The Framers Forum

Hello you lovely lot!

I have just broken a 1680 x 264 x 4mm piece of glass that a chap bought into my workshop after I breezily told him of course I can cut it to size for you! I couldn't. My question is not framing related but I am nearly sure someone will know - does he need toughened glass or will 4mm laminated glass be sufficient for his chunks of rock. Not pebble sized but maybe half football sized from the photos? Or acrylic. Doesn't want to spend a fortune. Or is there a good friendly glass company I could talk to? Wessex couldn't help.

For those of you with time to spare the tale is thus;
He wanted his piece of glass for a cabinet to display his extensive rock collection. He said it was a spare piece of glass that he had for some time and it would be perfect for his new display case, just cut it in half. I sored it on my Keencut Excaliber and thumped it as usual. Nothing happened. I scored it again. Nothing. Scored, nothing Gingerly flipped it and repeated. Still nothing, no clean break. Enlisted the help of OH because I was sweating with embarrassment and fear by this time. He suggested scoring and scoring and scoring on each side which I did. Still nothing. Took it off the Excaliber onto the table, piece of wood under the score and leant on it hard and the glass boinged & bowed. Rang Wessex. No help. Into the garage. OH heroically got out his grinder and was about three quarters across it and it shattered into a million pieces - it was toughened glass hence he bowing and bending. Took OH and I about an hour to clear the garage of chunks of glass. Also learned a valuable lesson.

Sometimes the best lessons are the ones learnt the hard way! But we'd have certainly stopped trying long, long before taking a grinder to it

If there is the potential that something might break his glass by falling forward in the cabinet, then he may prefer toughened or laminated glass for safety. But there are plenty of display cabinets out there, particularly older ones, with very thin glazing - so the customer would be the one to make the choice on that. Other option would be Optium acrylic, but that is likely to be more expensive.

Whenever we've needed toughened glass (not framing related in fairness) we've just gone to our local glazing company who have done a superb job for us. We do the same for odd shaped mirrors and so on. And we happily direct people straight to them for those non-framing related glazing jobs that walk through the door from time to time. No point recommending them here by name as we are hundreds of miles from you, but you are sure to have similar locally.

We also regularly use the 4.4mm laminated AR glass (ArtGlass) from Wessex for oversize framing jobs where they don't want to pay for Optium Acrylic. Would recommend it as a great product with great AR and UV properties. They will cut that to size for you.

We do sometimes get people in wanting us to cut their own glass. Option 1 is to just say no, option 2 is to say yes but at their own risk. Anything over 3mm we would say no and direct them to a glazing firm (who may also say no of course but at least we've tried to be helpful )