Protecting the Front of Glass

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OLD FORUM POSTS

Posted by roderick on January 23, 2004

When doing a water gilded /painted peice I have no probelm protecting the front of the glass but since i've started doing chipping there seams to be alot more oportunities for it to get scratched.Should I be masking it with somthing while it go's through all the deferent layers of work?

Roderick

D. Bernhardt

Love all the info before me but would only add that every time I'm in buying glass they cut on a carpet covered table and I always work with that underneath as well. Just a cheap hall runner fron the local Home depot or as we have up here Rona that I can roll up when not needed.

Noel B. Webber

Hi Rodrick
Working on glass over the years I've scratched a couple. There's nothing worse than spending hours on a piece and to have a scatch on the face.
Here's what we do. Keep a clean work space. Paper the tables if you have to. Keep on top of the chips, small shop vac, wisk broom. Sweep the floor. I had a black lab that thought the chips were jerky. We work on upright see through easles.
{Baronian Mfg.} We also always glass pad the front of the glass. Those little square things glass companies use.
If your doing a meticulous art be meticulous.
I don't like to cover the front of the glass with a cover sheet. Unless I'm only chipping. Then we use clear shelf adhesive paper.
noel

Darryl Gomes

I always use the little sticky cork tabs you get from your glass supplier, they are about 3/16" thick and hold your glass nicely off the table. I always sheet the face with vinyl premask over top of the cork tabs, for extra protection. This will stop the overspray from your blasting from touching the face. It also helps when you pick up your piece out of your booth as the slightest slip in your hand when the glass is covered with aliminum oxide dust will mark the surface as well.
I forgot to add that I tear holes in the premask to see through to where I am working. I leave as much covered untill I am done with the piece.

Mike Jackson

Hi Roderick,

You'd be surprised how many pieces of glass will come to you from the glass shop with scratches already in them. When we were trying to do editions of ten, we were quite anal when ordering the glass, then ordered 20, and still had to kull out six or seven each time right off the bat. Then we ran the black light on the keepers, determined the front side and put four or six little felt pads on the fronts. We also put felt pads all over our easle for protection, AND WE NEVER PUT THEM FACE DOWN WITHOUT SOME SORT OF PADDING!

I can't tell you how many times I cringed at Glawson's conclaves when people were working on tables and benches with their glass grinding away on the surfaces. Some even has shards of glass and sandblast grit on the table.

I can tell you first hand that prevention is much easier than trying to buff a scratch out.

You might consider putting carpet scraps on your table top and vacuum it regularly. The cushion of the carpet will keep the scratches down.

Additionally, consider buying one of Danny Baronian's glass stands. You can work on the "back" and easily flip around to view the front. I'd say they are well worth the money.

BARONIAN MFG. GLASS STANDS
http://www.baronian.com/

Photo of Danny's Stands
http://www.theletterheads.com/wwwboard/ ... /3901.html


Hope this helps!
Mike Jackson

[Raymond Chapman]

We buy foam mattress pads from Wal-Mart and cut them up into pieces about 2' x 3'. They come in handy when stacking painted panels for delivery or installations, also.

When etching and glue-shipping we stick on a layer of transfer tape to the face. It only takes one grain of sand, aluminum oxide, or stray piece of glass to ruin a nice piece.

We recently bought two pieces of 3/8" glass from our local glass supplier but had to reject both because they were scratched. Seems they were not as particular as we were. They replaced them, but not happily. They are no longer our supplier, either.