How to make frosted glass from ordinary glass at home with your own hands?

You can make simple glass original using several technologies. For example, make a stained glass window, create a drawing on it, or make a mosaic. But the most interesting way to make a truly designer product is to transform it into frosted glass.

After matting, it turns into a material with a modified surface structure, becoming opaque. Several processing techniques can be used on one glass to produce original and truly individual products.

Glass products - decorative lighting fixtures, souvenirs, vases, various dishes - these items are in great demand among the population. Often, we choose these items if we need to give a gift. We are attracted by matte sconces, salad bowls and glasses; they are decorated with various designs, patterns and natural ornaments.

Undecorated products, although they cost much less, practically do not attract attention.

You can matt both completely flat surfaces and things with complex shapes. There is no thing that would be impossible to decorate using matting. And their appearance is limited solely by the richness of your imagination.

Usage

The main purpose of frosted glass is protection from prying eyes, which often appears.
For example, for organizing a protected and intimate environment in the bedroom, when organizing separate compartments in a common room, or for making partitions in sanitary rooms. When planning an office space, dividing walls with frosted glass will become indispensable.

Often, matting is used in everyday life, making parts of glazed doors, edging mirrors, dishes and lighting fixtures from it. You can purchase ready-made frosted glass from glass workshops or make it yourself.

The process is carried out in the following ways:

Mechanically.
Using chemicals.
Using a sandblasting machine.

The technology of mechanical processing (with special pastes) is quite simple. Using chemicals at home is risky. And the use of sandblasting requires special equipment and makes it possible to transform mainly thick glass, and processing using this method turns out to be rough.

To install frosted glass in all-glass products, it is tempered.

Knowing how to frost glass can also help the home craftsman. Often, kitchen cabinet doors are made using frosted glass. Restoring furniture is expensive, it will be cheaper and more convenient to make it yourself.

Glass with frosted surface

An interesting design element would be the use of a matte plexiglass surface. Thanks to its ability to diffuse light, many lighting designers have successfully used it in lamps and night lights. If you are planning to create a comfortable sconce lamp for the bedroom or a night light with dim diffused light with your own hands, then you will need to watch a video on how to make the polymer matte.

How to make frosted plexiglass at home? Very simple. Take medium-grit sandpaper and start sanding the surface until it becomes matte. If you have the desire and opportunity, you can also treat the surface on the other side.

If you don’t like this option, then you can opt for chemical treatment of the surface - etching it with an acid solution, which is not very desirable for an apartment. But there will be no need to use physical force. Still, it is better to carry out processes using chemical compounds outside.

Pros and cons

Why are they good:

Isolation of space from prying eyes.
Variety of designs, elegance and beauty of frosted glass products.
Variety of types of material.
Selecting the appropriate matting technology.
Versatility of use.

The negative qualities of this material are considered to be slight roughness; dust collects on them. This flaw can be eliminated by coating the glass with a special varnish.

Recommendations for glassmaking

Making glass with your own hands at home requires care and attention - in the absence of experience, such a process can be difficult, especially at the final stage. For the first attempt, you should not prepare large volumes of melt

To simplify working with such material, you can use the recommendations of experienced glassblowers:

As a substitute for quartz sand, sifted white river sand is used.
Large granules of the charge components are thoroughly crushed in a mortar before heating.
Pieces of failed products can be added to the batch - this saves material.

The annealing temperature to complete the product ranges from 400°C to 600°C. The indicators depend on the refractoriness of the mixture used. Cooling of the finished glass depends on the size of the ingot and its thickness - large objects need gradual cooling. After completion of the work, the product is strengthened by glazing or lamination.

Manufacturing technologies

There are several ways:

Processing using a sandblasting unit.
Chemical treatment.
Pasting with special film.
Lakomat.

Changing the structure of a glass surface using sandblasting is the most common matting technology. The flow of sand removes the top surface of ordinary glass, and it loses its transparency. By changing the fraction of abrasive material and the pressure in the unit, you can change the roughness and degree of dullness.

There are several types of sandblasting glass:

Planar.
Colored.
Tinted.
Three-dimensional.

Glass etching to form an opaque glass surface is done using hydrofluoric acid. The matting paste covers the unprotected parts of the product through a stencil, and after a certain time it is removed and the glass surface is washed.

Areas treated with paste become matte. Compared to sandblasting, sandblasting makes the surface less rough and does not require a protective coating after treatment.

