Melting old glass

I am curious about the makeup of 19th and early 20th century glass from old
bottles and containers. Specifically: Do the melting points of various glass
(glasses?) make it possible to arrange pieces of various types into a frame,
melt them in a kiln until they flow together, then pull the piece to cool?

I'd like to make some sort of "impressionist" type painting with said
glass.

TIA

Jeff

Jeff its not the melting points that you need to worry about, its the
coefficient of expansion (COE). Glass expands when its melted; when
glasses are fused under heat they flow together. When the configuration
cools, it contracts. If the glasses contract at different rates, stress
in the resulting glass piece can be a problem. Its very unlikely that
your glasses will be compatible.

You would be better off using a clear adhesive to glue piece to a sheet of
clear base glass. On the other hand, you could try making the sheet the way
you want and when it cracked along some line or another, then adhere the
pieces of the sheet to a base sheet. This is for your use. If you are
thinking of selling these things, even if it survives fusing intact, the
fused sheet may crack later because of builtin almost critical stress. At a
minumum, I would want to put the sheet in a freezer and bring it back to
room temp or sunlight heat to check stress before hanging it.

--
Mike Firth
No more levees
Bury old Orleans
Raise New Orleans up if it is worth saving
--
"Jeff" wrote in message
...
I am curious about the makeup of 19th and early 20th century glass from old
bottles and containers. Specifically: Do the melting points of various
glass
(glasses?) make it possible to arrange pieces of various types into a
frame,
melt them in a kiln until they flow together, then pull the piece to cool?

I'd like to make some sort of "impressionist" type painting with said
glass.

TIA

Jeff

wrote:
Jeff its not the melting points that you need to worry about, its the
coefficient of expansion (COE). Glass expands when its melted; when
glasses are fused under heat they flow together. When the configuration
cools, it contracts. If the glasses contract at different rates, stress
in the resulting glass piece can be a problem. Its very unlikely that
your glasses will be compatible.


A friend received a bunch of old bottles from an Idaho ghost town. Circa
1880. We separated the glass, clear, green, and bluish. Melted them in a
crucible. He made some nice whiskey glasses out of them. It was rather
stiff to work with but he pulled it off.

If the OP needs sheets I would suggest he melt the whole batch together
and blend it well then roll into sheets.

--
Jack

Plonked by Native American

bobo1148atxmissiondotcom


http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/xmissionbobo/

If the OP needs sheets I would suggest he melt the whole batch together
and blend it well then roll into sheets.
I think he wants to use the colors as colors separately in a painterly
manner, perhaps going so far as
to drag the colors out while hot. This is likely not to work, as we have
said, but melting them all together would
destroy the goal.

--
Mike Firth
No more levees
Bury old Orleans
Raise New Orleans up if it is worth saving
--
"nJb" wrote in message
...
wrote:
Jeff its not the melting points that you need to worry about, its the
coefficient of expansion (COE). Glass expands when its melted; when
glasses are fused under heat they flow together. When the configuration
cools, it contracts. If the glasses contract at different rates, stress
in the resulting glass piece can be a problem. Its very unlikely that
your glasses will be compatible.


A friend received a bunch of old bottles from an Idaho ghost town. Circa
1880. We separated the glass, clear, green, and bluish. Melted them in a
crucible. He made some nice whiskey glasses out of them. It was rather
stiff to work with but he pulled it off.

If the OP needs sheets I would suggest he melt the whole batch together
and blend it well then roll into sheets.

--
Jack

Plonked by Native American

bobo1148atxmissiondotcom


http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/xmissionbobo/

thanks for the input all

Jeff