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Registered Member #53
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 04:31AM
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 638
Here's how I did it. I have 2 mots with 2 MOCs with an input of 120v @ ~15 (or more, my breakers are very old).
The sand is in a grounded bowl, the sand is moist but not dripping wet, as long as there is not a pool of water at the bottom it will work and wetter doesn't degrade the results at all. I start the arc by putting the electrode to the top of the pile and let it arc to the sand. As the arc gets hotter the water evaporates and leaves a conductive path of molten glass behind it. I don't really know how to tell when its done (reached the bottom) but if you can make it work once it will work again. I hope it helps.
Registered Member #964
Joined: Wed Aug 22 2007, 12:39AM
Location: Stockton, CA
Posts: 134
Hmm. I'll have to ask my dad if I can try this sometime.
Though I'd do it like this: Get a large, flat-bottomed container and place a heavy sheet of copper on the bottom, as one of the electrodes. I'd have a long piece of wire for the other electrode. Step 1: somehow secure wire just above the plate. Step 2: fill box w/ sand Step 3: turn on HV device and pull the arc through the sand w/ the wire electrode.
Registered Member #8
Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 04:34AM
Location: Harlowton, MT, United States
Posts: 214
Well to give you an idea, quartz (like pure silica sand) fuses to the amorphous state (glass) at well over 1500°C and the resultant fused silica has a softening point of almost 1700°C. That's pretty hard to achieve without a serious electric arc or oxy-fuel torch, and is only likely to occur at small points with something like an MOT arc.
In contrast the mixtures used to make regular glasses (sand, soda, and lime) soften and fuse at much lower temperatures, typically far less than 1000°C. In other words, I suggest trying a finely ground mixture such as that with a little bit of ground up window glass in there to start the fusing process. 10-15% each of lime and soda with silica sand is typical. It begins to soften at only around 600°C.
Registered Member #396
Joined: Wed Apr 19 2006, 12:55AM
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 176
aonomus wrote ...
Hmm I wonder if you could do this with sugar....
Burn it you mean? Yes, thats called caramel but with a MOT you'd probably end up with just carbon.
Spedy wrote ...
Though I'd do it like this: Get a large, flat-bottomed container and place a heavy sheet of copper on the bottom, as one of the electrodes. I'd have a long piece of wire for the other electrode. Step 1: somehow secure wire just above the plate. Step 2: fill box w/ sand Step 3: turn on HV device and pull the arc through the sand w/ the wire electrode.
I've done pretty much that exact thing except in a thick steel container (shallow dish) with a MOT and some damp sand (edit - IIRC now the sand was actually dry). It made a glass like substance that when molten was conductive. When cooled and removed it looked oddly phallic but sadly not fractal in nature.
Registered Member #53
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 04:31AM
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 638
IF you have a hard time getting the arc started you can put very thin wire ( I used 30awg) in the sand touching the bottom of the bowl. As it burns up in the arc it is more likely to start melting the sand into glass. Mot arcs are VERY hot, I would say well over the 1700 degrees to make glass soft. Also as the blob of molten glass grows the power dissipated along its length is enough to keep it molten until you blow a breaker or all the sand above and below it is consumed. Artificial fulgurites don't propagate sideways very far.
Registered Member #1497
Joined: Thu May 22 2008, 05:24AM
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 801
Creme brule the 4hv way Aaron, nice. My original though with sugar was that it would melt at a lower temp and possibly be a little more conductive. I guess I was wrong :D
Registered Member #902
Joined: Sun Jul 15 2007, 08:17PM
Location: Pacific Northwest USA
Posts: 1042
today I was at my farm and there happened to be a full 40lB bag of sand on the table next to the torch I was using to make some of Prince Rupert's Teardrops... so I decided to try to make some glass, and it worked and I realized an important factor in making durable pieces is that the heat must be evenly distributed (once I went from a pencil flame to a fatter flame I noticed and the piece was pretty strong (but still not as strong as the teardrops, so it broke on the car ride home) :P ... anyways, if someone has the ability, I have a suggestion... get multiple MOTs (or whatever your high power supply is that you have several of) and have them share a common ground, then have each of the hot electrodes insulated, and then draw the individual arcs at the same time... it might be possible to get a snowflake like crystal that will survive polishing... hopefully.
Registered Member #1561
Joined: Mon Jun 23 2008, 07:58PM
Location:
Posts: 25
As far as the common ground, you could put the snad in a metal pan and have the metal pan be your common ground, or you could cut the pan into a shape of sorts to formt he glass in some sort of a shape...just some ideas, any idea if this would work?
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Making Glass
