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Making Glass

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LAN_403

Bust_A_Cap

Sat Jun 28 2008, 10:07PM

Registered Member #1561 Joined: Mon Jun 23 2008, 07:58PM
Location:
Posts: 25

So I'm not sure if this is in the right category or not but we'll see. Anyways so I don't know if anyone has seen that movie where they collect the glass that is formed when lighting hits this certain kind of sand in a dessert. Anyways I was thinking that the bolts that come out of a tesla coil or something of that sort could be discharged into a rod in a bucket or the certain sand that makes glass.

would this work?

Hon1nbo

Sat Jun 28 2008, 10:29PM

Registered Member #902 Joined: Sun Jul 15 2007, 08:17PM
Location: Pacific Northwest USA
Posts: 1042

depends on the heat of the plasma... that is how sand could, if at all, be made into glass in this case: heat (it also happened with the atomic bomb... I have a piece of that glass from the trinity test site...)
but remember, lightning has MUCH more power than a TC... so the results are more power e.g. more heat.

J. Aaron Holmes

Sat Jun 28 2008, 11:07PM

Registered Member #477 Joined: Tue Jun 20 2006, 11:51PM
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 546

This is actually fun to do with NSTs, pole pigs, or other HV transformers:
1) Get a chunk of cement or cinder block, etc.
2) Soak it in water
3) Apply HV:
Cooking 400

4) Get glass:
Cooked 400

The above example isn't too cool, but I've actually had 1" diameter glowing balls of glass form before. Depends a bit on the medium. Unfortunately I didn't take good pictures of that, but it was with this same cinder block chunk.

Seems like MOTs would be great for this.

Cheers,
Aaron, N7OE

aonomus

Sat Jun 28 2008, 11:34PM

Registered Member #1497 Joined: Thu May 22 2008, 05:24AM
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 801

I'd like to see some pole pigs on this, MOT's and NST's are wimpy compared to a pole pig.....

Also, what about a large metal box/bowl as the ground, and a single electrode placed into a bowl full of sand to get potentially interesting 'fractal' like glass patterns.

J. Aaron Holmes

Sun Jun 29 2008, 12:01AM

Registered Member #477 Joined: Tue Jun 20 2006, 11:51PM
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 546

aonomus wrote ...

I'd like to see some pole pigs on this, MOT's and NST's are wimpy compared to a pole pig.....

Actually, the above was with two 14.7kV pole pigs in series for ~30kV, run at about 5kVA. But I've also had great luck with NSTs and a fine-grained core sample of cement. The above pictures were just not great examples of results, for whatever reason, and I haven't taken many pictures of this process. I'll do it again sometime in the near future and I'm sure I can produce some better evidence.

Cheers,
Aaron, N7OE

nabiul

Sun Jun 29 2008, 06:57AM

Registered Member #1558 Joined: Sun Jun 22 2008, 08:22PM
Location:
Posts: 8

There are already better methods for heating stuff up to high temps. If you have the current needed for welding, or a car battery and some serious eye protection, you can arc two graphite electrodes to form a crude graphite arc furnace. The rods are supposed to heat up to something like 5000F, they use it in industrial form to produce steel.

Bust_A_Cap

Sun Jun 29 2008, 03:12PM

Registered Member #1561 Joined: Mon Jun 23 2008, 07:58PM
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Posts: 25

that's interesting about the cinder block, is that because the sand in the conrete mixture is the right kind of sand that can be turned into glass?

also I've been trying to find the kind of sand that is necessary for making glass but due to my horrible googling abilities i've only been able to come up with the conclusion that the type of sand doesn't matter...is this true?

nabiul

Sun Jun 29 2008, 04:52PM

Registered Member #1558 Joined: Sun Jun 22 2008, 08:22PM
Location:
Posts: 8

Well you have to be careful of what other things are in the sand as well, often you get iron filings which will probably melt/vapourize and contaminate the glass.

J. Aaron Holmes

Sun Jun 29 2008, 05:02PM

Registered Member #477 Joined: Tue Jun 20 2006, 11:51PM
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 546

Bust_A_Cap wrote ...

that's interesting about the cinder block, is that because the sand in the conrete mixture is the right kind of sand that can be turned into glass?

also I've been trying to find the kind of sand that is necessary for making glass but due to my horrible googling abilities i've only been able to come up with the conclusion that the type of sand doesn't matter...is this true?

I don't know about a "right mixture"; I think commercial glass-sand is as close to 100% quartz as can be obtained through special processing. The glass gotten from the cinder block was rootbeer-colored, and had to be held in front of a very bright light to see any light make it through. There was definitely a lot of "crap" in it! I'm sure some amount of success can be obtained with most sand. But if you care what it looks like, then I'm sure the kind of sand and concentrations of various minerals in it (e.g., quartz) definitely do matter a lot!

Cheers,
Aaron, N7OE

Nik

Sun Jun 29 2008, 05:46PM

Registered Member #53 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 04:31AM
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 638

I used dry sand and a 4mot stack with resonant caps. Heres a video and photos of what I got.

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