On Jul 10, 11:39 am, "Michael Faurot"
wrote:
william kossack wrote:
I use crushed stone such as Turquoise and Malachite on some of my
turnings. The cost for already crushed stone ranges from $10 and ounce
to $20 an ounce.

I've been experimenting with doing something similar, although instead
of stone, I'm going to use stained glass scraps. My wife does stained
glass, and there's always plenty of those scraps around that can be
had for nothing.

I've purchased some nuggets and I was wondering how to best crush it
myself. Anyone have a simple solution?

While my use of stained glass isn't necessarily going to be a
substitute for something like Turquoise, stained glass does crush
pretty easy. I've just used the freezer style resealable bags, as
the plastic is a little thicker, and then just tap them with a
hammer or sledge. It doesn't take a lot of force to break the glass
so just tapping helps keep the bag from completely disintegrating
during the grinding process.

As mentioned, I've been experimenting with this. So far, I've yet to
find the right glue to use. I've been using "clear" epoxy, but when
it dries, it has been cloudy, and thus obscuring the glass granules
underneath. Can anyone recommend a good glue to use that dries clear,
hard and is also (hopefully) relatively inexpensive?

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I have found several very good epoxies that end up crystal clear. The
best ones are marine epoxies, so you will spend much more money on the
cemicals, but they are great:
MAS and system 3 resins (can get from http://www.clcboats.com/epoxy_plywood.php)
Have used both with good results


and I have used this one a lot with good results (used on fiberglass
and as a top coat, and it cured crystal clear):
http://www.shopmaninc.com/epoxy.html #635 thin

I have NOT tried this, but it looks even clearer than the #635 above,
has a reasonable price. http://jgreer.com/

They're all about the same price. I think

West System epoxy http://www.westsystem.com/ you can get at a lot of
marine supply stores, and I find the 105 + 205 is very clear, however
their literature says "not intended for clear coating" don't know if
it's referring to poor UV protection or what, but something to
consider. Also, of all of them West system uses a 5:1 ratio for the
mixing which is harder to verify exactly when mixing small batches, so
I avoid it for that reason.

The downside for you inlaying is the cure time for these clear
epoxies, which goes into several hours, and if you're doing it on a
flat surface, that's not a problem, but on curved surface, you want a
faster cure.

The cheapest faster cure by the gallon is Devcon 2 ton crystal clear
epoxy, however it's really hard to find the gallon kit anymore, and
this one may become hazy in time, but I used it and it seemed very
clear to me.

With all epoxies, you can make them cure quickly with a heat gun, but
be careful...too fast and it cracks as it cures.