Making Glass Frit
Frit: Crushed colored glass that comes in various grit sizes. Finely ground frit is power.
You can make frit several different ways. In all cases, be sure to wear proper protective eyewear and take all necessary precautions such as using a dust mask and gloves.
1) Heat up glass in a torch or kiln and plunge it into water. The hotter the glass the smaller the frit. You will have to gently crush it to separate the fractured glass.
2) Cut small pieces of glass and break them up in a hand held coffee grinder(1) . Gently shake up and down. The longer you grind, the finer the frit.
3) Wrap the glass in cloth and crush it with a hammer.
4) Place the glass in a metal cylinder that has a bottom and crush it with a metal plunger that fits the cylinder tightly.
5) Run glass through an old garbage disposal(1) that has been removed from the sink and secured to a stout table.
6) Use a ball mill. This is the most expensive tool and hard to find, but it gives the finest grind - all the way down to a very fine powder if so desired.
7) Use a mortar and pestle. This tool is best used to make large frit into smaller frit.
Some of the described methods will produce a variety of frit sizes simultaneously while others tend to produce the same size frit. You can sift the finished frit through different size screens to separate them.
Any time you break up glass, the surface of the tool that comes in contact with the glass can abrade and then be mixed in with the frit. A large magnet can remove most of the iron containing contaminants.
You do not necessarily need to worry about the small amount of contaminants, as some applications with frit won't show them anyway.
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(1) Once the coffee grinder or garbage disposal are used on glass they are worthless for their original design, but will last for many hours of frit making.
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Making Glass Frit
