I am rather excited to share with everyone the new website which has many upgrades:
- It is now mobile friendly so you can view the website better on mobile and other screen sizes like tablets.
- We are now featuring the blog posts on the home page!
- You can now submit your etched glass or any type of sandcarvings through the easy form here.
Lately, many people have shown an interest in sharing their work and others love seeing it, including myself! It also allows others to see and support your work. We are, after all, working to create a helpful community that expands ideas to each other. Submit anything from simple projects or ideas to advanced artwork.
I also need your help/feedback. There is a lot of work for me to do on updating the site and fixing things. What would you like the site to have or do? What issues do you see or things that you don’t like about the site?
Please leave me your feedback below. I would appreciate it!
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Hello Eric,
A lot of good info. I am about to start sandblasting. But have been running into issues with my pressure pot and cabinet .I would rather use a cabinet with foot pedal but don’t want to spend on another cabinet with pedal. Is there a way to adapt one to my existing cabinet and do you recommend it..
Looks great Eric
Hello Eric
Lots of useful information.I must give sandblasting a try and your site will be a great help.-Many thanks for sharing your knowledge and expertise.It’s a very friendly site
@ Gilly, you definitely can. I personally recommend my homemade foot pedal shown here: https://www.glassetchingsecrets.com/shop/vari-blast-footswitch-plans.html . But others like the traditional type.
Thank you Doug and Patricia!
Hello Eric,
A lot of good info. I am about to start sandblasting. But have been running into issues with my pressure pot and cabinet .I would rather use a cabinet with foot pedal but don’t want to spend on another cabinet with pedal. Is there a way to adapt one to my existing cabinet and do you recommend it..
Eric do you still sell the foot pedal setup I would like to purchase one, rather than the plans. .
@Gilly, I do when people request it. I haven’t offered it for sale on the website (publicly) because I wasn’t sure if there was much of a demand and the price can be a little higher than I’d like to set it, but that is due to low economies of scale.
Send me an email and I can possibly ship you one. I have only shipped a few so far.
Hello brother, thanks for replying. I’m located in Dallas tx. What price am I looking at. Thanks
Hi Eric …. I am looking for a pattern/stencil/picture for sandblasting an old English (possibly 1940-1950) steam train. I saw one a while back, white drawing on a black background, perfect …. but I cannot find it again.
Any help would be appreciated.
Brenda
@Brenda, I always suggest people use the search engines. I talk about this strategy in depth in the members area. I will email some patterns that I find. Thanks!
The site looks great! I love the differentiation between the different engraving techniques and I can’t wait to submit a few photos.
Thanks, Eric! The site looks great! Unfortunately, in our country are hard to find chemicals for etching. I try to use another technique for working with glass. I hope soon to be able to send pictures of some things. Greetings!
The web site is really good. I can now easily down load any pictures of my sand etchings and there is lots of info that will help me with my sand etching. Great web site
Like what you’ve done with the place. One of the Great sources on ways to etch. Big Thank You, Eric. Past few months, I’ve been spending a couple days a week learning to operate this computer cutter my brother gave me. After much trial and error and a few times totally wiped out, brain wise. I now can make a pattern that sticks. Made of two sheets vinyl. Bottom layer has an adjustable adhesive. I set the dial full open to my blaster (press pot) and was able to blow 70grit abrasive @ 95psi with little distortion or separation of layers. Stayed put. This was after running two 5lb loads at it. Even the smallest of pieces remained stuck. Cut deep. Carving side is down for now, until I can change out the air lines and such and pick up some finer grits. Few weeks out.
@Carl, that is impressive being able to blast with somewhat courser abrasive at that pressure, but I assume you are using thicker stencil sheets. If you don’t mind me asking, how thick was each sheet?
Surprised me to. Rolls from walmart. I started my tests with three layers of various combinations of materials. Thinking too, that I needed a thicker material. The tests started out as how long will it take to blast thru. During the early rounds, I found out the top of the three would loosen it’s hold and the smaller pattern pieces would lose their top layer, The bottom two would still be stuck tight. So I changed to two layers. So far they have held up to what I’ve thrown at them. Still some issues with the smaller pieces. It has to do with getting them in place in the lest amount of tries. After three or four tries they lose their stickiness. Only been an issue at lower cutting angle, less than 20 degree.
When doing rock, I use 4 or 7 mil vinyl, on rough rock I use a spray glue, prior to installing mask, the glue sticks great, weeding prior to install, install on the glue…..I use a hair dryer or heat gun to
semi-melt/stretch the vinyl then burnish into all the cracks and crevices. Other wise you have to grind rock..using grinder with ceramic or masonry blade/disc.
In the past I used to face the rock first….but didn’t like the “sign” type of design.