Sandblast Cleaning of Copper

I was visiting Nortel last week and noticed that Peter cleans his soldered copper connections by sandblasting - cleans them up great - soooooooo

this weekend I pulled out my little table top blaster  from Romanoff - e-z Blaster
(you can get one here http://romanoff.com/store/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=894&category_id=40&option=com_virtuemart)  

I have a two hand blaster


I've had this little blaster for years and orginally use it to blast beads


You hook up to a basic compressor  and it has a light inside, recycles the blast material internally, has side hand glove access, the front panel opens to place your items in - all self contained  - easy set up

Here I take items before blasting

want to take off the wax so I can clean up and redo 

take off resist and clean up 

take off resist and clean up 

I love the light inside 

and the self contained and the small footprint of the unit 

works very well - I use a small pancake compressor

connect to the foot pedal

and after

Its a flat dull copper finish - so this does away with the chemicals to clean up the resist 

I think I"ll work with this some more 

Now that its out I'm going to play with it for etching beads and cleaning copper 

Pot Melts out of the Kiln

I think its a success

The pots dont come appart

not a big deal 

Here are better shots of what was left in the pots and what the bottoms looked liked (it all came out as one piece)

bottom

top

what they looked like with the pieces 

The first I only had to tap and the piece fell out as did the 2nd the third was a bit stuck but came out without too much effort
as you can see the ones with the black and darker colors came out way too dark to see the effect - but no problem the structure is right

the lighter color one - wow - I love it

top

side

back

they are a bit thick but I am going to fire down and smooth the edges and thin it out more -  so I ground the edges to get any of the pottery clay off (where it slightly stuck) and sanded the back to get some of the shelf primer off and put it back into a kiln so I'll have that later today

but from this experiment  I can now figure out what I want to do -

I'll use the little pots - get some of my stainless steel  to stand it on instead of another pot  and possibly make a barrier with the stainless (like you get for making eggs in a pan - round ) and line it with thick fiber paper.

that way I can maybe get it lower to fit in the smaller kiln (although it does not matter for me but make it easier for others that have the smaller kilns)

or I am gong to make my own little melts - from an accident that happened when I tried to put decals on some beads
these are the pics of the results - they are broken as I dropped them when I took them out

I put on mandrels and fired up and they made their own melts

this would be great for small klns as you can sit and let them melt and see and have better control

Pot Melts - - almost out of the kiln

I just checked - still at 238 degrees - not quite cool enough to check more than lift the lid
but I am amazed - most of it did go through so I  am now hoping for a good turnout when I check under the pots

One looks like it almost all went through - the other two had left overs but they could have had a bit more in them - I tried to make them all about the same amount of glass

The shelf primer has turned white and looks good on the inside
cant wait now till morning to see the results

Pot Melts - not to be confused with Patti Melts

I've have wanted to do this for ages  and needed to buy the small clay pots but never have
Was at the dollar store on friday - picking up the canvases for the picture craft - and came across the small clay pots and grabbed three packs (two per pack for a dollar)  so even it doesnt work out no big loss but at least I tried.

I made the holes at the bottom bigger - used a pair of scissors to ream it out

 and I used a round file only to make sure the hole sizes were the same

I then put some shelf primer on the inside so the glass would not stick (this is the guessing part  - I hope it doesnt stick or put some of the primer into the melt)

Then I stacked them to ensure the holes lined up

Then the realization started when I found they were too tall for my regular kiln (I have two AIM  8 x 8) and they are not tall enough -  I have my trusty Kiln I got from Sundance glass  and it two was not deep enough -   BUT  I had bough an extender ring for lampworking so I could use this kiln for something more than fusing-
only issue was it had a fibre opening - so I cut up some blocks of kiln brick (feet of the kiln but I swapped out some from the other kilns) and made a fitting (pretty sure I have one brick around that fits but could not find)  so only about 1/2 hour delay

I put the clay pots (that are coated inside with kiln wash) into the now sufficiently high enough kiln

I put in some bullseye shorts I have around and some frit

I closed the kiln and started ramping slowing - started on low  then worked my way up the necessary temp
at least 1650
Waited and waited - got it all the way up to 1800 and decided to shut off - I'll see what they look like later but I think the hole has to be bigger - although it says to let it run high and let it sit for about 90 minutes - I guess slow drip down - but not sure


On cool thing I found at the dollar store was some findings for a cheese knife - they have cheesy (no pun intended ) clear glass beads - the end screws off and I can make my own glass bead to fit on.

I found a mandrel that is about the same thickness for the center so I might try this on Sunday 

Fathers Day Gifts

My daughter found a cool way to make some pictures for fathers day on pinterest

what you need
dollar store 8 x 10 canvas blanks  (not the flat ones - the ones with some depth and are stapled to the frame)
Hodge podge
Pictures that fit  the 8 x10  (we did black and white)
Black paint (again the dollar store)
foam brush
sea sponge

she painted the frames around the edges and a bit onto the canvas
using the foam brush and black paint

Let dry 

when dry apply modge podge to the canvas and the picture and glue together 

they already look amazing

when dry apply a coat of modge podge on the pictures 

once the cover layer is dry then you need to sponge some black at the corners and the edges

amazing !

I'm going to make some for my house (I got towels for mothers day - love them but would love a set of those ) 

Almost finished Zentangle Copper Pendants

I finished them off with some liver of sulfur - I like using this new gel form - easy to use

 and cleaned them up using the dremel , split mandrel and sand paper - dipped them in the permalac and hung them to dry -

 I have a fan going for air circulation in the studio  but it also helps in drying - only takes minutes

I found my engraved zentangle pieces - they are small 

The copper piece fits right into the open circle so I used it as a template

I grind it as round as  possible and keep fitting it in the pendant

I also ground the back thinner as well to get it more level with the piece 

decided I didnt want to have it too high

I use a regular inland grinder 

I set them with my resin - which is a two part epoxy and works just as well as glue 

they dont look like little spaceships any more 

All in all - I think they turned out exactly how I pictured them in my mind and I think they are finished 

I am seeing some possible wire wrapping around the pendant - holes - that double wire weaving etc..   I ll have to try something before putting extra holes in them 

some funky ideas