glue chipping amazing glass craft tutorial step 3

Glue chipping-amazing glass craft tutorial step 3

To glue chip glass with hide glue, we must sandblast the glass to get tooth-texture that the hide glue can grab and pull to chip the glass.

Step 3. Sand-Blast Masking

Cover your glass with mask for sand blasting. Now days, rubber sheeting with an adhesive similar to shelf paper or vinyl is called sand blast mask or stencil and is nick-named Butter-cut, while decorative glass artist might ask for sandblast frisket paper.  Sandblast mask comes in different thickness.

• Thick masks for large coarse abrasives or that you might blast longer as used can, one eighth of an inch thick, found most often in the sign-making for sand blasting woods where they might want a deep cut. I suggest only aluminum oxide in brown or black 80-180 grit, white will not work as it's meant for ceramics, anything else like regular sand will cut right through these masks and ruin your glass.

• Window Mask, is one sixteenth of a inch thick and is easier to cut delicate graphics by hand or double plot. Window mask being rubber can handle regular beach sand for sandblasting that has been screen-filtered, but I find beach sand and Silicon carbide leave an oily film that impedes hide glue adhesion. I suggest only aluminum oxide in brown or black 80-180 grit, white will not work as it's meant for ceramics, anything else like regular sand will cut right through these masks and ruin your glass.
  

• Standard window  masking is 6-20 mil thick and is even easier to cut delicate graphics by hand or by plot. I suggest only aluminum oxide in brown or black 80-180 grit, white will not work as it's meant for ceramics, anything else like regular sand will cut right through these masks and ruin your glass.

• Old School way was to cut blast stencil from rolls of tin or lead sheeting, center of letters would be suspended in place by gluing horse hairs to the centers, the horse hair is thick enough to withstand a light sand blasting. Sign makers would get used large truck tire inner-tubes to cut into rubber sheeting to rubber cemented down and tubes we not around we would use 3 layers of duct tape.