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Glue chipping tempered glass.

Hand Lettering topics: Sign Making, Design, Fabrication, Letterheads, Sign Books.

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Robert Schwieger
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Joined: Wed Feb 07, 2007 12:38 pm
Location: Nebraska

Glue chipping tempered glass.

Post by Robert Schwieger »

Robert Mitchell's book on glue chipping (c.) 1985 mentions that he had not tried glue chipping tempered glass. I know that I can try this on my own but I would appreciate experiences on glue chipping tempered glass. One glass contractor stated that ( aside from the chipping) the tempered glass is actually more apt to shatter, if the ends of the glass are butted together too forcefully. Your help is, again, greatly appreciated. Bob
Patrick Mackle
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Post by Patrick Mackle »

Tempering the glass causes the molecules to compress thus hardening the surfaces.
Tempered glass can be both acid etched and glue chipped, but because the surface has been altered, the outcome of either treatment in my experience is not as rewarding as when done on stock glass sheet. When chipping tempered glass you run the risk the it may break or not chip completely, especially if you apply the glue too thin in areas.
Pat
vance galliher
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Post by vance galliher »

robert............ the contractor is correct that tempered glass is not only more "apt to" but I would say almost certain to shatter when butted together.........you must experience the butting together of two pieces of tempered glass............it will do your heart good !! My first experience with it was a 3' x 7' panel of gilded artwork !...........it's something you don't want to duplicate !.......I have etched/chipped pieces ,and then had them tempered with success...but that a scary proposition ? It could get broken ! I have chipped tempered pieces with some success, but it's never as good as with untempered glass. As a rule , when you etch tempered glass, as you would to chip, just don't got too deep....don't break the layer "surface tension" created by tempering of the glass.
Mike Jackson
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Post by Mike Jackson »

Robert,
I fixed your post and added in the date, then deleted the extra fixer posts. I hope you don't mind. It cleans up the thread a lot. FYI, you can EDIT your own post if you ever need to fix a similar problem. Instead of adding new posts to the thread to fix them, just hit the EDIT button in the post, though you do have to be logged in to get to see the button.

Also, FYI, try going to the SEARCH button just under the Hand Lettering Forum banner at the top of the page. Once you click on the SEARCH button, type this into the search field: tempered and glass

Once you complete the search, you will find quite a few old topics that deal with tempered glass, including quite a few about chipping tempered glass. The AND in the middle of the two words will find posts that have both words somewhere in them.

Good luck with the project. I never tried it but from the looks of the resulting search, a lot of people have at least some success.

M. Jackson
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Larry White
Posts: 1213
Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2004 4:18 am

Now you see there....

Post by Larry White »

I've had reasonable success glue chipping tempered glass. It never seems to yield the nice fern chips, I typically get snails or coffee beans. The resulting chip is shallower and smoother. I've also chipped regular glass then had it tempered. On occasion I'll get a customer that halts an order due to the wrong size tempered glass and since it can't be cut, they ask me to pitch it. A few of them I pitched into these:

Image
110" x 36" (The frame is made from base board and handrail from Lowe's.)

Image
31" x 88"

Image
90" x 28"

Those large ones are kinda fun.

I also found this previous thread on Tempered Glass.

-WB
Larry White
Posts: 1213
Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2004 4:18 am

Post by Larry White »

editted above post.
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