Can I make a window from beer bottles???

[Enrique Laks]

I see two kinds of opinions here: I feel that making a window with beer bottles should show the bottles in the window. Melting beer bottles to make glass to make a window would turn the bottles into a raw material. There are several ways to make glass, melting beer bottles might be one of them, but not be the most efficient. Those bottles would not be seen as part of the window if using such glass to make it, then it would be a window made with glass that perhaps was made by melting beer bottles. Javahut?s system is very interesting but I doubt it is the best for a stained glass studio.

[Javahut]

that wasn't the question, best method for a stained glass studio was not brought up, and I agree with you.
If I were thinking as a stained glass studio, I would cut the bottoms out and lead them as I would rondels.  but that wasn't the question.
 UNless I read it wrong, which also could be the case. He wanted a primitive method of making sheet glass, I thought.

[Enrique Laks]

The initial question left all possibilities open. Your information on how to make glass from beer bottles that become the same COE is very interesting, shows your high knowledge on the subject.
In Costa Rica there is a chapel with the windows made with uncut bottles, a very poor solution, we did not touch it.
Also, we have restored a large leaded stained glass window (9.2 feet W x 17 feet H) made from bottles some 30 years ago for a catholic church. They flattened the bottles in a kiln for ceramic. It was not a good solution either, the glass pieces were thin and very fragile. Since the church is located in a very low income area we charged them at cost and did our best to renew the window. The community was happy with our work. Thanks God there are however several factories nowadays manufacturing beautiful glass for stained glass so there is no need to use old bottles for making glass anymore. 

[Javahut]

I am, and will forever be, a student of glass and it's possibilities.  I like to read and learn, and before the wonderful world of the Internet, there were "newsletters" written by others with the same thirst for knowledge and wonder, with articles written by others of similar taste.  The information I learned about the soak came from one of those newsletters, written in Vermont? or New Hampshire, by glassblowers who experimented with their free time instead of playing video games!! 

Bottle bottoms are unique in how they bend the light, all art glass is unique unto itself.  Some is only more primitive than others.

[Judy Killian]

I was refered to this site by a glassblower I called and said that my questioned is more closely related to stained glass making, so here goes. My brother and I are planning on making a log cabin up in Northern CA and doing everything old fashioned (no modern tools or equipment) and thought it would look odd with modern day windows. He had what we thought to be a great idea, now we just need the technical advice to know if it's a viable idea. The plan was to recycle old glass from beer bottles, windows, etc. Make a heavy steel mold about 12"x12", pour in crushed glass and heat it so that the glass will melt and fuse into a single pane. so my questiones are:
1)is it possible to do?
2)will it be safe for a window or super fragile?
3)is there a better way?
4)anything else i need to be aware of?

The original poster seems to be gone now. Probably planning his cabin. Just incase he pops in, I have some experience here. In 1983 my cousin and I built a cabin on homestead land in Alaska a 5 mile hike off the highway and 20 miles from the nearest tiny town. We carried everything in on our backs. There was no road. So tools and food are all you wanted to carry in. And each trip you would carry a few of the heavy 12" spikes for securing the log rounds. It is a long story I won't be telling here. But one thought is, one of the biggest bragging rights we had was my cousin carried the 3 foot by 4 foot old window in on her back five miles.

The old timers either carried in windows or used oil cloth to let light in and smoke out. I guarenty the trapers did not have glass. The homesteaders would bring in a small window years after the cabin was lived in to make mama happy. But it was not a main thought. Dry roof and warmth was. I knew a trapper who had no window. He opened his door for light or lit his kerosene lamp, year round, no matter the temperature.

So Barstowrat, I am happy for you. Building a cabin from the land up is very rewarding!!!!!!! But the old timers carried nothing as heavy as bottles or windows until late in the project. The weight was saved for food when you had time to hike to town every few weeks.

Cut the trees early in the spring before the sap starts to run. They peal easier this way and you may not even need to use a draw knife. Let the logs lay a year to dry and twist, so they do not twist on the wall and colapse your cabin. Get a goat for milk and a dig a pit too keep your food cool. If you were truly a trapper or homesteader you would pick land with a creek on it.

Most cabins have many old tin cans and bins on sight. Not a lot of glass jars.

I learned these things growing up a great granddaughter of a California gold miner family still on their claim and then applied them to living in Alaska. Read Tom Walkers book on building log cabins.

Have fun!

[Zahin]

A window made up of a beer glass is creative. But you need a lot of beer bottles to do it. How about painting it with the same color? It would give you lighter views than beer glasses.

[Enrique Laks]

Why would you like to make a window from beer bottles? Would you like the window to show the bottles? Or are you perhaps interested in melting the bottles in a kiln to use them as raw material for making glass? Do you hope to somehow lower the cost of the window? Or do you think the bottles would look nice? the bottles' bottoms or the full bottles? This is not a simple project, it needs a puirpose; unless you want to play with it, of course. Zahin thinks it is a creative project, I feel that it needs a lot of creativity to turn it into an ornamental window so it is a useful project in itself.

[Javahut]

It isn't the "why" that is important, it is the "how" that answers the question.  Many ways to do it, up to the original poster to pick which he likes the best.

[Enrique Laks]

It isn't the "why" that is important, it is the "how" that answers the question.  Many ways to do it, up to the original poster to pick which he likes the best.




The "how" is certainly important but you should always start with a "why", there is no way you can start any project without a purpose: "What do I want to do?, why do I want to do it?"  Once you now what do you want to do and why to do it, then you can ask yourself how to do it, not before.

[Javahut]

It seems that this is a never ending arguement that I don't care to participate in.
The original postere had his reasons for asking the question of how, as the performing professional, it is not up to me to ask that "why" question.  It is up to me to answer the how it can be done.  As we have seen by the responses, there are several methods of "how" and not on question of why it should be done.  Only that it "is" done.