Meat grinder for frit?

jconsidine11 · #1 2012-08-02, 9:06am

Has anyone ever used a meat grinder for making frit?
I have one and never use it for its intended purpose. Sooooooo....
If anyone has.I would love to know how it worked for you.
Thanks in advance,
Joan

Listenup · #2 2012-08-02, 6:45pm

I haven't ever heard of anyone using one, but my first thought would be that you would get a lot of metal shavings in it that you would have to get out because of the spiraling action. Then again, if I had a meat grinder handy, I would probably have to try it out to see. Anybody else?

RSimmons · #3 2012-08-03, 6:12am

Metal fragments are a probability and you will want to get all of them out. A strong magnet would be useful for this part of the process. Creating glass dust is another major consideration. You can keep dust down by running water through your grinder while you are crushing the glass. Doing it dry will create lots of hazardous particles that you do not want to have floating around.

Robert

Dreamsincolor · #4 2012-08-03, 7:03pm

My DH made a frit grinder for me using a garbage disposal mounted in the lid of one of those 5 gallon buckets you get at Home Depot etc. When I use it I set it in a deep sink and run water through at the same time I feed it glass. If you have first heated the chunks in the kiln and dropped them in a metal bucket full of ice water it almost doesn't need grinding. The product you end up with is pretty consistent in size with a bit of powder at the bottom. Afterwards I swirl the magnet through it after draining most of the water off. The noise level isn't bad. It has been in use for about 3 years and I have nowhere near the metal debris that a coffee grinder adds.

Andrea

boogiedog · #5 2012-08-13, 4:51pm

Coffee bean grinder works great...