# Garden path made of broken glass



## ccpe

I kept finding so much broken glass that I decided to put it through my rock tumbler to use for my garden path.  I'm going to add rope lights under the glass.  The pics are of about 10 gallons.  I'm going to need a lot more!  80% is found glass and the other 20% is flea market/thrift shop glass.  The photos show the path dry and wet.


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## willong

ccpe said:


> I kept finding so much broken glass that I decided to put it through my rock tumbler to use for my garden path. I'm going to add rope lights under the glass. The pics are of about 10 gallons. I'm going to need a lot more! 80% is found glass and the other 20% is flea market/thrift shop glass. The photos show the path dry and wet.



I love it!  I've long contended that the best method of recycling is to reuse the product or material.


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## ccpe

willong said:


> I love it!  I've long contended that the best method of recycling is to reuse the product or material.


I pick up every piece of glass when out searching.  I'm going to go the recycle drop-off because they don't take colored glass.  I've even told my friends to drink more wine because I need the bottles.


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## UncleBruce

That is a great idea.  Wish I had a place that yielded nice glass like that.


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## ROBBYBOBBY64

ccpe said:


> I pick up every piece of glass when out searching.  I'm going to go the recycle drop-off because they don't take colored glass.  I've even told my friends to drink more wine because I need the bottles.


Your a good friend, more wine. Lol!
ROBBYBOBBY64.


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## Mjbottle

Very nice! Good idea!


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## ccpe

UncleBruce said:


> That is a great idea.  Wish I had a place that yielded nice glass like that.


I wish the sites had more intact bottles but I'll take the broken too.


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## Toma777

It reminds me of beach glass. One of my older brothers used to always pick up beach glass, and fill old mason jars with in. He did it when he lived in New Hampshire (about 1980-2010). He's in Florida now, and I'm not sure if he walks the beach anymore.

I wish I had those jars. He didn't pay on his NH storage units, and they got auctioned off.


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## ccpe

Toma777 said:


> It reminds me of beach glass. One of my older brothers used to always pick up beach glass, and fill old mason jars with in. He did it when he lived in New Hampshire (about 1980-2010). He's in Florida now, and I'm not sure if he walks the beach anymore.
> 
> I wish I had those jars. He didn't pay on his NH storage units, and they got auctioned off.


I'm FL and haven't found any glass on the beaches yet.  I'm always looking for fossil shark teeth.  Total bummer about the storage unit - that glass would be awesome!


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## Toma777

I used to collect the fossil shark teeth when I lived in Myrtle Beach, SC. Before I moved I gave my collection to a friend. There were tons of them because when I lived there they reconstituted the beach by dredging the outer sand bars.


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## ROBBYBOBBY64

Toma777 said:


> I used to collect the fossil shark teeth when I lived in Myrtle Beach, SC. Before I moved I gave my collection to a friend. There were tons of them because when I lived there they reconstituted the beach by dredging the outer sand bars.
> View attachment 226494


I recognize that background. 383matty? Small world. Your one of my saved sellers.
ROBBYBOBBY64.


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## embe

ccpe said:


> I kept finding so much broken glass that I decided to put it through my rock tumbler to use for my garden path.  I'm going to add rope lights under the glass.  The pics are of about 10 gallons.  I'm going to need a lot more!  80% is found glass and the other 20% is flea market/thrift shop glass.  The photos show the path dry and wet.



Cool idea with the lights.  Bigger flagstones might reduce the amount of glass required for your project, and more bare-foot accessible  

Some of the beach glass I find still have sharp edges, but if you're using an aggressive grit in your tumbler it should be fine.


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## ccpe

Toma777 said:


> I used to collect the fossil shark teeth when I lived in Myrtle Beach, SC. Before I moved I gave my collection to a friend. There were tons of them because when I lived there they reconstituted the beach by dredging the outer sand bars.
> View attachment 226494


Those are nice ones.  I dive near Venice, FL every year for meg teeth.  There's also some great hunting in the creeks in central FL and Charleston, SC.


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## ccpe

embe said:


> Cool idea with the lights.  Bigger flagstones might reduce the amount of glass required for your project, and more bare-foot accessible
> 
> Some of the beach glass I find still have sharp edges, but if you're using an aggressive grit in your tumbler it should be fine.


Yes I agree.  I'm going to move the sandstone closer together. 
I use course course silicon carbide for 2 days in the tumbler and all the sharp edges are smooth.


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## Toma777

ROBBYBOBBY64 said:


> I recognize that background. 383matty? Small world. Your one of my saved sellers.
> ROBBYBOBBY64.



I just pulled that picture off of eBay as an example. Those are actually just reproduction shark's teeth that sell for a fraction of the price of real shark's teeth.

I wish I had kept the ones I had found, because there were some great ones in my collection. I lived in Myrtle Beach for about 2 years as I was studying law at Horry-Georgetown Technical College.


