I got a new toy!! Well, I’ve had it for a couple of months now – so technically it’s not “new” new but I haven’t told anyone about it yet, so I guess it officially qualifies as New!
Anyway……we have a friend who is a boilermaker by trade – that means he can weld!! Amongst other things…he he. Hubby went round to visit one afternoon and I asked him to see if Pedro had any pieces of scrap metal laying around because I wanted to see if I could fashion a frit crusher out of it. It would have been a very basic model – probably not even with a “base” as such because I don’t have any welding gear (lots of soldering stuff, just no welding..).
Maybe I’d better explain what a “frit crusher” is to those of you who are scratching their heads right now saying “What the….???”.
A frit crusher is a device consisting of a hollow piece of pipe (preferably with a base so the glass is contained inside) and another piece of pipe (also with a base) that fits inside it. Now you put pieces of glass rods etc inside the larger pipe then you whack the living daylights out of it with the smaller pipe and it crushes all the glass into various size pieces – which we in the know (wink, wink) call “frit”. The frit is then used to decorate lampwork beads. It’s great stuff – you’ll just have to trust me on that.
No idea??? Look at the pics – they tell a better story than me…much less confusing. She’s a “Big Mama”! There’s a big can of butane gas next to it as well as a rod of glass – just for comparison.
I just wanted some info on how to make one and some offcuts of pipe that were maybe just laying around but lo and behold……a couple of hours later when hubby came home – my brand new awesomely, fabulously efficient, super-dooper frit crusher got plonked on my work desk!!! Compliments of Pedro!! Yay – Go Pedro!!!! Thank you Pedro!! How awesome is that! Hubby said it took him about 5 minutes to make……that’s what happens when you know what you’re doing. Probably would have taken me 5 hours to work it out……
I have some more projects that require a skill level slightly higher than that of soldering.
I think I may need welding lessons.
PEDRO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Frit Crusher
Pedro's Frit Crusher
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