Commercial Wine & Other Bottles -What are they made From?

[julieHB]

Mike Firth has a LOT of glass info on his site - I have referred to his tech notes many times(and yes, bottles are there):

http://mikegigi.com/techspec.htm#GLTEMP

If you have time, browse around. It's a messy website, but a lot of useful info 

[Zeldazog]

Even bottles from the same manufacturer, even the same drink, can be different, if they've come from a different batch run to produce the bottles.

I've not done many bottles (okay, I did one! and I just picked a random slumping temperature, fortunately for me it, worked) so I haven't seen a difference in various drinks, etc, but I expect shape of bottle, thickness of glass will have a bearing on the temperature required, as well as the glass itself.

Afterall, even using just same thickness Bullseye, different programmes might be required for different depth/shape moulds, so slumping isn't *just* down to the COE of glass

[Moreton]

Don't know the CoE as it isn't published (not relevant to bottle makers) but Bottle glass is formulated to be stiff and "set" quickly as that suits the automated manufacturing process. If you only use glass from a single bottle it isn't important BUT if you go for a mix then it's at your own risk..... anything could happen 

[Blue Box Studio]

A while back someone showed some Bombay Sapphire beads with Harvey Bristol Cream dots.  I found it impossibl to melt the BS on a HH but must try again with my minor, it's my excuse for drinking gin!

[Pat from Canvey]

That might have been me. I love playing and seeing what will and will not work.

[Veeka]

Just this week I put 2 wine bottles in an old cloth bag then smashed them against a large cement block. The result was loads of sharp shards that are uneven at each end, they're covered in glass dust so I wore gloves and used a paint brush to dust them off. They were hard to turn in the flame, gripping tools can't really hold onto the glass well either, as it's curved.
Made 5 tiny beads so far: tried to add four dots to one bead, two dots have already popped off and I don't trust the other two. Since I like the color of the glass I'll most likely make a few more beads for myself but I doubt I'll be keeping many more wine bottles.

[Pat from Canvey]

, gripping tools can't really hold onto the glass well either, as it's curved.

I usually turn one piece of the glass into stringer after preheating in the kiln. Then use the stringer, heated at one end, to retrieve pieces from the hot kiln to melt into beads. Makes life much easier.

[Veeka]

Ah Pat! Thank you    I wondered about using the kiln, it only makes sense really, as it seems to take longer for the bottle glass to melt on a minor burner.

[Dietmar]

Most commercial bottles are made from soda lime glass. Most of them have a COE in the upper 80's (85-88). That means you may use Bullseye for small decorations in accordance with the 5%-rule. Test the compatibility for every new brand of bottle, they are different.

I love Bombay Sapphire bottles for the nice sky blue and Selters bottles for the rich transparent turquoise. ODOL has a nice white opaque glass and you'll find lots of green and brown bottles. Few beer bottles are cobalt blue and you may find broken plate glass in grey.

You can melt bottle glass with a Hot Head. But it's a very (ehm) meditative working in smaller size than you are used on ea propane-oxy-torch.

To get started I break the bottle and cut larger pieces into strips of about 1cm width. Two of these strips are my handles to hold a third piece. The middle piece is heated untill softned and twisted to get a round gather of glass. This gather is pulled into a 5mm rod, disconnected from one handle and both ends are reattached to a new shard. Now repeat the heating, twisting and pulling untill you have a more than hand long glass rod. Using this (cooled) rod as a handle you can melt other shards without reshaping them into a rod before making the bead. Once you have a rod from one bottle, you can use it to pull a rod from an other color.

Bottle beads look best if they are just one color each. I use shape and texture for decoration or use a combination of different colors in one necklace.


Please do NOT use beach glass. Due to the frosted surfage it WILL pop and explode very fast. The weathered surface may have different melting properties than the inside. Boiling (foaming) and devitrification are common side effects with beach glass.


You can work with the abouve techniques the leftovers of unknown tiffany glass. Please do NOT use opaque colors of KOKOMO opalescent glass. They WILL devitrify and beak from incompatibility with themselves.

[beadysam]

Wow Dietmar, what a lot of interesting info. Thank you.  Personally I havent done much of the bottle glass melting.  We don't really drink so never get sexy bottles!!!  I did melt a piece of vase that had belonged to my gran but got broken when my son was little.  I saved it all because it is a rich deep aqua colour, but its very very stiff - heading the way of boro but not quite as stiff. 
My son did a vid of Prince Rupert's Drops when he was at school using greenhouse glass.  That was a little stiffer than 104coe.  I've got the bottle of beer he had at his RAF graduation, at some point I will get around to making something with it....