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the poor man's frit

updated mon 19 mar 01

 

David Hendley on thu 15 mar 01


----- Original Message -----
From: Jim V Brooks
To:
Subject: Re: glass based glaze


| David.. please tell us more about using glass cullet.... Jim in Denton.
|


Jim, think of glass cullet as the poor man's frit. Bottle glass varies,
but its unity formula is along the lines of:
Sodium .55
Calcium .30
Magnesium .15
Silica 2.5

You can see that this can be a valuable ingredient if you need a
non-soluble sodium source but don't want to add alumina, as
feldspar would add.
I use it mainly in slip glazes because it allows me to have a very
high clay content without adding any more alumina from other
sources. In truth, my cullet seems to be a little bit soluble, as
it will deflocculate a slip.
I work at cone 10. Clayarter Khaimraj Seepersad uses cullet to
make ultra-low-fire glazes.

To make cullet, I have a hammer mill for pulverizing the glass, but
I've lately taken to dropping red hot bottles in water to shatter them,
as I mentioned yesterday. Either way, the glass still has to be ball
milled (about 8 to 16 hours in my little ball mill) to make a flour
consistency powder that will pass through my 80 mesh sieve.
Clayarter Don Goodrich has a glass pulverizer made from pipe fittings,
with plans displayed on his website. Perhaps he'll give the address.
Of course, be careful and wear protective gear when breaking glass.

Blackjack Clay Co. in Murchison, close to Athens, Texas, sells 50
pound bags of cullet for a very reasonable price. You can call them at
(903) 469-3322.
--
David Hendley
Maydelle, Texas
hendley@tyler.net
http://www.farmpots.com/

Khaimraj Seepersad on fri 16 mar 01


Hello to All ,

David ,

thanks for mentioning the Solubility of Ground Cullet . When
I first started working with glass frit , I read and was told that
ground glass at the flour stage would always be somewhat
water soluble , even if the frit were to be pre- washed.

After the shattering bottle stage , you could just pass the
broken bottle through a Corn Mill on a loose setting . Normally
I pass the glass through 3 times and end up with just under
40 mesh . I use a double barrel ball mill , which will grind this
material down to -200 mesh +325 mesh in about 8 hrs.
[ Hint - if your not into keeping up the definition of your arms
get a couple of body building friends over and look weak ].

Actually the correct loose setting on the Corn Mill makes the
biggest difference.

Much thanks for the address of a commercial supplier of
cullet .

If you think clay and cullet work nicely , try a bit of B203 .
I use my man -made Gerstley Borate , with our local white
clay and cullet , a simple but very effective glaze .
For fun you can always plasticise cullet with bentonite and
some earthenware clay , makes a great building body.
Great stuff , cullet.
Khaimraj




-----Original Message-----
From: David Hendley
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Date: 15 March 2001 19:59
Subject: The poor man's frit


>----- Original Message -----
>From: Jim V Brooks
>To:
>Subject: Re: glass based glaze
>
>
>| David.. please tell us more about using glass cullet.... Jim in Denton.
>|
>
>
>Jim, think of glass cullet as the poor man's frit. Bottle glass varies,
>but its unity formula is along the lines of:
>Sodium .55
>Calcium .30
>Magnesium .15
>Silica 2.5
>
>You can see that this can be a valuable ingredient if you need a
>non-soluble sodium source but don't want to add alumina, as
>feldspar would add.
>I use it mainly in slip glazes because it allows me to have a very
>high clay content without adding any more alumina from other
>sources. In truth, my cullet seems to be a little bit soluble, as
>it will deflocculate a slip.
>I work at cone 10. Clayarter Khaimraj Seepersad uses cullet to
>make ultra-low-fire glazes.
>
>To make cullet, I have a hammer mill for pulverizing the glass, but
>I've lately taken to dropping red hot bottles in water to shatter them,
>as I mentioned yesterday. Either way, the glass still has to be ball
>milled (about 8 to 16 hours in my little ball mill) to make a flour
>consistency powder that will pass through my 80 mesh sieve.
>Clayarter Don Goodrich has a glass pulverizer made from pipe fittings,
>with plans displayed on his website. Perhaps he'll give the address.
>Of course, be careful and wear protective gear when breaking glass.
>
>Blackjack Clay Co. in Murchison, close to Athens, Texas, sells 50
>pound bags of cullet for a very reasonable price. You can call them at
>(903) 469-3322.
>--
>David Hendley
>Maydelle, Texas
>hendley@tyler.net
>http://www.farmpots.com/

Don Goodrich on sun 18 mar 01


David, or maybe Jim, mentioned:
>Clayarter Don Goodrich has a glass pulverizer made from pipe fittings,
>with plans displayed on his website. Perhaps he'll give the address.

Sorry this response is so late. Not much time to keep caught up on Clayart
lately.
In case any of you want to see these plans (pretty rudimentary really),
they're at:
http://members.aol.com/goodrichdn/crusher.htm

Cheers,
Don Goodrich thawing and awaiting Spring in Zion, Illinois
goodrichdn@aol.com