Thursday, December 26, 2013

RemovingCracked Pieces Of Glass

Removing cracked pieces of glass in the middle of a project can be a royal pain in the posterior, but this simple tip can make it a relatively easy chore.

Recently, one of my stained glass suncatcher projects that was hung by a suction cup on the kitchen window, hit the floor. 

At first I thought the project was a gonner, but when I inspected it, there were only two pieces broken.  Unfortunately, both pieces were in the middle of the suncatcher.

Removing cracked pieces of glass in the center of a completed project requires breaking the glass into smaller pieces for removal.  The trick is to break out the broken piece without breaking any additional pieces!

The solution came to me when I was in the local Ace Hardware store.
 
A spring loaded center punch.

Now it's easy to break up the cracked piece of glass. 

Just place the punch in the area you want to knock out and let the spring do the work.

Once the cracked piece had broken into smaller pieces, it can be easily removed from the surrounding glass and the foil can then be removed with ease. 

Most of the time the foil simply falls from the surrounding pieces.  If not you can use your iron to help with difficult spots.

The spring loaded center punch is also great for removing cracked pieces of glass from came projects. It releases the glass with a minimum of distortion to the came.

Spring loaded center punches can be purchased at most hardware stores, Home Depot or Lowes in their tool departments.

Next time you mess up a project, try removing cracked pieces of glass the easy way.