There's no way around this problem either.
I've heard of people who were into using beer bottles as a source for all sorts of things ~ but that was years back. Today's beer bottle glass is a high tech product ~ wear your goggles and heavier shirts, tunics and headdress when messing with that stuff.
BTW, we have an art center in Northern Virginia called the Torpedo Factory. There have been glass artists there since it opened about 4 decades ago. They'll tell you all about it ~ if you are anywhere near the DC area. Blanko glass is a few hours away and they do "art glass". One of my old neighbors back in the hood was the main stained glass guy in Indiana ~ he wouldn't do any of that stuff at home because it wasn't safe (he said but what did he know). I used to hang around at his house a lot ~ guy did paintings, sculpture, clay, etc. His wife was also an artist.
Personally I am not going to try melting glass ~ too dangerous for my tastebuds.
I have no personal experience, but watching glass blowers working and then finishing off their products, I have seen them use butane or propane hand torches quite extensively.
As far as the glass goes, I don’t believe the quality of beer bottles will match the blanks one gets from Corning et al for this purpose.
I have a small glass collection, love the stuff.
That’s like asking why different metals have different characteristics. Lots of different kinds of glass out there.
When you see (real) glassblowers you are typically seeing a pot of molten glass sitting in a furnace, then gathered onto the blowpipe, then worked, then shoved into the furnace, worked, back to the furnace, worked, and then finally annealed in (that or another, lower-temp furnace) to relieve the internal stresses. Some glassworkers use a torch to re-heat stuff once out of the furnace, but my impression is that small, handheld torches are appropriate only for very small stuff. If your heat source is inadequate, I suspect it will lead to frustration because it will either require you to hold the torch on the work for a heck of a long time, or, by not being able to spread out the heat, create internal stresses which will cause lots of breakage.
There are inexpensive ways to cut off bottles and such without creating as much of an inhalation hazard that a Dremel tool & abrasive will produce. Also, I’d suspect that getting a nice, even cut around a bottle with a handheld tool is not going to be that easy...and if you can do a semi-good job, then you have to grind the lip and there’s your dust again. There are bottle-cutting kits on ebay, these were sold as hobby items and they are out there.
Allegedly, and I have never tried this: If you fill a bottle to the point where you want it cut off with oil and then plunge a red-hot iron rod into the liquid, the bottle will snap off from the temperature shock. Wear gloves, have a facemask on, don’t have your face over the opening!!
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/1973-09-01/Cutting-Bottles-The-Easy-Way.aspx
My sister does fused glass work with a kiln, plates, frames etc.many shapes and colors and she says you have to know the source and composition of the glass because all of the materials in the glass have different melt rates and cool rates causing shattering and cracking when least expected. slow heating melts best and temp changes throughout the piece. takes practice practice
If you need something really hot use a Bernzomatic torch with MAPP gas. When I was a kid, I used to bend and blow glass tubing using just an alcohol burner with a breath operated blow pipe.
Good quality glass is hand-made. I use a tile cutter to cut and snap straight lines. Takes some practice.
If you use a dremel on glass, use water to stop breathable dust from forming. Lots of water.
Use "Pyrex" or "Borosilicate glass" since it will resist cracking as it cools. You can protect the glass while it cools by coating it with carbon right after you work it. This can be accomplished by turning the oxygen almost off on the bunsen burner or by wrapping a cotton ball arounf the glass and allowing that to smolder and leave a carbon deposit. Be careful with this, lest you burn yourself.
You can fabricate tools to shape the glass from graphite rods, like those used in carbon-arc torches. You can find sources of graphite material on the web.
If you are planning to seal electrodes in the glass, use small diameter copper that you have oxidized with a quick exposure to a torch flame.
I have made vacuum tubes before. With a little practice, you will be able to shape glass in surprising ways. I've been thinking about making tubes once again; and, now I know how to draw a really hard vacuum. (Oil diffusion pump)
Glass from bottles will break while you heat it, or while it cools. Those bottles are made in machines that blow the bottle using an inert gas, and then slowly cools them over twelve hours or so.
The process of relieving the heating/cooling stresses on glass is called annealing. That requires an oven that can follow a pre-programmed temperature curve.
The first thing you need to do is ventilate the area you are working the glass as lead and other chemicals are released when working glass...a fan behind you with windows or garage door open works to start out.
You really also need a kiln if you want what you create to survive, especially larger pieces, because the kiln with take the stresses out of the glass that will cause breakage points later.
Yes, glass is expensive but unless you are going to do big things such as vases and bowls which would take a furnace then you do not go through that much glass.
If you use things like beer bottles then you definitely need a kiln because you need to heat the bottle before it goes into the flame because it will explode on you. Bringing it up to temp will keep that from happening.
Masks....when you go to those glass blowing sites look up safety mask if you are going to cut glass.
On a serious note - this week our city Grand Rapids Michigan is having an art competition, this is one of the entries, a fountain made of colorful old glass ashtrays with holes drilled through the center. It is really quite pretty and I thought you would like to see it. Sorry it's not a real link but just go there I think you will like it.
http://www.artprize.org/63176