My first glue-chipping experiences: c. 1982 (glue chip)
Posted by Mike Jackson
I was invited to the Boise Bar-B-Que in 1982. It was the first meeting to invite out of state sign artists into the Boise/Denver group. Raymond Chapman and I shared the flight out and also the room at the historical Idanha hotel.
Bob Mitchell (author of the SC Glue-Chipped Glass book) gave a demonstration during the meeting. I took notes and tried one when I returned back to Oklahoma in the middle of the summer. Actually, I did two or three and thought I had it generally figured out. In about November or December of the same year, I sold a few divider glass window panels for a new restaurant. They wanted some visibility and some privacy so the glue-chipped process seemed to fit the needs. I sold three or four pieces of glass and began the process.
There is a big difference in the tempeature between August and November in Oklahoma, along with variables in humidity. I was using the process of applying glue to the entire piece of glass, covering the etched areas and the stencil. When the glue dries or gels, you need to go around all the stencil with an x-acto knife and cut the glue and remove the stencil. I waited too long for some reason, and the glue had gone to the next step of being much harder. It took a long, long painful time to cut and peel. It was a florid design to make matters worse.
Like all restaurant jobs, the customer began to get in a hurry and needed it sooner than he originally said. On the test pieces, I blasted the glass, poured the glue, removed the stencil and watched it completely chip the next day. On the real job pieces, the glue dried much slower adn chipped much, much slower. Instead of two days, I found it going into the third day with several stubborn areas. I found a heat lamp to help dry out the glue and speed up the chip. Well, I got it too close, and heard a loud crack from across the room. I placed the heat lamp a bit too close and it concentrated the heat too much in one place. I had to start from scratch the next day, all the time hearing the customer telling me he needed them ASAP.
Eventually, I got them finished and I got paid, but I learned several lessons along the way.
Mike Jackson
D. Bernhardt
Boy....does that bring back memories. Had the same thing happen here a few years back. Was also a complicated one and was a humid July. 5x5 feet and the crack started slowly and as i sat and watched in horror it slowly split across the whole length. Took about 3 minutes for the entire agony finish splitting....and of course I was getting ready to head off for a "glass meet" in california...sheesh! Same thing....heat lamps a little too close and by the time the second one split same way I had it figgered out!! Duhh
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