tank dismantle and glass cutting

[BlueAbyss]

I would place a thin piece of neoprene foam between the bottom of the tank and the stand... less chance of cracking the bottom pane from uneven 2x4s or whatever.

[Ross]

GE Silicone 1 works great.
I have 2 tanks held together with it and no issues.
A 77 gallon (48w x 24t x 16d) and a 10 gallon Nano.

[loveless]

I am looking into building my own sump atm. I talked to one glazier who said that the edges have to be polished. Am I being misinformed? He said that the polishing process is the expensive part, as it get done by linear inch.

Oh and btw the glass is 3/8 inch thick, his reason for the polishing in the first place as "its too thick to break cleanly"

So my question
Is polishing necessary?

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Dez

Hi,


Cutting - the easy part. Go to a stain glass shop and get a glass cutter (dont' get the cheap home depot scribe one - I've had less successful experiences with these as it's a scribe and not a wheel). You can get a nice glass cutter for under $20 at a stain glass shop .

you can save a lot of money going to home depot and buying a wheeled cutter. personaly I have never seen a drag scribe for glass.

if you do not buy one with an oiler make sure you use a bit of oil on the cutting wheel.. dip it in and then shake it a little. if you are only doing a small bit of cutting don't waist money on the tungston carbon wheels just get the regular hardened steel wheel and you will be looking at about 8 bucks. I used a bit of air tool oil as that what I had laying around but any light weight mineral oil will work.

I never used a wire wheel or brush when I did mine, just scrape with the razor blades real good till you can't see any silicone then I used acatone to clean any residual stuff off. the problem with the wire wheel or brush is you have to be very very carefull not to put any scratches in the area you are cutting as there will be a chance of the cut following the scratch instead of the cut line.

if it is going to be a critical cut use a strait edge to guide your cutter and start off the glass and continue to cut till you run off the end and no stopping along the way. it has to be one long fluid cut using constant pressure or you can cause chipping int he glass which can cause your break to run off instead of staying true. not as hard as it sounds.. I did a curved one free hand and it worked pretty good.

Steve

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Dez

Hi,

if your scribed line is down, snap in the direction of your scribe line (push the leftover section down) 2. Get pliers from the stained glass shop meant to break glass along scribe line - they'll tell you how to use it. It's not scary - really easy.

hmm the glass shop out here showed me and told me the opposite. they explained it as your suposed to pull the scribe appart not compress it.. and they broke it down witht he scribe up...

here is a pic on how you are suposed to use running plyers.. if you notice the score is on the top and you are pushing up on the bottom middle to seperate the score and compress the bottom

[Dez]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

hmm the glass shop out here showed me and told me the opposite. they explained it as your suposed to pull the scribe appart not compress it.. and they broke it down witht he scribe up...

here is a pic on how you are suposed to use running plyers.. if you notice the score is on the top and you are pushing up on the bottom middle to seperate the score and compress the bottom

You are completely correct steve - I meant to go edit my post because I was on a business call while typing my original post, then I left to go do a work job and just got home and was about to edit it. Thanks for noticing the details Steve. It is tough to talk on the phone (and pretend you're interested) while typing on Canreef (which is more of an interest than work).

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Dez

It is tough to talk on the phone (and pretend you're interested) while typing on Canreef (which is more of an interest than work).

I have been there, oh to often LOL