I've just ground my own glass

[Uncle Jim]

Hi,

I made an error in my last post. It's been a year or more since I made a ground glass, and I misquoted the Abrasives. I was using 9 and 5 micron aluminum oxide. Don't use the 30 micron stuff as it is way too course. I ground 3 glasses yesterday in 8 x 10 size using 15 micron and then finishing with 5 micron. They turned out beautiful. Also reground the glass from my Agfa/Ansco 8 x 10 using the 9 micron powder to even out the figure. Looks much better. So now I have 4 finished 8 x 10 ground glasses. If there are any questions, please let me know.

uncle jim

[JRFrench]

I've just ground my own using 5 and 3 micron alu oxide powder, it took a while (about 2 hours of casual work for a 4x5) but it seems to work well, I don't have much to compare to at the moment. It only has a very slight hint of texture under an 8x loupe.

I followed this process: http://www.dokasphotos.com/techniques/ground_glass/

Also for abrasives, these guys are very cheap, and prompt with shipping: http://www.willbell.com/ATMSupplies/ATM_Supplies.htm

[imagedowser]

If you are going to make your own gg, take your back to the glass person and have it cut to fit. A drag to have a beautiful gg just a bit too big... Unless, of course, you are skilled at glass cutting, which is a fun skill to have... The clipped corner is, I've found to be hard to do well... any glass artisans out there have any tricks to do an accurate and clean corner clip? Buy the way, thinner glass is lighter glass and it's been said pyrex glass makes a more durable and optically slightly better gg. Have not tried it yet, more expensive/harder to find, a touch heavier IMO. Btw any glass shop can cut a "frosted" glass that works very well, very inexpensive, pop it right in and focus... Learned that from Eddie.

[vickersdc]

The clipped corners are not too bad to do as long as you have a decent glass cutter, and the proper shaped 'pliers' to break it with. After that, then you can just grind the edges down smooth and slightly round off the remaining corners.

David.

[salihonba]

Here is my two cents, no ground work needed.
prepare your transparent acrylic plate in gg size, easily cut and clipped.
a laminating sheet bigger than gg, that used to laminating photos, id cards, name plates, made in two semi transparent plastic sheet.
some baby lotion

Now cut laminating sheet according to gg size, we need only one piece
then dip some baby lotion on gg plate, carefully cover the sheet on it, let the matte surface face up.
squeeze the air bubble out, by your finger,from center to the edge, till there is no air at all.

that's it, a perfect gg plate!!

[sha_hong]

Use the optical glass will be better.
The finest groud glass is made by chemical method.