Glass Upcycle and Furnace Questions

[AlaskaRecycler]

I own a recycling company in rural Alaska and have an abundance of glass bottles from the busy tourist season here. I am currently crushing it and trying to learn about glass melting for upcycle purposes such as art, poured forms, or other uses.

- Can I build a wood fired furnace that will melt crushed glass? We have lots of wood, but propane is cost prohibitive.
- Can you pour large amounts of melted crushed glass into forms for greenhouse windows?
- Can you use cauldrons and crucibles with wood fired rocket stoves?
- What is the bare minimum equipment I would need for wood fired glass melting?
- Are labels allowed to remain on the crushed glass or will that make impurities?

Thanks

[jkube]

Firing with wood is really dirty and you'll find yourself moving tons and tons of it just to keep the thing not as hot as you'd like. You'll find good soft glass tech info over at talk.craftweb.com

[LowTideGlass]

Check out this thread and maybe ask the OP about his experiences working working with a wood furnace.

http://www.talkglass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=62921

It can absolutely be done, that used to be the only way it was done. It all comes down to how much effort you are willing to put into it.

Good luck!

[snoopdog6502]

If you can use waste wood from logging slash piles and saw mill scraps you would surly have something.

Here in many towns in Washington state do not recycle glass, so there is an abundant amount of glass that could be had for the price of collection.

It just such a shame all that glass just dumped in a landfill. Id like to see it made into a building material like big glass building blocks or something.