Cutting Glass

I once had an accounting teacher that often said, “No matter how fast you go through a puddle, a little mud has got to stick.” This makes me think of all the things I’ve learned over the years from classes I’ve takes. One particular class came in handy today and that was a stained glass class that I took years ago.

I finally got around to fixing all the broken glass in my greenhouse from the storm damage from last year and this year. I built the greenhouse about 15 years ago with glass that I got from people that were replacing their windows and glass doors in their homes. Wind and flying debris took its toll.

I had two glass door panels on the roof shift and crack. These panels were made before tempered glass was required in sliding doors. They were, however made from thick quarter inch glass. I was able to remove them without further breakage. I replaced the roof with new panels. There were several 40” X 17” windward windows that were blown out and I used the salvaged glass to replace them.

I still have all my glass tools; an oil filled cutter, T-square and nippers. The tricks to cutting it are to lubricate the glass with oil on the cutting line, hold the cutter as vertical as possible, score it in one motion and snap it apart quickly after scoring it. It takes a while learn to cut glass properly and it feels good knowing that I took important lessons away from my stained glass class. I can’t even imagine how much it would have cost had I used all new glass for this repair.