There is no doubt that glass is one of the most commonly used materials in the world.
Glass has extensive use. It is used as an important home construction option. We use glass-made materials and utensils in our home and they are also used as storage containers.
Mirrors are perfect examples of the beautiful end products that can be made from glass. At times we may wonder whether it is possible to try glass making in our home.
Though this may look a bit outlandish today, we need to bear in mind that the first glasses were perhaps made in homes using makeshift factories or manufacturing facilities. Hence, it may not be wrong to suggest that glasses cannot be made at home.
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Can You Make Glass At Home?
When we talk about stained glass we have to bear in mind a few things.
This type of glass is made by adding metal salts of different kinds. These include:
- Manganese
- Iron
- Tin
- Chromium
Before you decide to make glasses at home, make sure that you have the salts of these above materials readily available.
Most importantly, glass is made from one of the most unique materials and it is liquid sand. It can be made by the process of heating ordinary sand.
We also need to bear in mind that one of the most important components of sand is silicon dioxide.
When sand is put under high heat, it turns into heat. However, this process of melting sand into liquid is not easy and you need special apparatuses and incredibly high temperatures for this.
How Do You Make Simple Glass?
The process of making even simple glass is quite complex and you must bear this in mind when you are planning to make it in your home.
Understand the fact that the beach temperature that we experience regularly is just nothing when it comes to melting sand. Sand melts at an incredibly high temperature of around 1700 degree C or around 3090 F.
The process of making sand in your home should keep this in mind. Further, you also should have the right apparatuses and facilities that could help the sand to cool down after it has become liquid when it is subjected to such high temperature.
Melted sand goes through a complete and total transformation and the inner structure also sees some amazing changes. In spite of the best cooling of molten sand, rest assured that it will not become solid again ever.
It turns into something unique and it may perhaps be a good idea to compare it with frozen liquid. Experts and scientists refer to liquid said as amorphous solid.
It is something in between a liquid and solid state. It has a combination of crystals that give some bit of solid shape to it and it also has the molecular randomness that are hallmarks of anything that is liquid.
Therefore converting sand from solid to an amorphous state is not as simple as it seems. However, if you are able to have the right tools, and infrastructure it is possible.
But you must not forget about the safety attributes when you melt sand and cool it and then go through other processes before you have something that is known as homemade glass.
If you plan to make glass in your home, make sure you have a kiln to start with. You also should make use of a process known as fusing and slumping and both these processes is about heating pieces of cut glasses to a point where they start melting and are no longer in a position to move.
You must choose a pottery type kiln. You may have to spend around $100 for getting a good quality kiln for glass melting.
Many people also go in for the melting cane approach. These are skinny types of glasses that come with a round shape. They also have a torch. You can make use of a propane tank that comes with a torch head.
These torches do melt but the process could be long and excruciatingly slow and could also discolor many glasses that are being melted.
You also need to get the right instruction manual as far as furnace work is concerned. You also could make use of third party furnaces for the purpose of melting sand or used glass to convert it into new, simple and usable glass.
What Materials Do You Need To Make Glass At Home?
There are different types of glasses and they may require different types of raw materials. There are basically four different types of glasses and they are soda lime glass, potash lead glass, potash lime glass and finally common glass.
Soda lime glass making requires chalk soda ash and as mentioned above clean and fresh sand. As far as Potash lead glass is concerned, you need litharge or you also could go in for lead sesquioxide, along with potassium carbonate or you can also use pure sand.
For making potash lime glass you need potassium carbonate, clean and fresh sand and chalk.
Finally when it comes to making common glass you need salt cake, ordinary sand, coke and chalk.
As a beginner who is trying to make simple glass at home for the first time, it would always be better to go in for common glass and make use of the materials mentioned above. Salt cake, ordinary sand, coke and chalk.
Understanding a Few More Processes Of Simple Glass Making
Whether you do it in big factories or even in your home with makeshift arrangements, you must understand the importance of safety.
You are dealing with high temperatures and you also will be using some harsh chemicals.
Further, you also will need molds, blowers and other such things to even make the most primitive form of home-made glass. Therefore, you must not only have the most important tools and accessories but also know how to make the best use of them.
Making glass at home is very much possible provided you know how to go about it. It requires patience, perfect understanding of the various processes, steps and procedures and also the risks and dangers involved.
If you are able to take care of the above factors, there is hardly any doubt that you will be able to thoroughly enjoy the entire process of glass making. It is a learning process for sure and you can expect some mistakes and errors to creep up.
These can be corrected, but please make sure that the safety attributes are never compromised under any circumstances.
