love affair with stained glass

have been seriously stumped in the glass working department these days. seems there are so many other projects to get done. good news… all those other projects are done, lol! then i have no urge for glass, and it is no fun when there is no excitement to it.

finally got all the pieces cut last night. for jellyfishees. cut all the odd angle pieces tonight with the taurus saw. that was one of the best investments i ever made. if you are considering it… i say go for it!! haven’t regretted it even once. the blade replacement estimates i think are underrated. i have had mine for two years now and still working with the original blade. am just now noticing some slowing down on the main side i use for cutting. vary up your cutting directionality, go slow with your cutting, don’t force it through, and clean it and let it dry thoroughly before putting away and you will get a ton of use out of the blade. and use the distilled water. makes a huge difference.

i have started using the distilled water in my grinder too. seems to help. the bits are lasting longer. i am also using gel bits. the core is gel instead of a brass core wrapped with the grinding surface. way less vibration, less chipping. i also experimented last project with “rapid” grit grinder bit. LOVE it!! i ended up taking off most of the glass with the rapid bit,a nd then just did a fine pass with the standard bit. very satisfied with that. some glass still chips and needs the fine bit, but if te piece is large enough and you can cover that with the foil, then it is all good. i get the bits on ebay, from apexglassworks: (for some reason the link feature isn’t working tonight, sorry)

http://stores.ebay.com/Apex-GlassWorks/_i.html?_nkw=gel+bits&submit=Search&_sid=17051767

this time i am going to set up a second grinder also. i’ll put the rapid on one, the standard on the other. that way i won’t have to switch bits every time. once the taurus is done being used, i’ll move it and set grinder #2 in its place. i can put the 1/8 bit on one of them also, so that cuts down, too, on switching out that bit.

pretty excited about getting this one going. it has 350 pieces, or something like that, but now that they are all scored and piled up, it doesn’t seem like that is a correct number. hm. i’ll do all the tiny pieces first. get the ucky part over with. considering purchasing a different gripper for te small pieces. but its $20 and who knows if it really will be better? I have this one:

this is the other one:

now that i look at it again, i don’t like it. and its $30, not $20. there is no grippy stuff where you hold the glass… that is lame! ok. just saved $30.

i’ll post some pics tomorrow. the skeeters are driving me crazy tonight, being chased inside.

~ by kellig on May 22, 2011.

Posted in Custom, For Sale, Technique