Thread: Curved glass...

If you have plenty of time (and I mean PLENTY of time), glass is a peculiar material in that it isn't really solid, more like a stiff liquid. It can be encouraged to take a permanent set, similar to timber, by gently pre-loading to a curve, and waiting for a year or two or three or ... Some added heat could help. Try Google with keywords glass AND creep. Might not take as long as I've guessed.

Joe

You could approach your local glass artisan and ask if they could "slump" it for you. They sit in on a form and whack it in a furnace and gravity does the rest!

Good thinking Tankstand!
A potter could do it in their kiln as well.... although there would be more risk of a potter stuffing it up.

Jake, why not use perspex?
you could market it as "safer for the user, particularly for children"

I thought you used a rubber hammer to bend glass.

you joking Alex ?

That slumping idea. I wonder if it discolours the glass. I still want it looking fresh and clear. Sounds like a good idea though. I think I know a bloke I could ask.

Clinton, probably could use perspex..... get feeling it won't look the same though. not sure.

Thanks Joe. I can't really wait too long. thinking more of a quick fix uno.

unless you could get someone else to bend it I think glass is out.

Acrilic is a real option though.

2mm will bend reasonably easily if held there buy a form.

You can put a permanent bend in it much easier than glass too.

as far as looking the same...... standard clear acrilic is much clearer than glass... like realy clear.

there are grades of acrilic that are tinted to look "just like glass"

the problem with acrilic is the scratching and cleaning of the stuff.

If you want it to stay perfect you have to clean it with soft cloth and special cleaning compounds like "norvus acrilic cleaner"

cheers

see what you mean....but when you flick it with your finger, it just doesn't sound the same...

Plastic to me, always has mean't 'tacky', you see. (cheap shiiite)....can't have that.....cause I'M trying to be a professional don't you know.

Slumping shouldn't discolor the glass. More questionable would be the surface finish, depending on what it's slumped against. But if the inside of the curve is the inside of your project, a moderately smooth form should be OK. Artisan glassworkers (Google Dale Chihuly for some amazing stuff.) sometimes bend the work in air with a torch. Takes a bit of finesse, of course.

Joe

To slump a piece of glass it has to be heated over 1000 degrees and then dropped onto a polished steel form so I guess that is out. How about getting a series of strips to sit in the routed channel and follow the curve a bit like a louvre window ? That might look quite nice and very unusual.
BTW it is only a myth that glass is slightly liquid. It is in fact entirely rigid and the old chestnut about medieval glass being a bit thicker at the bottom of the window was because all the glass was handmade (slumped) and often thicker on one side then the glazier would install the glass into windows with the thicker bit at the bottom.

Try contacting your local university - usually the Chemistry and or Physics department has scientific glassblowers [not the bottle/vase etc types].

These blokes have torches [gas, air and oxygen] which they use for the fabrication of scientific instruments and, if they can't help you out with the actual job, they should be able to point you in the right direction.

Regards,
Bob