glass discs?

Dec 04, 2009 35 Replies

I tried cutting glass on my wet tile cutter. It did cut, but chipped quite badly. I assumed any glazier could make them though.

NT

OK, time for me to but in! Amateur telescope makes do this all the time! First, never try to just do one piece of glass, you need a stack. The outer pieces should be discarded. One good way is to embed the stack of glass in plaster of paris. No need for a diamond hole saw, a simple cutter can be made from sheet metal, formed into a tube. You will need some slits in it. The actual cutting media is carborundum grains obtainable from lapidary/rockhound shops, or amateur telescope maker suppliers. Use ordinary plasticine to form a dam around the area the cutter will enter. Make slurry of carbo and water, and run the cutter slowly, with gentle downward pressure. You will have a stack of glass disks in no time. The outer ones will be chipped a bit, the inner ones should be near perfect.

Steve R.

OH! One more thing, make sure that you do not use tempered glass! It will shatter into tiny pieces!

Steve R.

Thanks to all for the useful contributions. I could indeed make them myself with a core drill or carborundum, and polycarb or acrylic are the fallback position if all else fails. However, I was very surprised how difficult they are to find commercially. I had assumed that since there are so many torches, kaleidoscopes etc about, a Google search would easily turn up a source of supply but it appears not.

Anyway, as always the group was helpful and I am grateful.

I assume that you're referring to the question about glass discs - but if I hadn't seen the original thread, I wouldn't have a clue what this post was about!

Any CE marked toy and most torches won't have glass in them, too much of a hazard when it breaks particulary in a toy. You don't seem to have picked that up when it was mentioned earlier.

Well, it did have a "References" header so your newsreader should have displayed, or allowed you to load, preceding messages

Owain

Well my newsreader (the dreaded OE - albeit with Quotefix) just displayed it like a new thread - with no hint (such as a Re: in the title, or quoted text in the body) that it belonged to an existing thread.

Now you have pointed it out, and I have displayed the whole thread, I can see that it does - but it was by no means obvious. Perhaps it would have been safer to have changed the subject just to "Glass Discs - Thanks" or somesuch, and/or to have quoted the original question.

That's odd. I too use OE and the message displayed within the original "Glass discs" thread. Perhaps the difference is your addition of Quotefix, whatever that is.

Cliff Coggin.

I've been busy with other 'Christmas' type events for the past week so haven't logged on to the newsgroups but am amazed that no-one in the 27 replies has mentioned Watch Glasses.

They are the perfect readily available option and make it silly to even think of 'making your own'.

Cousins list 1.5mm thick upto 34mm dia and 1.8mm thick upto 36mm dia. These are flat mineral glass with polished bevel edges. If you can get away with 1mm thick then they also list up to 46mm.

The range available is in 0.1mm dia increments generally from 13mm but for some types (thicknesses) 24mm (I only mention this since others might see an easy option for other purposes).

Their web site is

formatting link
and phone number 017 0875 7800.

JG

I doubt if it's that. But I *do* have "Hide Read or Ignored Messages" set in the View menu - so it doesn't display previous parts of the thread - only the new messages. If I turn that off, the whole thread is then displayed, and I can indeed see that the Thanks message is part of the original thread.

Same here

I've got Quotefix :-)

Ah - at last a justification for using Google Groups. It's all one continuous thread there and hence quite understandable.

Rob

Hi Norman, I can bring my glass circle trammel device down to Sandown for you to try, if you would like. It might be war time manufacture but should still work. See you on the stand, anyway. Ned Ludd

Brilliant - thanks.

I had thought of watch glasses but the only ones I could find easily were convex - these look like the perfect solution for what I need.

In message , Norman Billingham writes

Cut too fast? Can't they bevel the edges slightly for you? Cut your own from greenhouse glass and flame polish the edges?

E-mail the suppliers of the kits and ask if you can buy the windows separately?

Scientific glassware catalogues? You'll probably find something designed for chemistry or microscopy.

>

In article , Clint Sharp writes

Standard microscope filters are, AIUI, 32mm in diameter. They come in a wide variety of colours, and ironically "clear" might be hard to find. If 32mm will do, and you can find a suitable colour, they should work for you.

David

Join the Discussion

Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.

Didn't find your answer?

Ask the community — no account required