Decorative vases, plates, trays and other decorations made of glass are able to give the room a special charm. You can make them yourself by melting the accumulated glass jars and bottles. Consider how to melt glass at home?
Material preparation
Before you melt the glass at home, you should prepare for the procedure. Collect unnecessary old cans and bottles. Before melting, these containers must be cleaned and dried. Remove labels from bottles.
Sticky labels can be removed by soaking the product in soapy hot water. Keep it in the liquid for 3 to 4 hours or leave it in soapy water overnight, after which you can easily remove the labels.
You should also get rid of the glue that has remained on the glass. By soaking the bottles, you can easily scrape off any remaining adhesive. Use a small spatula, an unnecessary plastic card or wallpaper scraper for this purpose.
If the inscriptions are painted directly on the glass itself, it can be left. But it must be taken into account that after such melting, a small amount of paint will remain on the glass.
Glass melting
To melt such material at home is very simple. It is only necessary to purchase a special oven, which will cost about 7 thousand rubles. However, the costs will quickly pay for themselves, because you will practically have no competitors.
The oven can work with almost any microwave model. First you need to take out a special plate for heating and warm the stove.
Using a glass cutter, you need to cut the glass into pieces. Cut out a piece of phase paper slightly larger than the intended finished product. We lay out the desired pattern on paper and place it on the bottom of the furnace. Close the lid and turn on the microwave at the highest power for 2 minutes.
When you see an orange glow inside the oven, it means that the glass began to melt. Now put on gloves and carefully check the condition of the product by opening the oven. If it is not ready, continue baking, but not more than 5 minutes, as this may harm the oven.
When finished baking, remove the oven, do not open it until it cools completely to prevent damage to the product.
After cooling, the material will take on the same form as before melting.
The melting temperature
And what is the melting temperature of glass in degrees? It starts at about 750 ° C and ends at 2500 ° C. However, you should pay attention to the fact that this material can have different composition and characteristics, which is why it is quite difficult to accurately determine the value.