Tumbling Boro?

[torchgirl]

Can you tumble boro beads in rock tumbler to give them matte appearance like you can soft glass?

I know a sandblaster works, I just don't have enough room for one. I also like the subtlte appearance of the tumbled glass, it's like satin.

[hyperT]

Yes ofcourse you can. About 1000 grit silicon carbide will do it Courser carbide more of a rough etch. Cerium oxide will polish glass in a tumbler.
Most glasses are listed from 5 to about 7 on the MOHS scale of hardness, diamond being 10. Anything the same hardness or above will etch the glass.
Quartz glasses are higher and come in around 8. You can find what you need to do it with at a local rock shop or lapidary shop and i'm sure they will
guide you as well. Borosillicate glasses are still within the range of other glasses as far as hardness. The real difference is in their melting point and COE

[Maui Greenstone]

Post pics of before and after please

[judejudejude]

I tumble boro all the time and Ijust put clean beach sand in the tumbler. Works great. Usually takes one and a half days. If you are not near the ocean then head to your pet store or feed store and buy fine grit for birds.
I also use the grit mixed in with a good outdoor paint for a great non skid outdoor surface on stairs and decks. Works great on boat decks too and way cheaper then buying anything else. hope you try it.
have fun.

[hyperT]

Sand box play sand works too and may be more availabe and cheaper

[Alaska]

Using a vibratory type of tumbler with SC and it takes about 2 hours for a batch of boro beads.

[LoneTreeStudio]

Thanks for asking this! I was just thinking about tumbling this morning. When tumbling soft glass you usually put in something larger like pony beads to help with the etching. Has anyone tried tumbling with just SC? What I want to tumble has a lot of detail, and I'm wonder if that would work.

[hyperT]

Some lapidary people use corncob as a carrier, some use plastic pellets, some use steel shot and I'm sure there are lots more ways to do it. If all that detail is on the surface then you want something small to get into the recesses.

[torchgirl]

Thank you so much for all of the helpful information. I just ordered my tumbler and can't wait to give this a try. I'll post some pictures of my results.

[torchgirl]

Here is a picture of some wine and beer bottle glass beads I made. I marvered them between two rocks to make them look like nuggets and then tumbled them.

Thanks to everyone for advice. I love my tumbler!

[alcyon]

I use a little Thumbler tumbler. I started with 220 grit and got a too-etched finish. Cloudy, and obscuring the color beneath. Now I am using 1000 grit silicon carbide (its not easy to find) and those little green plastic triangles. A drop of soap helps.
Very rarely I get a broken bead; I figure those were poorly made or annealed and I'm happy to have them gone.
The finish is silky and just enhances the color in my opinion.
I have seen others use a wax or oil afterwards, but I don't know the best type to be long-lasting on the glass.

[sunray]

I just used gravel pieces pretty good size too out of the driveway for some beach glass look and they turned out great.