Food processors are useful for chopping, grating, and slicing larger quantities of food very quickly. For small quantities or very precise cutting, a knife is better. They are also useful for making emulsions like mayonnaise or aioli, though again if you are only making a small quantity, a whisk works fine. Some people use them to knead dough, I've never tried that. For turning cuts of meat into ground meat (e.g. hamburger), the food processor works fine but you have be careful not to over-process, or the meat will be cut too finely and become paste, without texture. For pate, perhaps a paste is what you'd want? Many companies make food processors today. Testing by Cook's Illustrated concludes that KitchenAid and Cuisinart are the best ones, by quite a margin. Ideally, you want a model where the bowl is located over the motor base and driven directly off the motor's shaft, rather than the type where the bowl is located next to the motor and driven via a belt that can slip. The lower chopper blade should be very close (In case you run across a used Cuisinart, here is a little history. The food processor was invented by Robot Coupe in France, and that company still makes the best food processors for commercial (restaurant) use, but they are bulky and very expensive. In the US, home food processors were popularized in the 1970's by Cuisinart, who started out importing scaled-down Robot Coupes. The 1970's Cuisinarts, the "CFP" models, say "Made by Robot Coupe" on the bottom. In the UK, the early home food processors were badged Magmix, but were also made by Robot Coupe. In the 1980's, Cuisinart moved production to Japan with the "DLC" models. I'm told the Japanese-made DLC Cusinarts are the best. These are easily available on eBay in the US, and the accessories are plentiful and not expensive. Sometime in the 1990's, Cuisinart moved production to China. Where are you located? Is it practical for you to buy a used Cuisinart DLC from eBay and have it shipped?

Haven't used my grinder since FLAG wore it out. Never bothered to replace the wheel. ERNIE: One thing I found is to cut your shards into smaller pieces, and it there's a really sharp point, I cut it off. Otherwise, I do as NT said - I use a portion of the large grout sponges I get at Lowes to spread the grout. You can also tumble shards. I never want to take the time. FLAG had a small cement mixer that she used to tumble her shards. It gives them an old, beach-worn appearence, which is very nice. You can grind small portions in an ice cream maker - I've done glass that way. You can get the cement mixer for about $100 at Harbor Freight. If you plan to do a lot of mosaicing w/shards, and don't like to deal w/the sharp edges, I'd say the cement mixer and the tile wet saw are the two most important tools to have. The small grinder certainly did the job of grinding off the plate footers. I just cut them off. Save them for other projects where they w/come in handy.

Grinders are pretty easy to use - you need to add water (and grinder motor oil) to the well underneath your worktop, wet your sponge (which should come with it), place it into the cubby behind your grinder bit and voila! You can grind glass! I didn't know if we were allowed to post Youtube.com links, but if you go there and put "grinder/stained glass" into the search, you will find a few little videos showing how to use your grinder! Good luck and have fun - it's really easy!

I usually lurk and spy here at all the beautiful things you all come up with, had to put in my .02 worth, I have not done any mosaics (yet) but have made stained glass for 27 years,I've owned the same grinder for 20 of those years and I never use a "coolant" Have tried it,and don't see any big difference,I personally think its another item for you to spend your money on!This same grinder went to school with me when I taught Stained Glass Classes for 7 years, with 10-15 people using it each semester . the grinder head has approx 8 levels of use on it(depending on the thickness of your glass .I start mine at the highest point and lower it as it wears. just use a pc of glass to determine the depth of the change. SO for what its worth-there you have it Great projects too Ladies (and guys if you are here too !)really enjoy looking at the vast creativity , its amazing what you can come up with .