with it is smash it in a bucket or garbage can with a metal bat. Ventilation on full blast it's a great way to get back at all those bastard pieces that died on ya throughout the year. Its "office space" style ya know?

[ithruxix]

isn't that what AK does?




rofl.


ahahaha.


Thanks for the laugh.