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Gabriel Rangel
07-26-2010, 4:35 PM
Does anyone have a good suppler for Wedding Flute Glass and the Server and Cake Knife.

Thanks for the help
Yea good idea live in the USA (TEXAS)

john passek
07-26-2010, 6:53 PM
It might help if we knew where you live.
In Canada, weddingstar dot com is a decent supplier for all wedding accessaries.

Gary and Jessica Houghton
07-27-2010, 2:03 PM
Gabriel,
We too live in Texas. I buy flutes and servers from a number of people. One supplier of both is creativegiftsdierct.com. They have several styles. I also have had luck with wal-mart for cheaper flutes. You can also find better quality flutes at Belks and Bed Bath and Beyond. It helps if you befriend someone and get a discount or wait for awesome sales.
If you are near Dallas, you can go to the world trade center and trade mart when they have market. There are tons of distributors.

Bill Cunningham
07-31-2010, 9:23 PM
Walmart in Canada handles Libby glassware, and it seems to etch quite nicely. Also, most of the dollar store flutes (made in China) also seem to etch OK.. I have found some flutes that will simply 'not' etch. These were distributed by Avon reps, and also have a small pewter shape glued to them. The glass seems to be a high temp stuff, that looks like melted plastic w/sharp shards when etched. These should be done on a sandblaster.. I have also had a customer bring me a Hookah/'bong'(?) that seems to be made from the same laser unetchable glass..

john passek
07-31-2010, 9:49 PM
Thanks Bill
I totaly forgot about Walmart, and the dollar stores are my first stop when looking for inexpensive projects, they have a good variety of odd and regular shaped glass wear.

James E Baker
07-31-2010, 10:17 PM
One of the first projects I tackled with my LASER was making a set of engraved flutes for every guest at the wedding reception of a couple of friends in England.

I used 5.5 oz Flutes from Libbey (Catalog Number 3996 or 502185 with a UPC of 031009281329) that I bought in boxes of 4 from the local Wal*Marts @ CAD$8.47+tax per box (had to hit all 3 local Wal*Marts to find enough flutes). The flutes engraved well. I used a 1/2" thick piece of particle board as a wedge under the Rotary Attachment in my VLS4.60 to compensate for the taper on the glass and keep the glass in focus.

If you're looking for Cooler and Rocks glasses, Libbey has a 24 piece "Province" glassware set with 12 of 16 oz coolers and 12 of 11 oz rocks. It used to sell for $12.97 at Wal*Mart, but they recently put the price up to $19.97. Both sizes of glasses engrave well, have parallel sides (80 mm diameter for the rocks and 71 mm diameter for the cooler) without any ornamentation, and have a reasonably heavy base. Even at the new price,e still a great deal, but my customers buy a lot more engraved rocks glasses than coolers, so I use a lot of coolers as throw aways test designs. The carton is labeled as "Item 55575" on the bottom of the box, with a UPC of 031009298440). According to the Libbey price list, in the size lots I would need, it's still cheaper to buy then from Wal*Mart than directly from Libbey.

There are pictures of all 3 styles of engraved glasses on my web site at www dot fractalcoffee dot com.

James E Baker
07-31-2010, 10:52 PM
... I have found some flutes that will simply 'not' etch. These were distributed by Avon reps, and also have a small pewter shape glued to them. The glass seems to be a high temp stuff, that looks like melted plastic w/sharp shards when etched. These should be done on a sandblaster.. I have also had a customer bring me a Hookah/'bong'(?) that seems to be made from the same laser unetchable glass..
The information I have received is that the better the quality of the glass (higher refractive index, which gives it more sparkle), the higher is its lead content, and it's the lead content that makes it harder to etch with a LASER.

Bill Cunningham
07-31-2010, 11:44 PM
Normally this would be correct James, but the Bong really threw me.. This was not high quality glass, it seem to be cast, and may have had something to do with the temper of the glass.. I have etched very high quality led crystal glasses without a problem, but the problem is usually shattering due to the expansion difference in lead/glass temperatures.. This etch result made me pull the glass and and make sure I wasn't trying to engrave extruded plastic, because that's what it looked like. But running your finger down the etch only resulted in little invisible shards of glass embedding in your finger.. weird indeed..

