Pebbled Glass

[Mark]

Reason I ask, how hard would it be to cast a resin cast from a fresnel lamp?

[purpleblancmange]

I don't think it's that difficult, I think we made a mould somewhere, but the casts really would be expensive!

[retfordlad]

What ho -

Looks like Purp. beat me to a reply ! Casting is Peasy - these days peasier and peasier. Theres now a huge variety of resins - some fast cure and slow - Water resin will do the job nicely !

Muggins here is thinking of doing the top row hammered plain, bottom hammered again 'cept the middle panel in blue in a nod to the " Evenin' All School Of Clip Round The Ear" - - and probably in a nice blue hammered ! Its out there but if I cant get the right shade I'll just futz it with a thick bit of lighting gel back-mounted - -

Steve

[hb88banzai]

Also on ebay for clear hammered glass:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8192146274&category=3102

and if the item link expires you should be able to isolate a later offering on the seller's ebay store here:

http://stores.ebay.com/Clymers-Stained-Glass-Supplies_W0QQssPageNameZviQ3asibQ3astoreviewQQtZkm

(just do an in-store search for "hammered")

The pic they give is not very good for telling how good it actually looks (badly back-lit) and it might not be quite pebbly enough.  I have checked with the sellers, though, and it is 1/8" thick and easy to cut to size (straight-edge and glass cutter with careful tapping).  Should yield around four panes per sheet if careful and as long as the pattern is more or less random rather than being directionally biased. 

Or, if it is a decent pattern it could be used as above for making a mold to cast your own in plastic.   I should think that, regardless, making a mold of a larger piece and then cutting that (or making a mold of multiple panes) might be preferable to making a mold of only one pane of already cut-to-size glass so you don't have an identical pattern on every pane - to maintain the illusion of randomness to the pattern from pane to pane.

[TG]

Or if you are in the UK
Pebbled/hammered glass is available from
www.antiqueglassstudio.co.uk
Look at their 'Glass Match' page.
I paid £4.50 per pane!!!

[ironageman]

What I planned to do, when I was thinking along Barnet-box lines, was to save time by casting the whole window in clear resin then just painting the glazing bar parts (old-English-)white. I never got as far as trying it out so I don't know whether this a genuinely cunning plan or more of a Baldrick-style cunning plan.

[Mark]

hmmmmm, cunning! I like it!

[Scarfwearer]

"The fiendish cunning of the man..."

Crispin

[Scarfwearer]

I just got a piece over the internet from
http://www.cathedralstainedglass.com/spectrum1.html
(item S100H) for $5.45 which looks like this:


This piece is a foot square so I could get 4 or maybe 6 panes from it.
The shipping cost more than the glass for this single piece.
I think this will work for me though.

Now I just have to figure out how to cut it  :-/

Crispin

[Mark]

Carefully!

I've just about got my glass (1 and a bit 1' x 1.5' panes) which I've borrowed from a window at work.

the glass is original old stuff and very fragile (hence the 'bit' :-/)

[retfordlad]

Total cost for all my windos - inc. insured shipping - turned out to be $137.00. Not bad eh ?

Middle window of bottom row Im doing in BLUE pebbled glass - yes it is available in the same parttern size ! Nice eh - intend to make an internal box/frame, add the glass THEN rear mount a sheet of sanded acrylic to mask any interior shadows.

Next is the internal phonebox then the top signs Will use the signboxes which came with, just modify and insert pre-printed on clear acrylic signs. I intend to experiment to avoid the edging effect of the white backing - - I may well use a milky-white glass/acrylic as the mount so that it is already pre-colored white.

Steve 8-)

Steve 8-)

[mantamatt]

Hi Timegirl,

Great job so far on your tardis!

I'm rebuilding my box after a move and am planning to do a proper job this time and want some proper glass for the panes. I went to the website you got your glass from.

It seems the price may have gone up! They quoted over 10 quid per pane, each piece 7.5 x 15.5 cm. This was for cutting VAT and delivery. Which is a good deal more than 4.50 per pane!

Would you mind telling me if the size of your glass varied much from what I'm asking? Am I being stung?!

Cheers, Matt

Edit: Also, how many did you order? Was it the 'regular' sixteen? I asked for 8 as I thought it would cut down on the cost if I tried to cast some copies from the real ones to fill in the back of the box!

[TG]

Hi Matt

Sounds far too much
I dealt with Clive Watson at the place and I told him I would post their details here - if they didn't put their prices up!

I did get uncut panes of about 10cm x 19cm (And I'm just going to make them fit!). But I've checked the invoice and it was 16 panes at £4.50 +vat and delivery so it worked out at £5 each in total.
I don't know what they charge for cutting the glass but £5 a pane sound silly! Can you just buy four - and cast the rest?

EEK! I think I probably shouldn't total up the cost of this build, I might get a nasty fright.

Thank you for your comment about my TARDIS 
TG

[Scarfwearer]

I ended up getting my glass at Alpine Glass (they stock the bigger pieces).
They're in the US, but will ship internationally and you can buy online with a credit card.
I bought 2 16"x24" pieces at $11 each (that's about £7-8), with $11 shipping (in the US), so I had all my glass for $36! The catch was that I had to cut it myself.
We have shops around here that will cut glass for you though... for a price.
Shipping to the UK would probably cost a little more and take a little longer, but probably not that much.

Crispin

[mantamatt]

Still umming and ahhing about what to do about this glass. Uncut is cheaper so might go that way. How easy is it to cut this glass safely? I have a jigsaw and I imagine there are certain types of blades for this job but the glass is so expensive I don't want to break any.  Scarfwearer, do you or anyone else (timegirl?) have any tips for cutting glass safely? Do I need another tool?

Edit: Am considering getting 4  panes and then casting the rest from them. Am a complete novice in this area though. The idea of making a rubber mould from the original panes and then using this mould to cast copies in resin sounds easy enough but I wonder if anyone has any specific techniques they could share that could help. Found this interesting  link on basic resin casting http://www.childofmecha.com/Modeling/Resin/Basics/BasicResin.html
I think the shape of a glass pane would be difficult to do with this method. Anyone have any ideas on this?
cheers Matt