In production, the glass surface is completely treated with matting substances, which makes it possible to create an ideal matte surface, which is called satinato.

Frosted films for glass

Finishing with film is the most economical method. The glass is covered with a film with shading, patterns or designs.

The disadvantage of this method of matting is the need to use the finished glass under special conditions - friction or heavy wetting of the surface should not be allowed.

Lakomat is a special matting method. The surface is covered with a layer of matting varnish; it can be either translucent or white.

When coating glass with varnish, the following tools are needed:

rubber trims;
rollers;
brushes;

This method requires special care and accuracy.

Original products with an unusual effect are obtained by changing the glass surface using laser radiation. There is a method of processing glass using surface detonation and using metal spraying using a plasma installation; with this processing, small drops of molten metal heat the glass to a high temperature.

As a result, microchips and very small cracks form on the surface of the glass. They create matte areas. But such matting technologies are practically not used due to the high price of equipment and the complexity of the manufacturing process.

Types of glass that are used in the manufacture of frosted products:

mirror;
tinted;
painted;
hardened;
triplex;
polished;

Classification of frosted plexiglass

There are several types of frosted plexiglass:

Colored. The composition contains a coloring component, and the surface can be either smooth or rough.
Satin. The matte effect is achieved due to the roughness of one or both sides, while there may be no dye in the material itself. Minor damage is almost invisible.
Glossy. Both sides are smooth. The material itself is milky in color, its saturation can vary from slightly transparent to opaque. It looks attractive, but chips and scratches are clearly visible on the surface, as well as grease and dirty handprints.
Grooved. There is a distinct raised pattern on one side. Can be white or colored.

Preparation of matting paste

Attention!
Since making your own paste requires working with chemicals, everything must be done with protective gloves and a gown. There are several “recipes” for matting paste. Made using hydrofluoric acid or liquid glass.

For hydrofluoric acid paste you need:

Sodium fluoride.
Gelatin.
Distilled water.

Add the components in a ratio of 2:1:25 and mix well. The finished mixture is applied to the glass surface with a roller; after treatment, they are washed off with clean water.

After this, the glass is dried and kept in 6% hydrochloric acid for 60 seconds. Frosting of glass using this method is done using hydrofluoric acid. It cannot be used to form a pattern - the mixture will penetrate under the stencil.

Liquid glass must be mixed with distilled water, after which a small amount of tooth powder is added to it, and the composition is mixed well. Pigments are sometimes added to the paste, for example, ultramarine or red lead. The washed glass surface is coated with paste using a roller, and after drying, washed with water.

Special types of glass

In addition to the standard one, glass in the game, thanks to various mods, can take on any shape and properties.

Colored glass. The method for obtaining it is quite simple: all you need is ordinary glass and dye.
Liquid glass. Appeared in the game thanks to the Forestry mod. In it you can craft various electronics and obtain glass in liquid form.
X-ray glass. It is the most interesting option for amateur miners, as it allows you to see everything that is underneath it, dozens of blocks below. It is a very expensive luxury, as eight diamonds are needed to produce X-ray glass.
Additionally, thanks to the Fancy Glass mod, glass can be turned into a purely decorative block, like a brick. Thus, ordinary glass has turned into a building material, and a house consisting entirely of this material can now be built with one’s own hands.

Care

More intensely than on regular glass, any dirt is more noticeable on frosted glass, even fingerprints are clearly visible. It is easier to remove them immediately after they appear - you need to wipe the contaminated area of the surface with a slightly moistened microfiber cloth.

Serious stains, such as those caused by grease, can be removed. Such glass must be occasionally wiped with a piece of natural suede and washed with heated water and a small amount of vinegar. After this treatment, the cleaned surface is dried using microfiber.

Another option for cleaning a frosted glass surface can be treatment with a composition of several spoons of powdered chalk and 200 grams. clean water. The mixture is applied with a piece of rag to the glass surface, and when it dries, it is wiped off with newsprint.

Heavy contamination must be removed using ammonia, but it smells strong and unpleasant, for this reason, during such treatment it is necessary to intensively ventilate the room.

Self-made frosted glass can become a true work of art, and with the help of timely care, the beauty of the product will last for a long time.

How to make a window opaque?

I live on the 1st floor, the window faces the courtyard, next to the entrance door. I want to make the glass opaque so that I can't be seen from the outside. I thought about sticking a regular matte film, but I read on the Internet that there are some sprays for frosting glass. I don't know which is better. How do you think?