Low viscosity filler/adhesive suggestions?

[Ben Datema]

Gadgeteers,

I have a fairly specific question.

My full time job focuses on getting students involved in environmental issues at Mizzou. Naturally, this comes with a lot of tabling, and we're trying to make our tabling displays more interesting and interactive. One thing we are doing is making environmentally-focused paper weights and we plan to fill them with, or make them out of, interesting and educational things. I have grand plans for cool things we could do, but so far all I have are these baseball display cases full of crushed glass from the recycling center:

My concern with these - and the reason I haven't put them to use yet - is that they are basically just crushed glass grenades; if a student dropped one on the sidewalk, then it would shoot sharp glass shards all over the place. This is a less than ideal outcome.

My question: do any of you have thoughts on low-viscosity, reasonably priced, clear adhesives or fillers that we could fill these cubes with to bind all of the glass pieces inside and make each cube one solid piece? Ideally we could just drill a small hole in the corner, pour in the filler/adhesive, let it set, and then have one integrated piece. At the very least, I want to be able to drop these and have them not blow up all over. At best, it would be nice to have cubes that could be dropped and be damaged minimally or not at all. It would also be nice if the filler/adhesive was made out of environmentally-preferable materials, although I'm willing to trade durability and educational value for a little higher environmental impact.

(I'm also open to clever ideas for other easy, interesting, and low-effort display ideas, although that's kind of a separate thing).

Thanks!

Ben Datema

[Nathan Odle]

www.smoothon.com

[Prozacgod]

Not an adhesive tip, but a fun project anyway - Run that crushed glass through a rock tumbler for a couple weeks ;)  I used to do this when I was very young.

I think we used a differnt type of glass though, who knows!

-David

[Jon Gabrielson]

My first suggestion would be to continue with the recycled theme and use
clear plastic bottles or even "walmart bags" but I'm not for sure what type
of equipment would be required.  What would happen if you took clear
soda bottles, cut them into slices and ran them thru a paper shredder.
Then mix the broken glass with the shredded plastic and put the whole
thing in the oven and baked it.  Assuming the recycled plastic had a lower
melting point than the container you melted it in, I don't see why something
like that wouldn't work.



Jon.

[Ryan]

you could go the route the pseudo science people use when making "orgonite" to get rid of chem trails and destroy mind control. yes i'm serious, they believe this stuff. 

basically clear resin with the stuff embedded in it. http://www.orgonite.info/how-to-make-orgonite.html

you could even do layers of different materials or put a little logo or something in it. 

[Brad Dudenhoffer]

Epoxy should work well. Try a bar top mix :  http://www.ebay.com/itm/EPOXY-RESIN-4-BUBBLE-FREE-TABLE-AND-BAR-TOP-CLEAR-COATS-/310186223912

Are you set on the cube shape? If not, I bet the kiln in the craft studio gets hot enough to melt glass. Make little piles and heat them to ~<800C and they will tack together and soften the exposed edges.

[Ben Datema]

Thanks to everyone for the tips! I'll look into them as I have time this week.

My partner works in the Craft Studio, so I'll look into that possibility too. Good thought! She was really excited that someone from gadget works thought of mentioning the Craft Studio because she loves CGW.

Thanks!

Ben

[Dan Goldstein]

Yeah, epoxy or heating them were my two ideas.
I threw pottery at the craft studio for a few years. Great place!

Brad C. I'm going to bring a few friends tonight who are excited to see the Aluminum smelting. Hope that's ok.

And, could I use someones oscilloscope for a little while at the hack night?  I am still messing with transistors to pulse the laser Spirograph. It works fine, but I would like to see for my own curiosity how much the transistor coming on, lags the control (base) pulse from the Arduino.
I still have not gotten a clean turn on of the pulse, although I have decided I kind of like the effect as it is. So Scott, or someone else, could you possibly bring one of those small Osciliscopes?  Thanks!!!

Dan G

--
"There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory   out there - good for you.
 
But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of the police forces and the fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory...
 
Now look. You built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea - God bless! Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and you pay forward for the next kid who comes along."
- Elizabeth Warren (Sept. 2011)