DeCo Teeny Bright bulbs for lighted wine bottles

Drilling Holes in sea Glass & Beach Stones

Beading and designing jewelry has become one of the most popular and profitable craft. Many artistic folks find designing jewelry on outlet for their creativity. It is an enjoyable craft and it is a money maker for many jewelry artists. The next time you visit a craft show notice the number of booths displaying handmade jewelry. All of them have a rather large group of women looking over their creations and paying good money for that special set of earrings or bracelet that they fell in love with. Many of the  beautiful creations are made from sea glass , semi-precious stone, beach stone and pottery shards.They are unusual because sea glass and beach stones are found with a wide variety of shapes and colors  that offer the artist a wide range of design possibilities. You  may want to try your hand at designing jewelry made   from sea glass or beach stones.

I offer the following suggestions and tips that will help you be successful in drilling sea glass and other semi-precious stones. As you gain experience you will really get involved and enjoy designing your own jewelry.

 

Whenever you use electrical motors with high speed RPM you need to be extra careful. Wear eye protection for sure. You will be drilling with a little water around your work.Be careful with your electrical cords and drill motor.

For best results use good quality diamond drill bits also known as holesaws. The mini diamond drill bits that I have available are popular and hold up very well.

I buy my sea glass from a collector who spend the winter in Florida. I am not sure if it is authentic and genuine. I do however, enjoy walking along the shore of Lake Huron looking for any unusual beach stones  .Beach stones  and pottery shards have become a very popular medium for jewelry artist.

I pre-sort my pieces of sea glass and beach stone. I look for the smaller pieces that lend themselves to a pair of earring or a bracelet. The longer pieces would make a nice pendant.

 

 

You have to use your imagination to create a piece of jewelry in your mind. You need to decide where to drill the hole. You may want to drill in the center on top  or at each end. Sea Glass is often so irregular that you will need to study each piece very carefully before you drill you holes. Many jewelry artist use diamond files or diamond burrs to touch up and reshape their sea glass.

You need a Dremel drill motor. Be sure you have a collet that will accommodate the shank size of your drill bit.

Your best bet is to use a Dremel chuck Model 4486. This is an adjustable chuck that will accommodate most mini size diamond bits. This chuck will accept a 2/32” bit. I usually use the middle setting for my drilling speed. The larger the drill bit the more you need to slow your drilling speed down a bit. Recommended speed is 5000-25000 rpm. Insert the shank of the drill bit far up into the collet. Leave just enough of the tip of the bit to drill through the thickness of the glass or stone. These are very fine bits that can heat up very quickly and wear out the diamond segmentation on the tip of your bit.

 

Lubricants. All diamond drill bits require water to keep the tip of the drill bit and glass cool.

You will need a shallow pan about two or three inches deep. I use a piece of ¾ inch wood to place my sea glass or beach stone on. Add enough water to just cover the glass when you press it to the  bottom of your pan. If you use to much water it will splash all over the place and you will have trouble seeing your work. Change the water often as it will get cloudy from the fine glass dust. If your sea glass is not to thick you can usually drill straight through your piece of sea  glass or stone. Use a very light touch when you sense you are about to break through.  Sometimes I will put a small dot on both sides of the glass with a permanent maker. I will drill my hole from both sides in order to help prevent a chip out when the bit breaks through. Very often jewelry artist will drill the hole with a under size  bit and than re-drill with the final size. You can also use a round head diamond burr to touch up the hole.

 

You could hold your piece of glass or beach stone with your fingers. Be very careful with this suggestion. Many artist design a holding clamp of some kind.

Very important: You want to use a touch n’go drilling motion. Up & down every few seconds. You need to let the water clear out the hole. A steady down ward pressure will cause your bit to overheat and may cause the glass to crack or chip. I usually set my bit at a 45 degree angle to the glass to get the hole started. Once the bit starts to bite you can bring it straight up and continue drilling. When you sense that you are about to break through you need to let up on the down ward pressure. Some sea glass is very hard and you need to be patience, take your time. Sand stone and pottery shard are much easier to drill. I hope that these tips and suggestions will help you get the feel for drilling sea glass or beach stones or pottery shards. I find this craft fascinating and I am sure you will enjoy it once you try it. You will soon develop your own technique as you gain some experience.

You may want to Google search lapidary products for additional accessories and information. Give it a try and let me know if I can be of more help. You can contact me at:

Starkey25@live.com

My web sit: www.lightedwinebottlemaking.com

My esty store: jpdiamonddrillbits

 

 

Drill Pressure for diamond drill bits.

 

 

Drilling Pressure

 

Increasing the  pressure on diamond bits makes the bit cut faster. Not a good ideal with diamond bits. With a diamond drill bit, it’s very important that you:

 

Use very light downward pressure with a touch n” go technique. Let the “drill cut at its own speed.

 

Use plenty of water as a lubricant. A squirt bottle will often work.

 

Increasing the drill pressure will only increase the friction and heat. This not only burns up your diamond drill bit, but could also fracture or crack the material you are working with.

