LF: Glass/Acrylic Scraps

[Der_Iron_Chef]

I'm attempting to make an overflow (2 pieces, each 17" high x 6" wide) for the group home aquarium. Anyone have anything laying around? Or any brilliant suggestions?

[michika]

If you can wait until Friday I can probably hook you up with glass.

[Delphinus]

On Monday night (probably about 1/2 hour after you left, LOL) I just busted a 10g tank (bumped something, which knocked over a plant that fell on it. Plant was a writeoff too. Ooops.). Anyhow, it has 3 unbroken panels on it (the bottom, the back, and the left side .. I'm not sure what a typical 10g is. Something like 20x12x9? So one piece 20x12, one piece 12x9 and one piece 20x9 .. if I understand my geometry correctly ). I was about to haul it off to glass recycling. If you want it ..... let me know. It's not very thick glass. It's thicker than 1/8" but less than 1/4". I'm guessing it's 4mm, maybe 3mm, I'd have to check with a ruler.

[Delphinus]

Just noticed you mentioned acrylic too. I have lots of acrylic lying around that I'd love to lose, but, I'm not sure I'd use it for an overflow if the tank is glass. Problem being you can't really bond acrylic to glass. I've used acrylic baffles before and just removed them using a really hard yank. The stuff that bonds to glass (silicone) doesn't bond well to acrylic and the stuff that bonds to acrylic doesn't bond to anything else. Well, technically, you don't bond to acrylic, you melt it and it bonds to itself. I guess it's more like welding in that regard.

[justinl]

if you want acrylic scraps for cheap to free, look around local plastics/glass cutters. they almost always have a bin of scraps they would let you scrounge around in... they would likly throw the stuff out anyways.

in regards to tony's comment, yes. i mean it can be done, acrylic to glass, but it's much simpler to stick to glass to glass (silicone) and acrylic to acrylic (a solvent that melts the pieces together).

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Awesome...thanks guys...and gal

So, I'm just wondering about cutting the glass. Admittedly, I did have a nice big chunk of glass here that I tried to cut....and almost succeeded. I guess I'm just not confident in my ability to do that!

Is anyone more confident in that regard? Tony? Catherine? Beuller?

[michika]

The trick is the following:

1) score the glass
2) put something under the score, just big enough to provide a pressure point. I, or Kevin ('cause breaking glass scares me).
3) put pressure on either side of the pressure point, and break!

[Delphinus]

I've never been able to do a clean break. It ALWAYS follows the score line for about 3/4 of the way, then curls left or right after that. Well, OK, I've done it a couple of times successfully but more times it went like that instead of successfully. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. People keep telling me that it's easy, but I truly do suck at it. So don't ask me. I do have a glass cutter/scorer thing you could borrow if you want but they're only about $12 at Rona/HD/etc. And of course, who's to say my cutter/scorer thingymabob isn't the problem itself..

[NateL]

I used to work at a showerdoor shop. The way we used to cut glass/mirrors was to make the score with the glass cutter, then tap the edge of the glass at the score with the other end of the the cutter to start the break(our cutters had a bulb at the end), then move the score to the edge of the table and push down to continue the break. Another way is to put a dowel under the score and pretty much to the same think. It is pretty easy, but it does take some practice to get it right everytime. I hope this helps.

Nate