Glue Chipping - Learning Curve

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OLD FORUM POSTS

Posted by Catharine C. Kennedy- Chatham Center, NY on March 01, 2004

Thanks to all who post on glue-chipping. As each restates the procedures in slightly different words, they FINALLY start to sink in. Where I may have missed a point in one reply, I've been able to "hear" it in another. For something seemingly so straightforward, there seem to be an awful lot of moving parts. This last batch finally seems to be coming out better!
Practice, practice, practice!

D. Bernhardt

Well I guess I'll consider myself lucky as the first time I tried it...it worked! This was quite a few years ago and used the Bob Mitchell book as a guide. The mistake I almost made was letting the glue go "past it" by waiting too long to do the "cut the mask line" method!...also I'll never forget the satisfaction when I walked into the shop in the morning and saw all the chips on the floor and heard that tell tale splitting sound. Didn't get a thing done the rest of the day!

Mike Jackson

Doug,
Actually that is what got me into trouble. I came back from the Boise BBQ and did my first test piece. That was in mid summer and it chipped beautifully. Then the next job I sold one on was in the late fall, cold and damp. Trouble in the making.

We had the Oklahoma Bash over the Halloween weekend of the same year. During the meeting, Mike Moore deep etched a big M in a piece of glass about 14" square and then poured the glue into the deep etch. It dried to the hard stage but wouldn't chip. In the afternoon of one of the later days, we had hamburgers cooked on a portable gas grill in front of the shop. After the burgers were all cooked and eaten, he put the piece of glass on top of the still warm black grill lid. About 30 minutes later, we heard an extremely loud pop-crack sound and the glass broke into about 6 pieces. The poor piece of glass was being attacked from all sides.

Mike

Mike Jackson

Catharine,
There are several here giving advice on this topic. Most are telling how to solve, elininate, or deal with the problems, right? Guess how they learned how to solve them....they/we already made them! As simple as the process is "on the surface", there are lots of minor variables.

I don't think anyone here has actually given the full step-by-step, beginning to end glue-chip process. More than likely, we assume people have already read the two Glue-Chip sections on the Rick Glawson pages. If you haven't read all of both sections, I can see how people are having problems! The basics, along with more detailed steps, are spelled out there.

I'd have to find the link again, but there is a reprint of my article from SignCraft on their site, too.

Mike

Rick Glawson Section
http://www.theletterheads.com/glawson/glawsonmain.html