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What to do with 60+ glass bricks?!

Hey folks,

I saw these glass bricks on Facebook marketplace and just had to have them!

Facebook post selling 70 retro glass blocks/wall bricks with phot

It turned out the person selling them is a friend whose website I updated lately so she was happy to give them to me for free! There's about 68 of them. They're covered in expanding foam and paint. I've started to clean them up using a scraper and some nail polish remover for the tough bits.

A single cleaned glass brick with a banana on top for sale

But the question is - what to do with them!?! They're 19*19*8cm. They're hollow in the middle so not too heavy.

I'm going to get 9 cleaned up and stack them in a grid and light up the centre one from different angles. I want to see what's the best way to light them up. And then.... ??

A giant wall for Tetris?
An igloo? (Thanks for the idea mayermakes !)

Also, how do I stack them? And where! I don't want them to fall on anyone but I also don't want to permanently stick them together. So a frame of sorts? It feels like an outdoor display to me.. so how do I waterproof the electronics?

Any ideas are welcome!

Fred27 over 2 years ago

I've seen a few drink dispensers made out of glass blocks recently. Something like this. I'm not sure I'm convinced though.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1304914967/glass-drink-stand-with-fountain-and
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beacon_dave over 2 years ago in reply to Fred27

Handy for all those Irish whiskeys
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lorrainbow over 2 years ago in reply to genebren

oh wow, that's amazing. Your wife is very talented. I was thinking of sticking vinyl stickers onto my bricks! "Fake" the mosaic!
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lorrainbow over 2 years ago in reply to Fred27

WANT!
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lorrainbow over 2 years ago in reply to lorrainbow

ooo maybe I could make one as a gift for the person who gave me the glass bricks
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beacon_dave over 2 years ago in reply to lorrainbow

There was a guy making them over on YouTube:

Make Your Own Whiskey Tap Out of Glass Building Blocks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed-ouADid-s
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beacon_dave over 2 years ago

Simple text and line art can look quite good on plain glass bricks. Either painted on or transfers.

CNC engraving could be effective if used with edge-lighting.

Giant scrabble tiles might work if you want to create large scrabble type text displays.

Not enough bricks for a periodic table of elements but some other sort of table thing might work.

If you cut a side off or mill out an end, then you end up with a vase type thing that can be slotted into a stand or rail. Other weird and wonderful things can then be mounted on top as well. Or you could fill it with resin with no need for finishing sanding and polishing.

They might work as some sort of hand-sized light-up capacitive touch input device.

They remind me a bit of the Fox's Glacier Mints that you used to get in the square tube type packets. Just need to find a Polar Bear...
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beacon_dave over 2 years ago

A variation on the igloo idea might be to make something a bit more like an Archipod cabin.

https://archipod.co.uk/the-pods/

With a limited number of bricks, then you may be limited to a couple of rings, a skylight top, or lots of square portholes.

Could be any shape really, flat sides may be easier to work with though.
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beacon_dave over 2 years ago

Giant Rubik's Cube type puzzle. Have the colours on the bricks change as you swipe the surface.
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beacon_dave over 2 years ago

For stacking, then perhaps something like this might work:

If you use stock square section planed timber / T-slot, then perhaps 3D-print some shims to match the profile of the glass bricks which can then be screwed onto the frame as required. Can leave space in the shims to take LED pixel strip for edge lighting or slots for one-way mirrors/gobos/transparencies.

You could quickly create different frames for different projects and just slot the bricks in as required during assembly.
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