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## ccpe

Toma777 said:


> I just pulled that picture off of eBay as an example. Those are actually just reproduction shark's teeth that sell for a fraction of the price of real shark's teeth.
> 
> I wish I had kept the ones I had found, because there were some great ones in my collection. I lived in Myrtle Beach for about 2 years as I was studying law at Horry-Georgetown Technical College.


These are some of the shark teeth I've found.  The top one is a megalodon from the Gulf.


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## ROBBYBOBBY64

Toma777 said:


> I just pulled that picture off of eBay as an example. Those are actually just reproduction shark's teeth that sell for a fraction of the price of real shark's teeth.
> 
> I wish I had kept the ones I had found, because there were some great ones in my collection. I lived in Myrtle Beach for about 2 years as I was studying law at Horry-Georgetown Technical College.


Oops sorry. I knew I recognized that background. Just not you. I understand.
ROBBYBOBBY64.


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## Hamco

Really nice idea and execution.


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## Toma777

That's a really nice megalodon. I had a couple, but they weren't whole. I used to scuba dive and ran into a 18 foot great white, and about a 10 foot bull shark, but I couldn't imagine running into a megalodon! I was more scared of the bull shark because of their reputation for attacks.


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## ccpe

Toma777 said:


> That's a really nice megalodon. I had a couple, but they weren't whole. I used to scuba dive and ran into a 18 foot great white, and about a 10 foot bull shark, but I couldn't imagine running into a megalodon! I was more scared of the bull shark because of their reputation for attacks.


The broken ones are called fragalodons.


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## ccpe

Puts lights in last night.  I'm pleased with the results.  Coco seems to like it too.


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## LalaGirl

ccpe said:


> I kept finding so much broken glass that I decided to put it through my rock tumbler to use for my garden path.  I'm going to add rope lights under the glass.  The pics are of about 10 gallons.  I'm going to need a lot more!  80% is found glass and the other 20% is flea market/thrift shop glass.  The photos show the path dry and wet.View attachment 226469View attachment 226468View attachment 226470View attachment 226471


What a cool idea! It looks very nice; can't wait for pics of the lighted up glass!
(Never mind... Just saw them =D )


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## relic rescuer

That's a great idea. With the one and only bottle dig I've done, I could have done 5 times that much. I found over 300 intact bottles, and there were at least three times that much broken. Mostly brown and white tho. I did find some broken Vaseline glass too, and some milks.


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## ccpe

relic rescuer said:


> That's a great idea. With the one and only bottle dig I've done, I could have done 5 times that much. I found over 300 intact bottles, and there were at least three times that much broken. Mostly brown and white tho. I did find some broken Vaseline glass too, and some milks.


Some of the colored glass is thrift shop & flea market.  I asked all the local thrift shops to save broken and un-sellable glass for me.  I've even asked local bars to save colored liquor bottles.  Better it end up on my path than in the land fill.


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## Bottle 2 Rocks

What was the one picture of your shark teeth finds, the one that looked like a fossil finger.


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## ccpe

Bottle 2 Rocks said:


> What was the one picture of your shark teeth finds, the one that looked like a fossil finger.


I think it's a dolphin tooth but I'm not sure.


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## CanadianBottles

That looks fantastic, especially all lit up!  Hard to find much beach glass around here but there's definitely no shortage of broken glass.  How long does the tumbler take to make them smooth enough?  The time keeping the thing running has been what always kept me from tumbling rocks but I imagine glass would take a lot less time.


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## ccpe

CanadianBottles said:


> That looks fantastic, especially all lit up!  Hard to find much beach glass around here but there's definitely no shortage of broken glass.  How long does the tumbler take to make them smooth enough?  The time keeping the thing running has been what always kept me from tumbling rocks but I imagine glass would take a lot less time.


I have a tumbler that holds about 1 gallon.  I add a couple of tablespoons of 60/90 silicon carbide grit.  It takes about 1.5 to days to smooth down the edges and give it a matte finish.  I tried it with water added but it didn't work as well as dry.


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## CanadianBottles

ccpe said:


> I have a tumbler that holds about 1 gallon.  I add a couple of tablespoons of 60/90 silicon carbide grit.  It takes about 1.5 to days to smooth down the edges and give it a matte finish.  I tried it with water added but it didn't work as well as dry.


Thanks for the response!  That's longer than I was imagining it would take, although I imagine you could get a decent amount done with a gallon drum.


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## ccpe

CanadianBottles said:


> Thanks for the response!  That's longer than I was imagining it would take, although I imagine you could get a decent amount done with a gallon drum.


The glass put on the path so far is about 15 gallons.  It's going to take me another 6 months to get all the glass I need for a 50' long by 3 to 4 wide path.


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## dab46

would be neat to have lights under the glass .


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## ccpe

dab46 said:


> would be neat to have lights under the glass .


I have some pics with lights earlier in the thread. It looks pretty cool.


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## buriedtreasuretime

willong said:


> I love it! I've long contended that the best method of recycling is to reuse the product or material.



My favorite aunt had a saying that she’d clip when ever she found it- it must be a depression era saying. “ use it, use it up, use it again, use it over, make it do!” 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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