Glass beads for tumbling

[appliedtop]

A before and after to show how well it works. Not the best pics but at least you can see the difference. One heck of a kick-up on this thing. Anyone know the origin? The seal says DEGUILLIE ELIXER. The bottle appears to be paddle rolled and has no seams whatsoever.

 

[GuntherHess]

DEGUILLIE ELIXER

It doesnt read L'ELIXIR De GUILLIE does it?

My high school French is pretty rusty...
http://cgi.ebay.fr/Bouteille-Verre-souffle-Ecusson-Elixir-de-Guille-19eme_W0QQitemZ180089192968QQihZ008QQcategoryZ38680QQcmdZViewItem

 

[tombstone]

I'm willing to give it a try. Here's a link for anyone else willing to gamble:

http://www.crscraft.com/products/product.asp?pid=98013&L1=2&L2=11&L3=0&L4=0&L5=0&cat=bear+suppliess&sub=Stuffing&class=&searchOffset=x

 

[stinger haut]

I have tried using glass beads on several bottles and have had excellent results.
The smallest size that I could buy were a tad bit larger than yours, but it didn't make any difference.
I started out in a soda because they 're tuff, great results. Tumbling time was the same as if I had used coppper.
The last bottle I tumbled was a half pint historical flask and it came out every well. This one took a day longer than with copper.
RPM's ranged from 45 to 20 per minute.
They appear to be a good tumbling medium, you can't beat the price.
I wonder how long they will last compared to copper?
Stinger Haut

 

[tombstone]

My beads arrived in the mail a couple days ago. Due to the size and weight of the pellets i believe that chipping a bottle with them is nearly impossible. A couple drawbacks i noticed right away, they tend to stick to the sides of the bottle and anything you store them in. They are also so small that cleaning them between tumblings will be difficult. Of course, cleaning between tumblings isn't absolutely necessary, and the polish is still white in the tumbler after three days.

Although i still haven't finished a bottle with the glass beads, all indications are that this is certainly a cost effective alternative to copper and i'm giving applied top a big thumbs up for this suggestion.

THANKS

 

[appliedtop]

I appreciate the feedback. I built my own tumbler (past post) and I just couldn't believe that it would take over $300 in copper to fill 2 four inch canisters. So I tried this with some throwaway bottles. So far so good. As for cleaning the beads, when I switch from cutter to polish I just put them in a large plastic bowl and let the water rinse them clean. Seems to be easy enough and quick. And as you'll notice it doesn't turn all black and gunky in the canisters without the copper. Doesn't get foamy either. To me it's an easier more economical method and with the weight being much much less it should mean less chance of breakage.

 

[tombstone]

Thanks for the cleaning tip, i'll try that. I was stuck on the screen spaghetti strainer and wondering how to keep them from falling through the holes.

One other thing, with the canisters being lighter it will save wear and tear on the tumbler. This also means being able to expand your capacity since the motor will be able to handle more canisters because of reduced weight.

 

[LC]

Hello, I am in the process of building a cleaning machine for bottles myself. I fouind it interesting as for the input for using glass beads over copper. Will try this myself once I get the machine up and going. I have spent one hour or so at a time trying to cut pieces of copper wire to use in the cleaner, and believe me, I am getting no where. It must take a tone of wire to get enough clippings of it to be able to use to clean a bottle. Definitely makes more sense to go out and buy it, than try and cut it ones self. The cost of buying it is quite high as you mentioned.

 

[stinger haut]

I had the trouble with the wet glass beads sticking to everything. So, I bought enough beads to always some dry beads ready to use instead of fussing with the wet ones.
I also use a strainer to wash then and then let then air dry.
It takes longer for the glass beads to tuble because of the being lighter than copper and they tend to stick to the sides of the canisters. So, I tired combining about a qurater of copper in with my glass beads. This made my tumbling time much shorter. However, remember that once you combine the two, separating the two is very hard, plus the copper wears the beads down quicker.
They definitely work well and are much cheaper than copper.
Stinger Haut

 

[tombstone]

Oh, I almost forgot, another great advantage the beads have over copper is the noise. The beads are much quieter.