James E Baker
08-01-2010, 12:01 AM
Interesting. I'm still pretty new to this game and so far the only glass I've engraved on has been cheap stuff (Libbey glassware, dollar store stuff, and the odd food packaging jar), so I've yet to battle with those kinds of problems.

Chuck Patterson
08-01-2010, 2:08 PM
I use etsexpress dot com. Prices listed on the internet are retail prices. You can purchase blanks by the case (usually quantities of either 12, 16, 24, or 32 depending on the glass style).

Martin Boekers
08-01-2010, 4:11 PM
You should have a local hotel and restaraunt supply house, they are a good place to check also.

Maybe more $ but, you know you can get the items again.
Dollar stores are great for non repeats as their inventory always changes.

Here close to my shop, we have an "Old Tyme Pottery" and "Garden Ridge" both those have decent selections.

If your doing these for a wedding you may see if they would like their "toasting " bottle of wine to be engraved. (Always looking to add another item to the sell ;))

Marty

Gabriel Rangel
08-08-2010, 4:58 PM
Thanks for all the information. I will do some more checking around.
Thanks again

Chuck Stone
08-08-2010, 7:38 PM
Speaking of cheap glasses to etch..
I've had great luck getting the 4 packs of Old Fashioned glasses at KMart
for $5. They don't always have them, though. Heavy bottom, they feel solid
and have plenty of room for artwork. They're very plain, which is good.

I forget the brand and price, but they also had flutes there and I think the
price was somewhere in that same range.

Joe De Medeiros
08-09-2010, 10:24 AM
I have also had a customer bring me a Hookah/'bong'(?) that seems to be made from the same laser unetchable glass..

Those are made from Pyrex (Borosilicate glass), it's very hard and requires very high temperatures to melt, and is resistant to acids. We use it to make glass beads, and it requires a very large torch with oxy/fuel to melt.

here's the beast I use, the Nortel Red MAX.

http://www.waleapparatus.com/product_images/catalog19836/923.jpg

Dan Hintz
08-09-2010, 11:29 AM
Joe,

That looks like some form of Steampunk flamethrower :D

Chuck Stone
08-09-2010, 2:40 PM
Joe,

That looks like some form of Steampunk flamethrower :D

I think I saw that one in the Smithsonian. Wasn't that H.G. Well's bong?

Bill Cunningham
08-10-2010, 10:06 PM
Those are made from Pyrex (Borosilicate glass), it's very hard and requires very high temperatures to melt, and is resistant to acids. We use it to make glass beads, and it requires a very large torch with oxy/fuel to melt.

Thanks for this info Joe! Pyrex was my first thought on this, I was even going to sneak out one of my wife's pyrex baking dishes laser it, and see if it did the same thing. (now thankfully I don't have to tread in those dangerous waters) I would think it strange to find a 'flute' made from pyrex though? What would be the point? The Flute that reacted like pyrex was distributed by Avon.. Do we have any Avon ladies in the forum?

Joe De Medeiros
08-11-2010, 10:12 AM
The Flute that reacted like pyrex was distributed by Avon.. Do we have any Avon ladies in the forum?

That one is odd, Pyrex is much more expensive, unless they are ordering them from World Kitchens, who licenses the Pyrex name.

from wiki

Pyrex is a brand name (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand_name) for glassware (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glassware), introduced by Corning Incorporated (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corning_Incorporated) in 1915. Originally, Pyrex was made from thermal shock (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_shock) resistant borosilicate glass (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borosilicate_glass). In 1998, Corning sold its consumer products division which subsequently adopted the name World Kitchen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Kitchen). Pyrex kitchen glassware manufactured and licensed for sale in the United States is now made of tempered (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempered_glass) soda-lime glass (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soda-lime_glass) at the World Kitchen facility in Charleroi, Pennsylvania (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charleroi,_Pennsylvania).[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrex#cite_note-History-0) Pyrex products for the European Union (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union) continue to be made of borosilicate glass in France.[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrex#cite_note-1) Pyrex laboratory glassware is also still made of borosilicate glass.[3] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrex#cite_note-2) According to Carroll Gantz,

I use the Laboratory Glass, or a Glass made by Northstar (lots of colors).