 

When drilling a hole completely through any material,it is important to :Lighten up the pressue even more when you sense the drill bit is about to break through the backside. This reduces chip out on the backside.

 What Size Diamond Drill Bits is Best For Wine bottles & Glass Blocks

Over the last several years that I have been selling diamond drill bits, I have found that the 5/8 inch diamond bit and the ½ inch drill bit have become the most popular with wine bottle drillers. At one time many wine bottle drillers use a ¾ inch diamond drill bit. The ¾ inch was larger than necessary and was a little unsightly. The half inch hole is a little small and just a little harder to insert the string of Christmas lights. The 5/8 inch hole makes it just a little easier to push in the mini lights.  Lighted wine bottles, lighted whiskey lamps or beer bottle lights are unique and make an excellent accent for any room in the house. They have been a very popular craft item at craft and art shows. You can find a wide variety of lighted wine bottles on e-bay or esty. You can use Google custom search to learn more about how to use diamond drill bits to drill holes in any bottle or glass block. Drill bits diamond coated are not all that expense. You can click on my page  “ for sale.”

 

Tips for Inserting DecoTeenty lights In Your Bottle.

 

 

Drill your hole in the back side of your bottle. Follow Instructions.

Rinse bottle and dry. You may want to dry it in a warm oven.

Thread your string of Deco Bulbs through one of the snap-in plastic grommets.

Insert Deco bulbs into bottle. Turn bottle neck down and shake bottle so the lights are more evenly distributed. I will often tie a short piece of fishing line near the terminal end of the lights and pull the bulbs up a little tighter in the neck of the bottle. The bottle cork will keep the line tight. If not using a bottle cork you would have to try a little speck of glue to the inside of the bottle neck. What often happens is the lights over time will settle down lower in the bottle leaving the top half with few bulbs.

The Clear Teeny super bright bulbs look really great in the dark colored bottles. Using clear bottles you may want to try multi-colored bulbs.

Be sure to use Darice Deco Teeny bulbs when drilling a 3/8 inch hole. Many string lights have a standard socket which is the same size as standard Christmas lights. If you using the larger bulbs you will need a ½  or 5/8 inch hole.  

 

  

 

Sea Glass  How to Make Your own

Beer Bottles and  Sea Glass

Check out flea markets, garage sale re-sale shops to find vintage bottles

Tumbling vintage bottles to make sea glass I recently found 4 vintage beer bottles at a garage sale. I paid $2.00 for the four of them. They were not in very good condition. By the color and shape of the bottles I would judge them to be about 100 years old. In fact the lady who sold them to me said that she know them to be at least that old. Two of them were cracked and had little value for re-sale. I had the ideal to tumble them to see what kind of faux sea glass I could make. I wrapped the bottle in several layers of old towels and broke it up with a heavy hammer. After sorting through the busted glass I collected just the pieces that would most likely make a nice piece of sea glass jewelry..I have a small toy rock tumbler that I also found at a garage sale. Using just some beach sand and a small amount of Silicon Carbide grit, I let the tumbler run for ten days. I changed the water and sand after first three days and several times after that. To my surprise, the pieces had a very nice crystalline patina and looked very much like genuine sea glass. I would venture a guest that most jewelry makers working with sea glass would not be able to tell the difference. The only distinction that I can make about this man made sea glass is that it was made from an antique beer bottle. I would not advertise it as "pure sea glass" It was fun to make and I enjoy experiencing with tumbling vintage glass bottles. _

Top of Form

 

Directions for making your Bottle Lamp

 

 Drill hole in bottle using 3/8” Diamond drill bit. (See instructions)

 Rinse bottle and dry thoroughly

 Place plastic snap-in grommet on lamp cord.

 Feed lamp cord  through drilled hole towards bottle neck. Push plastic grommet in drilled hole.

 Pull cord approx. 15” past top of bottle and tie a knot in cord. Pull cord back            through bottle until knot is about 1 inch from grommet inside bottle. You should have approx. 2” of wire at top of bottle.

Insert rice light wire through top of bottle. Terminal end down. Cut end should extend about 2” from top of bottle.

Carefully feed lamp cord wires and rice lights wires through threaded nipple/adapter. (Lock nut down).

Carefully insert nipple/rubber adapter into bottle .Bottle adapter should be flush with top of bottle. Check to see if rubber adapter fits firmly in neck of bottle.  If too lose you will have to compress the adaptor to enlarge it. Hold the bottom nut with a wrench and tighten down top nut. It should not fit supper tight as you will have to take it out.

Again, Feed lamp cord and light wires through nipple/adapter and now insert into bottle. If a little tight add a few drops of soap. If using a harp  place it  on top of brass ring, replace round check  ring and nut. Tighten.

Run lamp cord and light wires through socket base and screw on to nipple .

Wiring the 3 terminal sockets. The ribbed  wire from the lamp cord is connected to the Silver screw, the other lamp cord wire and one light wire are connected to the brass  screw, and the other light wire is connected to the black screw. (Make   sure all wires are secured). Carefully slide socket shell over socket base  click into place.

Use a 15 watt or a 25 watt light bulb.

Decorate.